Posted on 03/26/2006 5:35:56 AM PST by Darkwolf377
Four decades ago, Kevin Phillips, a young political strategist for the Republican Party, began work on what became a remarkable book. In writing "The Emerging Republican Majority" (published in 1969), he asked a very big question about American politics: How would the demographic and economic changes of postwar America shape the long-term future of the two major parties? ...(clip)...A stronger Republican Party, he believed, would restore stability and order to a society experiencing disorienting and at times violent change. Shortly before publishing his book, he joined the Nixon administration to help advance the changes he had foreseen.
Phillips has remained a prolific and important political commentator in the decades since, but he long ago abandoned his enthusiasm for the Republican coalition he helped to build. His latest book (his 13th) looks broadly and historically at the political world the conservative coalition has painstakingly constructed over the last several decades. No longer does he see Republican government as a source of stability and order. Instead, he presents a nightmarish vision of ideological extremism, catastrophic fiscal irresponsibility, rampant greed and dangerous shortsightedness. (His final chapter is entitled "The Erring Republican Majority.") In an era of best-selling jeremiads on both sides of the political divide, "American Theocracy" may be the most alarming analysis of where we are and where we may be going to have appeared in many years. It is not without polemic, but unlike many of the more glib and strident political commentaries of recent years, it is extensively researched and for the most part frighteningly persuasive.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Typical ant-Christian fear-mongering from a Rino/leftist. As if our country had not been based firmly on Christian values since our inception.
The Liberal MSM used Kevin Phillips to bash the Republicans. They used him so much that National Reivew used to joke that his real first name was even. As in even Kevin Phillips thinks this or that Republican idea is stupid.
If I had a choice between protecting one of the other, there is absolutely no contest. Send troops to guard Iraq's most valuable resource - oil.
No kidding -- just start with the hysterical title.
Phillips needs to come out of his Log Cabin Republican facade and admit that he has been a pseudo Republican for the MSM for over 20 years.
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?fr=ybr_sbc&p=Kevin%20Phillips%20+%20Log%20Cabin%20Republicans
Clearly red meat for the typical New York Times subscriber. Any respectable writer would shun Paul Krugman and Kevin Phillips.
Kevin Phillips is NPR's favorite "Republican". Case closed.
I guess they figured that wouldn't give readers a clue as to his political allegiances. Just some obscure book about a minor figure, eh?
LOL That's perfect!
Isn't it amazing how this article would have the casual reader think Phillips was some kind of rabid rightwinger up until he decided to write this book?
Another hatemongering anti-Christian in the John Danforth mold.
Whenever any maggot is the token Republican for NPR or the Ny Slimes, it is a safe bet re their reality versus their MSM image.
How many years has Patty Buckwheat Buchanite posed as a republican on tv?
PBS used to have this guy on during the 2004 Presidential Race to try to persuade its viewers into believing that Bush arranged things at the DC airport for the 9/11 terrorists to board the airplane unchecked.
I have a theory that they give Pat a call every time Noam Chomsky doesn't return their invites.
Amazing. I've never heard of Phillips, and I sure didn't know about that. The NYT would have people like me believe the guy was as hardcore as they come until now.
Kevin Phillips told Tim Russert last night in an interview that he is not registered as a Republican. If he were, it would be of the RINO variety. But he is a joke, and the GOP is better without him.
One of our younger relatives called last week and while laughing said that one of tv's morning left wing pr show hosts introduced Patty as a Republican.
No longer does he see Republican government as a source of stability and order. Instead, he presents a nightmarish vision of ideological extremism, catastrophic fiscal irresponsibility, rampant greed and dangerous shortsightedness.
And do we get any thanks for this.....NOOOO.
When Jerry Falwell becomes king of America....Phillips will get his.
Nuts.
For a better view of the evil rightwing
The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008EH6LE/qid=1143384350/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-0982097-1969522?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
From Publishers Weekly
In the introduction to this engaging study of American conservatism, Micklethwait and Wooldridge of the Economist disclaim any allegiance to America's "two great political tribes." It is this Tocquevillian quality of informed impartiality that makes their book so effective at conveying how profoundly the right has reshaped the American political landscape over the past half century. The authors trace the history of the conservative movement from the McCarthy era, when "conservatism was a fringe idea," to the second Bush administration and the "victory of the right." They dissect the new "conservative establishment," which combines the intellectual force of think tanks, business interest groups and sympathetic media outlets with the "brawn" of "footsoldiers" from the populist social conservative wing of the GOP, and argue that continuing Republican hegemony is likely. Democratic optimists who point to favorable demographic trends are exaggerating the liberalism of Latino and professional voters, say the authors, while other factors, such as suburbanization and terrorism, will tend to promote Republican values. Still, the right should be worried about its own "capacity for extremism and intolerance" and about holding together its unlikely alliance of religious moralists and small-government activists. Even so, say the authors, conservative ideas are now so pervasive in American society that even a Kerry administration could do little to divert the country's long-term rightward drift. This epochal political transformation is rarely analyzed with the degree of dispassionate clarity that Micklethwait and Wooldridge bring to their penetrating analysis.
______________________________
Painting the Map Red: The Fight to Create a Permanent Republican Majority
by Hugh Hewitt
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0895260026/104-0982097-1969522?v=glance&n=283155
Painting the Map Red, the insider's guide to the 2006 elections and the crucial messages GOP candidates and activists will be adopting to foster the spread of Red States, is a must-read from Hugh Hewitt, nationally syndicated talk show host and political strategist.
From the Inside Flap
How to Win Everywhere Warning: this is the book the Democrats don¹t want you to read.
