How conservatism conquered America
The right-wing movement has won nearly every battle it has fought. An expert explains what that means
By Thomas Rogers
Salon.com
Has American conservatism suddenly gotten uglier? In the last few weeks, it’s certainly seemed like it. During a recent GOP debate, Ron Paul was asked what should happen to a sick young man without health insurance. Members of the crowd answered for him, yelling that he should be left to die. At the Florida debate, a chorus of boos greeted a gay soldier serving in the Middle East. Both incidents prompted outrage and shock among the media — and speculation about the loosening moral fabric of the Republican Party.
But according to Corey Robin, the author of the new book “The Reactionary Mind,” these ugly outbursts shouldn’t surprise anybody. Robin is a journalist and professor of political science at Brooklyn College who has written extensively about the conservative movement; his book is an overview of the past 200 years in conservative thought. And the Tea Party’s ugly remaking of the political landscape, he argues, isn’t as novel and transformative as many people think it is. What it says about the state of the American left, however, might surprise you.
Salon spoke to Robin over the phone from Brooklyn, N.Y., about the triumph of the American conservative movement, the meaning of Sarah Palin and Obama’s real political slant.
(More here.)
By Thomas Rogers
Salon.com
Has American conservatism suddenly gotten uglier? In the last few weeks, it’s certainly seemed like it. During a recent GOP debate, Ron Paul was asked what should happen to a sick young man without health insurance. Members of the crowd answered for him, yelling that he should be left to die. At the Florida debate, a chorus of boos greeted a gay soldier serving in the Middle East. Both incidents prompted outrage and shock among the media — and speculation about the loosening moral fabric of the Republican Party.
But according to Corey Robin, the author of the new book “The Reactionary Mind,” these ugly outbursts shouldn’t surprise anybody. Robin is a journalist and professor of political science at Brooklyn College who has written extensively about the conservative movement; his book is an overview of the past 200 years in conservative thought. And the Tea Party’s ugly remaking of the political landscape, he argues, isn’t as novel and transformative as many people think it is. What it says about the state of the American left, however, might surprise you.
Salon spoke to Robin over the phone from Brooklyn, N.Y., about the triumph of the American conservative movement, the meaning of Sarah Palin and Obama’s real political slant.
(More here.)
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