Published June 6, 2004
"We want our country back" is a common utterance these days from liberals and moderates upset over what they see as a sharp rightward turn in the nation's foreign and domestic policies since George W. Bush assumed the presidency in 2001. I admit to feeling sour myself about our president, apparently in much the way some of my friends felt about Bill Clinton back in the distant mists of the 1990s.
The problem with the left-center lament about Bush, however, is that our country won't be coming back. Rather, after a brief 50-year flirtation with liberalism (1932-1980), America is in the process of returning to its true conservative self.
That's the thesis, at least, of a splendid new book by two American-based journalists for the Economist. No publication has a keener sense for the American scene than this generally conservative British magazine, a fact that should give extra weight to the book that John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge have titled "The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America."
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If "Right Nation" is too bitter a pill, I'd suggest a chaser that might leave the moderate-to-liberal reader in a more hopeful mood. In "Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America," Robert Reich sees Bush and friends as recklessly overplaying their hand. These are radicals, Reich suggests, not true conservatives who, by definition, are cautious, skeptical of big ideas and risky moves. The Brandeis University economist undresses the conservative movement by exposing its ironies: its selective morality (sex is more sinful than corporate fraud), its failure to bash the growth of government and red ink under Bush, its demonizing of a liberal establishment that no longer exists -- if it ever really did.
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Steve Berg is at sberg@startribune.com
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