Painting the Map Red is the insider¹s blueprint for achieving a permanent Republican majority.
Bestselling author, political strategist, and nationally syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt shows you how conservatives can take down the Democrats, expose their liberal extremism, and reignite the Reagan Revolution.
Calling on his own extensive experience‹and on the savvy political minds of Mark Steyn, Fred Barnes, Michael Barone, and others in exclusive interviews‹Hewitt reveals: The Five Key Messages and Four Crucial Steps to a permanent Republican majority. How big is too big? Which senator deserves to get pushed out of the Republican big tent. The next generation of liberal Democrats‹if you thought Ted Kennedy was bad, wait till you see the party of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Howard Dean. How extremist groups especially on the Internet are driving the Democrats¹ agenda. Why the Democrats¹ assault on religion is just ramping up. How Republicans can retake the courts and end Democrat obstruction. How the Democrats¹ alliance with liberal mainstream media can be turned against them both. Where we go from here: coming up with the right candidate after Bush
In politics, as in war, it pays to play offense, and Hugh Hewitt knows how the GOP can fight and win‹coast to coast.
Want another Reagan Revolution? Here¹s how. It¹s time to finish Painting the Map Red.
The reviews posted on Amazon give them high marks.
So can you explain why Hewitt's book ranks 10,551 in sales and The Right Nation ranks 72,214?
Kevin Phillips' new book is #1 on Amazon.
Are conservatives too busy posting on FreeRepublic these days to read books or what?
Good for you. Whoever said you couldn't like him?
I have a copy of "The Emerging Republican Majority" on my bookshelf that I bought when I was a kid. When the book came out, the idea of a Republican majority was bizarre. Phillips' analysis of the voting patterns of different American ethnic/cultural groups was perceptive, and, as far as I know, unprecedented.
OK, so what?
I thought he made a good point in his interview with Russert last night on CNBC: It was that the voters of the exurbs, who put Bush in the White House, are very vulnerable to the price of gasoline. "High gas prices threaten their way of life," was how Phillips put it.
Are you seriously trying to say that this common idea, which I've heard ten thousand times in my life, is somehow proof of his insight? What's next, is he going to reveal that water is wet? Genius!
I know from personal observation that when the price of gas goes up, the price of exurban real estate goes down. I personally think there were two bad mistakes in planning the Iraq war: 1) Overestimating the oil reserves reported by Saddam Hussein. Before the war, people kept saying that Iraq had the second largest oil reserve, next to Saudi Arabia. It's been a while since I heard that one. I don't know if it's true, but it does now appear that a big oil gusher from Iraq is not going to happen.
Why would that fact have to be repeated over and over again once it's been established? It's been awhile since I heard that Lincoln was elected President, but the fact remains, now doesn't it? That wasn't a claim of Saddam's--that's a geological fact.
You need reminding? here ya go:
http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/world-top-ten-oil-reserves-countries-map.html
Country Billions of Barrels
1.Saudi Arabia 261.8
2.Canada 180.0
3.Iraq 112.5
There are plenty of other sources for the same info, so look it up, OK?
2) Thinking that after they removed Saddam Hussein, they could get the oil flowing. Novak has reported that the oil is not flowing because of pervasive, top-to-bottom corruption in the Iraqi government. The Bush administration should have expected the Iraqis to be corrupt and figured out how to work around that. Where is the plan?
The plan is in motion. It has been for quite some time. Novak has been against the war from the start, as has Phillips, so their objections are hardly objective ones. The plan is to place a democracy in the Middle East. Sorry, but that takes time--we can't wave a wand and just have it happen.
You've praised Phillips for predicting the Republican takeover--how long a time passed between his prediction and the reality? Well, I'm sorry, but building a democracy from the ground up is a LITTLE more complicated than having one party gain control (something that was pretty likely EVENTUALLY in a two-party system) over another.
Iraqi oil is a big deal. Mistakes about Iraqi oil are big, costly mistakes.
What mistakes?
I read an estimate recently that the Iraq war is has cost the average American family $20,000 so far. Do you think Americans will be happy to pay that for HIGHER gas prices? When will the oil start flowing? Any guesses?
No, because I'm no expert. But neither are you, and neither is anyone who claims that we could have picked a date on a map.
If you think Americans would be better off without our war on terror and ousting Saddam, I have to ask if you think Americans would be happy with the price of nuclear weapons going off in YOUR hometown.
They found a Republican who is not only a anti-Christian hero to the Left but who was also a part of the most unsuccessful Republican administration in history... He was probably cheering for Nixon to resign and was, no doubt, loved by the Left at that time as well. I would guess he was also against the Viet Nam war "baby killers."
When you hear a RINO screeching about a "theocracy" they are angry over abortion and/or homosexual marriage and speical rights or they are of a different religion and can not tolerate hearing the J-word or the C-word.
But, dontchaknow, we theocrats have to stop chopping off the heads of the good liberals sooner or later and it is not a good idea to keep putting them in prisions for having sex and producing children out of wedlock. :)
Kevin phillips doesn't even qualify as a RINO. He's just a turncoat.
Misinformation from the Times, Phillips does not claim to be Republican any longer.
So can you explain why Hewitt's book ranks 10,551 in sales and The Right Nation ranks 72,214?
"Painting the Map Red" has just been published, I expect it to rise.
"The Right Nation" is 2 years old, and sold well at the time, if memory serves.
It wasn't so long ago that a president that said he WASN'T guided by God would be dragged from the White House and hung.....
Now, in today's whacko world, one who professes a belief is called theocratic???
Bought it yesterday. The guy deserves a look based on "A Coming Republican Majority" alone. He sure got that one right- 35 years or so ago.
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