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In a new book titled The Right Nation: How Conservatism Won, written by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, Oxford-educated American correspondents for The Economist, the two Brits present a vividly detailed study of why conservatives rule American politics (and, by extension, set the agenda for Canadian politics).
The authors trace the history of the conservative movement from the McCarthy era, when ‘conservatism was a fringe idea,’ to the second Bush administration and the ‘victory of the right’. They dissect the new ‘conservative establishment’, which combines the intellectual force of think tanks, business interests and sympathetic media outlets, and argue that continuing Republican hegemony is likely.
Why? Three simple reasons explain why conservatives keep defeating the left, the authors suggest: The right wins the battle of ideas, has a more determined and focused army of activists, and is reaping the benefits of long-term changes in American society.
And, lest you think that Micklethwait and Wooldridge are themselves conservatives, they take pains in the introduction to disclaim any allegiance to either of America’s “two great political tribes.”
In his review of the book for Mother Jones magazine, Michael Kazin accepts the cogency of the arguments made by Micklethwait and Wooldridge, and writes that if the left is to succeed in reclaiming the hearts and minds of the American people …
“ … they (must) rid themselves of a nagging contempt for the unhip, the poorly educated, and the God-fearing. If the left is not a movement of and for working people — blemishes and all — then it has little chance to regain its previous influence.”
Micklethwait and Wooldridge limn a powerful dynamic that unites the Burkean philosophy of the right-leaning think tanks with the moral passion of religious activists and the entrepreneurial energy of small-business owners. Whether this fusion of interests will disintegrate amidst its own internal contradictions or whether the left will come to reclaim the activist and collectivist agenda of working people remains to be seen.
