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Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party (Studies in Postwar American Political Development) Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition
Except this development is not new at all. In Rule and Ruin, Geoffrey Kabaservice reveals that the moderate Republicans' downfall began not with the rise of the Tea Party but about the time of President Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address. Even in the 1960s, when left-wing radicalism and right-wing backlash commanded headlines, Republican moderates and progressives formed a powerful movement, supporting pro-civil rights politicians like Nelson Rockefeller and William Scranton, battling big-government liberals and conservative extremists alike. But the Republican civil war ended with the overthrow of the moderate ideas, heroes, and causes that had comprised the core of the GOP since its formation. In hindsight, it is today's conservatives who are "Republicans in Name Only."
Writing with passionate sympathy for a bygone tradition of moderation, Kabaservice recaptures a time when fiscal restraint was matched with social engagement; when a cohort of leading Republicans opposed the Vietnam war; when George Romney--father of Mitt Romney--conducted a nationwide tour of American poverty, from Appalachia to Watts, calling on society to "listen to the voices from the ghetto." Rule and Ruin is an epic, deeply researched history that reorients our understanding of our political past and present.
Today, following the Republicans' loss of the popular vote in five of the last six presidential contests, moderates remain marginalized in the GOP and progressives are all but nonexistent. In this insightful and elegantly argued book, Kabaservice contends that their decline has left Republicans less capable of governing responsibly, with dire consequences for all Americans. He has added a new afterword that considers the fallout from the 2012 elections.
- ISBN-13978-0199975518
- EditionReprint
- PublisherOxford University Press
- Publication dateJanuary 2, 2012
- LanguageEnglish
- File size1174 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Kabaservice is a wonderfully straightforward historian who does not layer on a lot of interpretive gloss...Rule and Ruin is a wonderful reminder of what was once -- not very long ago -- a vital tradition in American politics." --The New Republic
"An audacious and important history that rediscovers a great political tradition at exactly the moment when it is again needed most." --David Frum, author of Comeback: Conservatism that Can Win Again
"The radical turn of the Republican Party into a voice of right-wing extremism is one of the major themes of modern American political history. Rule and Ruin tells the whole story in stunning detail, and in prose that is as balanced as it is lucid. No study of our recent politics could possibly be more timely on the eve of the 2012 elections." --Sean Wilentz, Princeton University, author of The Age of Reagan
"Meticulously researched and compellingly written, Rule and Ruin is more than an account of the demise of moderate Republicans; it is a penetrating history of the modern Republican Party over the past half century. This is an exceptional book, and must reading for anyone who will follow with interest (or dread) the Republican race to a presidential nomination in 2012." --Norman J. Ornstein, Resident Scholar, The American Enterprise Institute
"In this timely work, Geoffrey Kabaservice successfully combines thorough historical research and a gripping narrative. The result is a comprehensive account of an ideological and political contest which, played out over half a century, has had a profound influence on the Republican Party and modern American politics." --Strobe Talbott, President, Brookings Institution
"Kabaservice's book is a painstaking and well-argued attempt to resurrect the losers in the GOP's fratricidal war, the liberal and moderate Republicans, including many from the northeastern states where today their influence still lingers." --Sam Tanenhaus, The New York Review of Books
"Kabaservice ably narrates the Republican Party's fifty-year conversion from a diverse political organization into an exclusively conservative 'ideological vehicle.'...Kabaservice is
as moderate as his subject matter; he resists proposing an implausibly easy solution. He believes that third-party projects are likely "foredoomed to failure," and redistricting reforms will be "a slow process" at best." --Commonwealth
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B005UFCPHG
- Publisher : Oxford University Press; Reprint edition (January 2, 2012)
- Publication date : January 2, 2012
- Language : English
- File size : 1174 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 499 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0199975515
- Best Sellers Rank: #779,693 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #241 in Political Parties (Kindle Store)
- #516 in 21st Century History of the U.S.
- #1,226 in Political History (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Geoffrey M. Kabaservice](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/01Kv-W2ysOL._SY600_.png)
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Customers find the book thoroughly researched, brilliant, and a great read. They also appreciate the writing style, mentioning it’s very well written, with ascerbic wit and an effortless prose.
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Customers find the book well-documented, thoroughly researched, and comprehensive. They also say it provides significant thoughts and insights on recent and upcoming elections. Readers also appreciate the strong referencing and step-by-step progress. They say the book pulls it all together in a fair and objective manner.
"...Obviously, I'm enthusiastic about this book. It's an important historical work and the timing for its appearance could not be better. Five stars." Read more
"...Well-documented and thoroughly researched, this book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand how our parties became so polarized, and how..." Read more
"...I found the book very interesting and informative." Read more
"...also the broad expanse of sources, Rule and Ruin is a shining example of exhaustive research...." Read more
Customers find the book a great read, interesting, and informative. They also say it's an excellent piece of work, well written, and documented.
"...I found the book very interesting and informative." Read more
"...Why I gave it 3 stars. That part was though, accurate and good reading...." Read more
"...It makes for fascinating reading and Kabaservice has done in-depth research using a wide variety of resources...." Read more
"This was a fascinating book to read - absolutely loaded with information covering approximately 50 years of the political history of the GOP...." Read more
Customers find the writing style very well written, elegant, and detailed. They also say the book blends flashes of unparalleled insight with deep historical understanding, ascerbic wit, and a detailed look at recent ideological changes.
