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    The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right
    The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right
    The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right
    Audiobook15 hours

    The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right

    Written by Max Boot

    Narrated by Max Boot

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Warning that the Trump presidency presages America's decline, the political commentator recounts his extraordinary journey from lifelong Republican to vehement Trump opponent. As nativism, xenophobia, vile racism, and assaults on the rule of law threaten the very fabric of our nation, The Corrosion of Conservatism presents an urgent defense of American democracy. Pronouncing Mexican immigrants to be "rapists," Donald Trump announced his 2015 presidential bid, causing Max Boot to think he was watching a dystopian science-fiction movie. The respected conservative historian couldn't fathom that the party of Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan could endorse such an unqualified reality-TV star. Yet the Twilight Zone episode that Boot believed he was watching created an ideological dislocation so shattering that Boot's transformation from Republican foreign policy adviser to celebrated anti-Trump columnist becomes the dramatic story of The Corrosion of Conservatism. No longer a Republican, but also not a Democrat, Boot here records his ideological journey from a "movement" conservative to a man without a party, beginning with his political coming-of-age as a young emigre from the Soviet Union, enthralled with the National Review and the conservative intellectual tradition of Russell Kirk and F. A. Hayek. Against this personal odyssey, Boot simultaneously traces the evolution of modern American conservatism, jump-started by Barry Goldwater's canonical The Conscience of a Conservative, to the rise of Trumpism and its gradual corrosion of what was once the Republican Party. While 90 percent of his fellow Republicans became political "toadies" in the aftermath of the 2016 election, Boot stood his ground, enduring the vitriol of his erstwhile conservative colleagues, trolled on Twitter by a white supremacist who depicted his "execution" in a gas chamber by a smiling, Nazi-clad Trump. And yet, Boot nevertheless remains a villain to some partisan circles for his enduring commitment to conservative fiscal and national security principles. It is from this isolated position, then, that Boot launches this bold declaration of dissent and its urgent plea for true, bipartisan cooperation. With uncompromising insights, The Corrosion of Conservatism evokes both a president who has traduced every norm and the rise of a nascent centrist movement to counter Trump's assault on democracy.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 9, 2018
    ISBN9781980023531
    The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right
    Author

    Max Boot

    A senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and renowned military historian, Max Boot is a regular contributor to the New York Times and other publications. Author of two previous books, he lives in New York.

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    Reviews for The Corrosion of Conservatism

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    • 3/5
      I remember reading with relish, now some years ago, Boot’s “War Made New,” long before I was aware of the “neocon” label, much less those thinkers who bore it. I remember admiring Boot’s grasp of military history, his ability to discern the important developments (and their crystallizing moment/s), and above all his ability to make such information both clear and important to a general audience. Perhaps that is the long way around to simply saying that I enjoyed the book. Knowing Boot, then, as primarily a military historian, left me a bit ill-prepared for the content of this work. Part memoir, part political commentary, part lament, Boot’s work, I think, will speak both to and for many members of the post-Trump conservative movement in America. However, I’m disappointed to say that I don’t feel that it really spoke to and for ME. There were parts of the book I really enjoyed, particularly the opening section on Boot’s immigration to America and his introduction to the conservative movement through the likes of William F. Buckley, Jr and Irving Kristol. Here, the book is straightforward and heartfelt, recapturing well for the reader his youthful enthusiasm for those ideas, ideas that still persist as core to his thinking. However, for me, when Boot then turned his attention to CONTEMPORARY conservatism, the book began to lose its luster. For one thing, I did not appreciate the “‘conservative’ equals ‘Republican’” equation that was the core of this book. In fact, the book would have been much more aptly titled “The Corrosion of the Republican Party.” I feel like I’ve read a good number of opinion pieces and have a good number of friends that fall well within the definition of “conservatism” (perhaps even “far right” in instances) that deeply lament Trump’s election as a sign of the folly and perhaps even madness that is our current political climate. Like Boot, I am appalled at much of the almost “messianic” language I hear coming from key Evangelical leaders. Yes, as an OT scholar, I am well aware that YHWH used the Persian king Cyrus to accomplish His plan to return the children of Israel to their homeland; but those who cite such a “biblical” example tend to forget that Cyrus was ever in Scripture in PAGAN EVIL TYRANT. He was USED not CONVERTED. That’s a big difference. Chapter 5 is where Boot lays out his case against Trump. This book was published in the throes of ongoing Mueller investigation (which has since concluded), so parts of this section would probably be written much differently now, but the substance of the charges I feel would remain. And I feel that, in the main, some of these charges have merit. Trump HAS used racist language (especially against immigrants) and IS a bully on social media and seemingly CANNOT fact-check statements. Trump is, by all accounts, an amoral cretin. But—and this is where Boot’s sense of the “big picture” fails him—that is not the real issue here. As convinced as I am that Trump has little or no moral character to speak of, I’m not sure I could say much better about Hillary Clinton (as Boot does). There were about as many scandals related to inappropriate Russian ties in the Clinton campaign as in the Trump campaign, though that seems to have been largely forgotten. The issue is not Trump’s election; the issue is what is passing for “Presidential material” right now. The flaws we see in Trump is a reflection of something in our national character. The solution, then, is not to throw Trump out of office but to revive the morality and integrity of the electoral base so leaders like Trump and Clinton won’t have a chance. In the concluding section, Boot again lays his finger on the deeper issue…and then, just as quickly, rushes on. Analyzing the rise of Bernie Sanders, he writes: “All of this suggests that the Democratic Party is drifting leftward as the Republican Party is drifting rightward.” Exactly. But why? Boot never ventures a guess, even though he acknowledges that this is “a situation that is increasingly common across the democratic world.” I, like Boot, feel very much like a “man without a party” in the current political climate. However, when I read Boot’s rundown of his core political convictions: socially liberal (pro-LGBTQ rights/pro-choice), pro-free markets, pro-environment, pro-gun control, anti-identity politics (both minority and majority strains), I’m not sure that I can see myself in, pardon the pun, Boot’s camp. Especially when he appends to his statement on LGBTQ and pro-choice rights: “I am not religious but am respectful of those who are—as long as their beliefs do not impinge on anyone’s individual rights.” I am dying to ask, then, whether Boot would consider it “infringement” for a devoutly Christian baker to refuse to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. I am saddened that Boot has felt himself “forced out of” the conservative movement by the shifts happening within the Republican Party. However, I am MORE disappointed to consider that Boot’s definition of “centrist” politics as defined above might win the day. It would mean nothing different for me, a strong social conservative, than the current political climate.
    • 4/5
      I admire Max Boot for changing his mind when the facts did not accord with his opinions. I admire him more because he had the courage to say so, loudly and publicly, at considerable personal cost. But from a liberal perspective, the ideas that he used to believe in were untenable, so his change in view is more a waking to reality than a conversion. I wanted to like this book more than I did.