Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency
Written by Patrick J. Buchanan
Narrated by Patrick J. Buchanan
4/5
()
About this audiobook
A searing exposé of the saboteurs of Reaganism and sappers of the Bush administration by three-time presidential candidate and bestselling author Pat Buchanan
American Empire is at its apex. We are the sole superpower, with no potential challenger for a generation. We can reach any point on the globe with our cruise missiles and smart bombs, and our culture penetrates every nook and cranny of the global village. Yet our beloved America is now reviled abroad, dictated to by arrogant judges at home, overrun by special interests, and buried beneath a mountain of debt. Where the Right Went Wrong chronicles how the Bush administration and Beltway conservatives have abandoned their principles, and how a tiny cabal hijacked U.S. foreign policy and may have ignited a "war of civilizations" with the Islamic world that will leave America mired down in Middle East wars for years to come.At the same time, these Republicans have sacrificed the American worker on the altar of free trade and discarded the beliefs of Taft, Goldwater, and Reagan to become a party of big government that sells its soul to the highest bidder.
Patrick J. Buchanan
Patrick J. Buchanan was a senior advisor to three American Presidents, ran twice for the Republican nomination in 1992 and 1996, and was the Reform Party’s Presidential candidate in 2000. The author of seven books, Mr. Buchanan is a syndicated columnist and a political analyst for MSNBC. He is also Editor Emeritus of the political magazine, The American Conservative. He lives in McLean, Virginia.
More audiobooks from Patrick J. Buchanan
Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Where the Right Went Wrong
Related audiobooks
The Case for Nationalism: How It Made Us Powerful, United, and Free Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Killing of Uncle Sam: The Demise of the United States of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/59 Presidents Who Screwed Up America: And Four Who Tried to Save Her Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rules for Deplorables: A Primer for Fighting Radical Socialism Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Freedom Agenda: Why a Balanced Budget Amendment Is Necessary to Restore Constitutional Government Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism's Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped the American Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mentor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Case Against Socialism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Liberal Invasion of Red State America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5United States of Socialism: Who's Behind It. Why It's Evil. How to Stop It. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Conscience of a Conservative Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Pravda: My Fight for Truth in the Era of Fake News Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No, They Can't: Why Government Fails-But Individuals Succeed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death of a Nation: Plantation Politics and the Making of the Democratic Party Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and its Responsibility for 9/11 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Enemy Within: How a Totalitarian Movement is Destroying America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Invaded: The Intentional Destruction of the American Immigration System Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Political Ideologies For You
The Vision of the Anointed: Self-congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Communist Manifesto (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Will Own Nothing: Your War with a New Financial World Order and How to Fight Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Marxism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Democrat Party Hates America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Long Slide: Thirty Years in American Journalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We're Polarized Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascism: A Warning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Where the Right Went Wrong
51 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Despite a few minor disagreements and Mr. Buchanan's tendency to wander far afield from his main subject matter, I found this book to be a very helpful explanation for the current state of affairs within the Republican party and of the country as a whole. Even though written in 2004, the issues are still current and Buchanan gives much valuable historical insight to help understand the present. Even Buchanan's main weakness of over-explaining the history of Islam and terrorism, as well as the rise of Chinese power, were interesting, just not completely relevant to his subject. I learned much and enjoyed reading wise words from a man who should have been in the White House.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Patrick Buchanan got it right in this book. He writes that Bush's posture after 9/11 is unconstitutional and harmful to the U.S. Nowhere in the Constitution is the president afforded the power of making preemptive war, yet his approach was to declare a virtual battle against evil, rather than going after the perpetrator of the act itself. Ignoring precedent and reality (numerous countries have developed chemical and nuclear capacities in the twentieth century despite U.S. policy to prevent such a spread even among our friends with no retribution,) Bush put several countries on notice they would be liable for regime change if they tried to enter that circle of countries.
"To attain Churchillian heights, Bush's speechwriters had taken him over the top." They defined four elements in his speech:
1. The war on terror is a war between good and evil and will not end until all elements of evil are eradicated;
2. Every nation must decide if it is with us or against us, if not with us they are with the terrorists;
3. Any nation that funds or assists any group we decide is a terrorist will be considered a terrorist state subject to attack;
4. Iran, Iraq, and Korea will not be permitted weapons of mass destruction and we would engage in preemptive strikes and wars to prevent their acquisition by those countries.
These elements caused the coalitions that had been created after 9/11 to "crumble." He went further in a speech to West Point graduates in 2002. The thrust of the speech was that the United States would never permit any country in the world to threaten its hegemony and would use its military to prevent any country from becoming greater than we are.
"Containment is not possible when unbalanced dictators can deliver those weapons on missiles.... If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long." Ignoring history (containment worked with such lunatics as Mao and Stalin) Bush is making a case for perpetual war.
How did this happen? Buchanan argues that Bush's inexperience and ignorance of foreign policy permitted the neoconservatives to hijack his foreign policy Buchanan goes on with a more traditional (for him) jeremiad against free trade that he (and Ralph Nader - now there's a ticket) will lead to a us become a non-industrial low-paying service center economy unable to compete.
While I have rarely been in agreement with Buchanan, this time he got it right. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Political agendas aside, Buchanan presents some thought-provoking ideas that he aims to bolster with snapshots from other eras spanning many centuries. That's where this book tends to get bogged down. In too many spots, the author begins sounding like a rambling history professor who has lost track of time in a class that should have ended 10 minutes earlier. Also, some of the tenets in this book have been explored many times before. Still, "Where the Right Went Wrong" provides an interesting glimpse of what Buchanan labels "neoconservatism," thrusting a revealing spotlight on the factionalism that often overshadows Washington.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rather amusing how LibraryThing is truncating the title. Beyond that, I was candidly rather disappointed with Buchanan here. No real ground was broken, this work seemed in large part a rehash of The Death of the West (especially the sections on China, and immigration into Europe). He didn't seem to be even all that interested in explaining in the detail he should have how Neoconservatism arose, and I'm not sure he even did enough work to back up his claims of Israel controlling US foreign policy in the Middle East. On a slightly different line: Would it be that much more work to add some footnotes? So much of what is in this work is a direct quotation of others that in my view Buchanan is opening himself up to charges of misquotation. Having said that, the section on how Congress has largely abandoned their traditional role was very well done. But I came away with the feeling that Buchanan wants to crank out a book every two years or so nowadays, even if he doesn't have much new to say.