"...Although this is a scholarly work it reads as easily as a novel, and author Geoffrey Kabaservice has an elegant style that incorporates both wit and..." Read more
"This book contains an amazingly detailed look at the recent ideological changes in the previously pluralistic Republican party, and I found it to be..." Read more
"...In prose that is consistently absorbing, author Geoffrey Kabaservice lays out the causes and reasons for the GOP's descent into what everyone now..." Read more
"...and there is a ton of random name dropping, but in the end its very well written and sourced...." Read more
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I struggled a little with the first chapter, which covers a lot of ground, providing an overview of moderate and conservative factions within the Republican party from 1854 to the present. However, from the second chapter onward the book has a wonderful narrative flow. Although this is a scholarly work it reads as easily as a novel, and author Geoffrey Kabaservice has an elegant style that incorporates both wit and depth. Most of the book focuses upon the 1960s. When you think about the anti-establishment protests of the `60s, you usually think of liberal college-age students dropping acid and protesting the Vietnam War. This book made me realize that another revolt was taking place during those years, on the opposite side of the political spectrum. An arch-conservative minority within the Republican party was fomenting rebellion, determined to bring down the moderate, progressive Republicans who had been in power since the days of Eisenhower.
There always had been a conservative element within the Republican party, of course, but Kabaservice argues that the rebellious conservatives of the `60s -- militant right-wingers who had been strongly influenced by Joe McCarthy -- were a different breed. Republicans of the time period considered them "a totally new element" in the party and regarded their value system as a "weird parody" of traditional Republican beliefs. Their appearance had coincided with McCarthy's rise to power, and they became a more vocal and determined group in the late `50s and early `60s. Like Joe McCarthy, these new conservatives believed that the US was run by "a traitorous elite"of wealthy Eastern intellectuals. In their minds, moderate Republicans, also known as progressive or liberal Republicans, were part of this hated elite. Since its founding, the Republican party had included liberal Republicans as well as conservatives, but the New Right believed that any kind of liberalism "led inexorably to socialism and Communism, and that the smallest government effort to provide for the general welfare constituted the first step on `The Road to Serfdom'..." Unlike previous generations of conservative Republicans, who had respected intellect, kept their religious views private, sought to preserve the existing political system, and were not bound by any particular ideology, the New Right was anti-intellectual, ideologically-driven, and ultimately came to be dominated by the religious right. Most importantly, the new conservatives wanted to overthrow the existing system, getting rid of the moderate Republicans even at the risk of damaging the Republican party irreparably.
Kabaservice says that the New Right was so intent upon ridding the party of its moderate members that it pursued a "rule or ruin" strategy, supporting the opponents of moderate Republican politicians even if they were liberal Democrats. Their efforts to destroy moderate Republicanism were successful, in part due to weaknesses inherent in the moderate stance - by its nature, moderation is less passionate and less driven than extremism, and its adherents are less likely to adopt a "take-no-prisoners, ends-justify-the-means" approach to politics. Kabaservice writes that in recent years, "movement conservatism finally succeeded in silencing, co-opting, repelling, or expelling nearly every competing strain of Republicanism from the party, to the extent that the terms `liberal Republican' or `moderate Republican' have practically become oxymorons."
This book provides a lot of historical perspective. I'm so accustomed to thinking of the Republican party as a mostly white, non-racially inclusive political organization that I often forget that this is the party of Lincoln, founded out of opposition to slavery. This book reminded me that Republicans have a strong civil rights heritage. It was interesting to learn that the vast majority of mid-`60s Republicans were infuriated by Goldwater's segregationist views and regarded him as a demagogue and dangerous zealot. It also was interesting to learn that a greater percentage of Republicans than Democrats supported the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1960, way before the civil rights movement had really caught fire, GOP nominee Richard Nixon's civil rights plank was as strong as the Democrats', supporting sit-ins and promising federal intervention in securing job equality for African-Americans. In fact, African-Americans didn't start defecting to the Democratic Party in droves until 1964 -- Eisenhower received 39% of the black vote in 1956. All of this seems strange to me because it's so different from the Republican party I know.
Also strange, as mentioned earlier, is the fact that Eisenhower would have been considered liberal in many respects by today's standards. He invested heavily in education and public works. He decried unnecessary military spending, which he considered out of keeping with fiscal conservatism and which he felt often came at the expense of human needs. Here's a great Eisenhower quote from 1953: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed." Can you imagine a Republican today saying that?
I could go on and on, but I'll stop now. Obviously, I'm enthusiastic about this book. It's an important historical work and the timing for its appearance could not be better. Five stars.
Well-documented and thoroughly researched, this book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand how our parties became so polarized, and how the Party of Lincoln moved from its historical socially progressive, fiscally conservative, and "open to compromise" stance to the extreme right anti-intellectualism that has nearly succeeded in taking it over today. The only thing keeping me from giving this book a 5 is that the final period of time (i.e., the recent 20 years or so) is given only a superficial treatment compared to the depth of coverage up to that point.
The author moves us along through the years from 1961 in chapter two to 1970 in chapter 10, where we are filled in on the goings-on in the Nixon administration. We learn that Nixon’s turn against the moderates in the party “ultimately ended it as a viable political force.” The author describes for us the realignment of politics into liberal and conservative parties, noting that this was underway by the early 1970s and would continue for the next several decades. By chapter eleven, the pace picks up. In this chapter, the author covers the continuing decline of moderate republicans through the administrations of Reagan and Ford – the decade of the 1980s. Thirty years of history (1980-2010) are condensed into chapter 12. It was during this period that we see the further collapse of the moderates, the rise of right-wing think tanks, advocacy organizations, media outlets, PACs, and, of course the Tea Party. By the end of the 2010 election, there remained only a handful of moderate republicans in Congress. Kabaservice concludes that “The conversion of one of America’s two major parties into an ideological vehicle, against the preferences of many of the party’s own voters, is a phenomenon without precedent in American history.” He further states that such movements based on dogmatic, unthinking certitude could be fatal to our treasured American values.
The author provides us here with a detailed narrative of the decline of moderates in the Republican party. I found the book very interesting and informative.
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