For those that believe the GOP has only recently taken a hard right turn, Professor Corey Robin says, “nonsense.” Conservatives from the beginning knew they needed to be “ideological, zealous, fanatical,” in order to counter democratic movements, Robin said in an interview with Lean Forward.
Instead, the “Paul Ryans” of the GOP are “reading from a very old playbook,” he said.
Robin is an associate professor of political science at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate Center. He sat down with Lean Forward's Ned Resnikoff on the eve of the Republican National Convention to discuss his new book The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin.
The book argues that conservatism is a radical, transformative movement which exists to maintain private hierarchies— i.e., the family unit and the workplace— at all costs. That focus on the private realm is what has led today’s current Republican Party to hone in on the issues of reproductive rights and abortion, as well as unions and labor rights, Robin explained. Resnikoff also asked Robin why he thinks conservatives have been successful in turning the Democrats— not the Republicans— into the real party of austerity.
Tax issues, of course, remain central to conservatives and Robin suggested that a Romney administration would likely tackle this first.
Watch the interview, part of Lean Forward’s Read Forward series, above.
The first interview with Chris Hayes, about his book Twlight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy, can be found here.
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The comments and opinons expressed by the individual who wrote the book is base entirely on a academic liberal who has never held a real job in his life.
It is sad that this type of left wing looney is actually educating the next generation of those than can afford to go to college. Not that they would have job available whne they graduate, but that is OK they can join this idiot in the closed doors of academia and tell each other how brilliant they are...
Unreal...was there something specific in the article that offended you? Or was there something in Mr Robin's book, which, of course you have read, that bothered you?Is a hateful rant against the author of a book your idea of a review? You are out of your league on this forum and I reject your opinion as pointless. Grow up!
UnReal 3093585 it seems that anyone that doesn't agree with the Conservative ideology are always liberal. Have you ever thought for one instance that even many moderate Republicans don't agree with many of your issues, agenda, ideologies, and zany antics that your party has displayed over the recent 12 years including the present. It seems that all your party wants to do is strong arm the country, make everyone submissive to your rule, burden us with your beliefs, keep certain families rich, and remove unions so that you can freely disciminate upon to whom you will hire and to whom you will NOT. The funny part is that your party is getting smaller, and as their are more interracial kids being produced Democrats are growing larger. Not only in African-Americans but in the Latino population. So I would be afraid too, by 2020 there is going to be a HUGE DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE, which will make it virtually impossible for the average Republican to become President....your party will not change it's policies, so good luck with that!!!! The dinosaur should be your political emblem not the elephant because you are quickly becoming extinct. So now your next big problem is keeping white girls from having babies with black and hispanic men good luck with that!
As for teaching not being a "REAL JOB" -- try it, UnReal!! I taught university for several decades and I assure you that it is not only a real job, but it is very hard work.
You, of course, obviously have no clue: would you be able to stand up in front of a couple of dozen students (or more) for an hour and lecture, keep their interest and the interests of objective scholarship in view the whole time?
And could you then do it again two more times that same week? What would you have left to say after the first few cracks you made about lefties? What material would you be capable of actually teaching?
A friend tells me that a very famous author was invited to his university department to offer a course as an outside 'star'. After the first day the author struggled into the faculty mailroom and demanded, "How do YOU DO IT??" My friend asked, "Do what?" The author replied, "Teach day after day! I mean I used up all my ideas during the first class; so now what do I do for the rest of the semester???"
The answer: you work hard to master material well enough to teach it, you plan how to introduce it and then you teach it.
I doubt you would have the ability to withstand 'the closed doors of academia' which are 'closed' most obviously to the likes of you and your pea brained friends.
Well said, DeMarcus. Yeah, the rightie tighties are getting desperate.
I reject that all Republicans shared these crazy ideologies until recently. I was a registered Republican way back when Republicans were not crazy, they have been co-opted by Religious fanatics and haters. I left the Republican party when I was told I was no longer wanted as a member when I would not adhere to the strict ideology they have now adopted. More Republicans need to wake up and smell the coffee that is brewing, it is FULL of hate and zealotry.
UnReal needs a reality check as to what he "Un"Realy has attached his heart and soul too. It no longer is Republicanism, it no longer is even Conservatism.
In the 50's and 60's The Tea Partly was the John Birch Society and virtually nobody payed them any attention (NOTE: the Society was started by the man who's sons fund the Tea Party) furthermore if the Republican Party during this same period acted as it does now, they would not exist, they would have been laughed out of existence.
Back then we had a Republican Party to be proud of, but ever since the civil rights era the people of ethics and honest character have migrating away and those with much lower credentials have been sought to fill the ranks. A very sad but also very true reality.
The following 14 Characteristics are the rules I go by now in the analysis of any statements made. In UnReals case he adhered to characteristic three and eleven. The usual reaction to pointing this out while using the list is either something totally ballistic or complete silence. I have never seen one "conservative" realign their thought processes after reading the list. They are where they want to be and that is probably where they will remain.
If we could get everyone to use this list of characteristics in debunking the more blatant statements, I think our conversations might start to improve. Remember ballistic... a trajectory away from your location or the other item, silence. Who knows, you might even find someone who will start engaging in meaningful conversation.
Characteristics Of Fascism
By Dr. Lawrence Britt
Source Free Inquiry.co
5-28-3
AN EXTRACT FROM DISCUSSION OF THE BOOK
Publication Date: September 29, 2011
Late in life, William F. Buckley made a confession to Corey Robin. Capitalism is "boring," said the founding father of the American right. "Devoting your life to it," as conservatives do, "is horrifying if only because it's so repetitious. It's like sex." With this unlikely conversation began Robin's decade-long foray into the conservative mind. What is conservatism, and what's truly at stake for its proponents? If capitalism bores them, what excites them?
Tracing conservatism back to its roots in the reaction against the French Revolution, Robin argues that the right is fundamentally inspired by a hostility to emancipating the lower orders. Some conservatives endorse the free market, others oppose it. Some criticize the state, others celebrate it. Underlying these differences is the impulse to defend power and privilege against movements demanding freedom and equality.
Despite their opposition to these movements, conservatives favor a dynamic conception of politics and society--one that involves self-transformation, violence, and war. They are also highly adaptive to new challenges and circumstances. This partiality to violence and capacity for reinvention has been critical to their success.
Written by a keen, highly regarded observer of the contemporary political scene, The Reactionary Mind ranges widely, from Edmund Burke to Antonin Scalia, from John C. Calhoun to Ayn Rand. It advances the notion that all rightwing ideologies, from the eighteenth century through today, are historical improvisations on a theme: the felt experience of having power, seeing it threatened, and trying to win it back.
The statement that seems to most define the conservatives I know but that they themselves will vehemently say is not true:
Underlying these differences is the impulse to defend power and privilege against movements demanding freedom and equality.