DEAN’S BOOK IN 2006 ON CONSERVATIVES IS STILL CURRENT

…John Dean, the man that wrote it as it really is today

 

 

Politics and governing demand compromise, the government won’t work without it. 

 

 

With all that’s going on with the Republican Party today, I recently happened to see John Dean of Watergate fame on cable TV and he reminded me of his 2006 book, “Conservatives Without Conscience”.  On a whim, I went back to my Kindle reader and yes it was still there and I started to re-read it.

 

As it turns out, even though the focus of the book was in reference to his relationship with Senator Barry Goldwater and the Bush-Cheney years, the concept of the book about authoritarian Republicans is even more relevant today than it was in 2006.

 

When you look at Donald Trump’s authoritarian approach to the US presidency, it truly does make the reign of Newt Gingrich as the House Speaker and Tom DeLay as the House Republican Whip, look like wimps.  The gall of what was then called: “Republican Revolution,” was when the GOP, to get back at the Democrats for Nixon’s demise, they then went after Bill and Hillary Clinton.  They finally were able to impeach President Clinton for lying under oath about a White House affair with Monica Lewinski.

But it was all a wasted effort as the impeachment had only Republicans voting for it and only Democrats voting against it, so it happened on strict partisan voting.  It was so wasted because there wasn’t enough Republicans in the Senate to get enough votes to remove the president.

 

The GOP of course, knew all of this before, but they did it anyway because they just wanted to disgrace the Democratic president that had made their President George H.W. Bush a one-term president.

 

But the basics of the book and the idea of the conservatives that totally lack any real conscience, that has only increased today in its nature within our federal government.

 

To illustrate my point, here verbatim is the first paragraph of the Preface of the John Dean book:

 

“Contemporary conservatives have become extremely contentious, confrontational, and aggressive in nearly every area of politics and governing. Today, they have a tough-guy (and, in a few instances, a tough-gal) attitude, an arrogant and antagonistic style, along with a narrow outlook intolerant of those who challenge their extreme thinking.  Incivility is now their norm.  “During the Father Bush period, there was a presumption of civility,” Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute observes, but “we lost it under Clinton,” when conservatives relentlessly attacked his presidency, and “then President W. Bush deliberately chose a strategy of being a divider, rather than a uniter.”

 

Then the book’s Preface goes on to state how the Bush-Cheney right-wing presidency continued to take positions that were in defiance of international treaties and were blatant violations of domestic laws.  It talks of their pushing the limits of presidential power beyond the parameters of the US Constitution.  Dean then describes how extreme hubris is now present in Washington, along with a striking abuse of power.  Much of this extreme activity was at the time, supposedly being undertaken in the name of fighting terrorists.  But in reality, it was just good, old fashioned power corruption.

Does any of this sound familiar to what were are dealing with, and watching 24/7 ,on today’s cable news networks?

 

The books Preface then goes on for a total of 27 pages describing how individuals, many of us over 50 would recognize their names because of their efforts during the Watergate days.  Here are a few of those names, some of which spent some years in prison from their efforts under President Nixon’s direction.  They were Chuck Colson, E. Howard Hunt, Gordon Liddy, Phillip Bailley, Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay.  (Gingrich and DeLay didn’t go to prison, but they did have to leave the Congress under questionable circumstances.)

 

Dean also talks about how, in his close relationship with a real conservative, Senator Barry Goldwater, the senator was recognizing how his party was going so far to the right and what it was doing to the party overall.

 

He recalled a conversation he had with Senator Goldwater where the senator said, “Goddamn it John, the Republicans are selling their soul to win elections.  Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem.  Frankly these people frighten me.  Politics and governing demand compromise.  The government won’t work without it.  But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise.  I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”

 

The senator obviously believed that these individuals made Washington more divisive than it had ever been, and that was all occurring over 10 years ago.  He also thought the divisiveness was spreading throughout the country. 

 

He was right!

 

What Dean wrote in his 2006 book is just as true, if not more so today.

 

I would suggest to everyone that wants to understand what is happening in our politics today, just get your own copy of John Dean’s, “Conservatives Without Conscience”.  You can get them on Amazon for as little as $0.99 for used hardcover books, $12.00 for Kindle and it’s also available in paperback.

 

I do recall on that recent cable show where I saw John Dean, he did say that he had once written a book about what is happening today with the American conservatives.  He was obviously referring to this book.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017