Conservatives Betrayed: How the Republican Party Hijacked the Conservative Cause

by Richard A. Viguerie

An essential training manual for all conservatives, Conservatives Betrayed challenges the political right to implement a nationwide conservative agenda and serves as a warning to the Republican Party to fall in line if it hopes to remain in power.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566252857
• ISBN13: 9781566252850
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The Reckless Spending "Conservatives" Revealed

This book clearly reminds us all NOT to assume ideology by label. The author lays out, statistically, the spending behaviors of various U.S. administrations over recent decades, thus revealing the futility of trusting such labels as "conservative" or "liberal". Paul Baum, Ph.D.

A Well-Written Conservative Salvo Against Betrayal in Republican Ranks

~Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause~ describes the intellectual bankruptcy of so called 'Big Government Conservatism,' which is an oxymoronic cliche if there every was one. Neoconservatism was the product of Old Left New Dealers that vacated the Democratic Party because of its perceived social radicalism in the 1960s and 1970s. Though, they were very much content with the New Deal welfare state and hoped to make it operate more efficiently. They gravitated towards Republican-affiliated think tanks and the halls of political power. Eventually they became the core intellectual intelligentsia of the two successive Bush administrations, with neocons holding key cabinet positions. Neoconservatives laud the statesmanship of Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Viguerie observes, "As he pursued these policies, President Bush's strongest support came from Big Government Republicans and from so-called 'Big Government conservatives' who, of course, are not conservatives at all." Viguerie continues, "Now, these 'Big Government conservatives' -- sometimes confusingly called 'neoconservatives' -- have not been shy about their intentions to hijack (or, from their point of view, 'lead') the conservative movement. Irving Kristol, often called the 'grandfather of neoconservatism,' wrote in The Weekly Standard (August 25, 2003) of `the historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism:' `to convert the Republican Party, and American conservatism in general, against their respective wills, into a new kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy.'" Viguerie hits the nail on the head -- the Republican Party has been hijacked. It's no longer helmed by the principled conservatives who once called for fiscal conservatism, limited government, and devolving power and authority back to states and localities in favor of dual federalism and the Tenth Amendment. In this trenchant analysis, Vigurie offers a principled conservative broadside against the current Republican administration under George W. Bush and the Congress. The Republicans have given us a failed foreign policy and a failed domestic policy. After the publication of this book, conservative voters tired of the status quo apparently stayed home, and a few switched sides. Hence, the new Democratic Congressional majority in 2007 has made its ascendancy. The Republicans had their shot for a true blue Republican Revolution and making good on the promises of 1994, but they blew it. He demonstrates how the Republicans have compromised on every major front, whether in the culture war or in maintaining some semblance of fiscal responsibility in the federal government. As political humorist P.J. O'Rourke penned, "The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work

Highly recommended for its thought-provoking content

Written by Richard A. Viguerie, who in 1999 was cited as one of the Washington Times' thirteen "Conservatives of the Century", Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause is a fierce attack upon the Bush administration from the conservative point of view. Viguerie does not speak for the neo-conservatives, who have drastically inflated spending and expanded federal government; he speaks for the old conservatives who believed in the values of fiscal restraint and small government, and who recognize the threat that excessive national debt - much of which is now owed to powers overseas! - poses to national security and to America's future, as more and more of America's annual budget must be applied to interest payments alone. Viguerie is emphatically a social conservative as well as a fiscal conservative; he speaks strongly against "obese government" characterized by excessive bureaucracy, pork-barrel spending, and mounting deficits; the social ills caused by uncontrolled illegal immigration; abortion; judicial activism; and more. Though not all readers will agree with Viguerie's opinions about the "culture war" in America and some will find his antagonistic attitudes toward illegal immigrants and homosexuals distasteful, his core exhortations against wasteful government spending are a desperately needed wake-up call. Even more valuable is his suggestion that conservative voters disassociate themselves from any one party and become a block whose favor needs to be wooed by both parties, in order to exert more influence and power - a suggestion that holds merit for any political subsection. Highly recommended for its thought-provoking content, regardless of whether the reader personally agrees with Viguerie on all points.

Principles above partisanship

The marriage between the Republicans and conservatives has been a loveless and unsatisfying marriage. The Republicans keep "stumbling home after midnight, smelling of booze and cheap perfume." And it is time for the marriage to come to an end. Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause by Richard Viguerie thoroughly lists, more than any other resource I can think of, the balance of indiscretions the Republicans have visited upon conservatism under the Presidency of George W. Bush (and even before that election). The days of the Contract With America are long gone and replaced with what can only appear to be a very similar spending philosophy of Democrats. Viguerie systematically dissects the policies of the George W. Bush administration in the key areas of foreign policy, immigration, the right to life, the culture of life, the courts, and taxation. He shows beyond a reasonable doubt that the canard that this is one of the most extreme right-wing administrations in history is absolutely absurd. Sure, Bush has thrown conservatives some carrots, but he has shown that he's more than willing to grow the federal government and not buck the system. He, after all, has only recently cast his first veto and has used no rescissions to block pork barrel spending. Chart after chart, figure after figure, the book painstakingly reveals what is apparent to most conservatives, George Bush isn't one of them. This disaffection has been brewing for some time and came to a head with the immigration debate. While the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and the UAE ports deal resulted in acquiescing to the grassroots conservatives, immigration showed the GOP literally telling conservatives to go to hell. The argument was that by leaving the Republican plantation, we got eight years of Clinton, so now we had to suck it down. If that statement seems like it is defecating on conservatives, that is because it is exactly what it is doing. Conservatives should shut up and keep sending money to the GOP. We should leave the governing to the elites. This book is a challenge to that accepted logic and presents a game plan to attempt to bring principles back into politics. The central premise is that conservatives should stop being wedded to the GOP and start being a movement that hopefully brings both parties into line or at least gives us an occasional chance to vote against the GOP candidate without implicitly supporting a repugnant alternative. The status quo will lead to the situation we have here in Illinois -- party insider Rod Blagojevich running against party insider Judy Baar-Topinka with both having approval ratings on a good day rivaling President Bush. Not even party loyalists like their candidate. The state is on the verge of bankruptcy, in the worst financial shape of any other state, and there is no discernable difference (quite literally) between the policies of either party