Conservatism has been the most important political doctrine in the United States for nearly four decades. It has dominated the intellectual debate and largely set the policy agenda, even during years of Democratic electoral control.
But 21st century conservatism has moved far beyond even the Reagan Revolution of small government, lower taxes and a respect for tradition. The alliance of libertarians, neoconservatives, and the Christian right has launched anxious and angry attacks on the purported homosexual agenda, the “hoax” of climate change, the rule by experts and elites, and the banishment of religion from the public realm. In the foreign policy arena it has tried to remake the world through the cleansing fire of violence. Contemporary American conservatism practices a politics that is disciplined, uncompromising, utopian, and enraged, seeking to “take back our country.”
This is “anti-establishment conservatism,” whose origin can be traced back to the right wing that battled both the reigning post-World War II liberal consensus and the moderate, establishment Republican Party. This book examines the nature of anti-establishment conservatism, traces its development from the 1950s to the Tea Party, and explains its political ascendance.
About the Author
Robert Horwitz is professor in the department of communication at the University of California San Diego.
Features
A major new book examining the politics of American conservatism from the 1950s to the present
Focuses on the rise of ‘anti-establishment conservatism’ - that is, the form of conservatism, associated today with the Tea Party, which opposes both liberalism and the more moderate forms of conservatism embraced by many in the Republican Party
Horwitz shows that the Tea Party belongs to a long tradition of anti-establishment conservatism that can be traced back to the 1940s and the reaction to the New Deal
This highly accessible book will be of great interest general readers interested in American politics, as well as to students and academics in political science, American politics and American political history
