Conservatives Without Conscience

May 29, 2006
In his seventh book, Dean, the former Nixon legal counsel whom the FBI has called the "master manipulator" of the Watergate coverup, weighs in with a rebuke to Christian fundamentalists and other right-wing hard-liners. A self-described Goldwater conservative (indeed, Goldwater had planned to collaborate on this book before his death), he rails against the influence of social conservatives and neoconservatives within his party. Suffused with bitterness stemming from the controversies in which he has been embroiled, Dean's book paints a thin social science veneer over a litany of mostly ad hominem complaints. Purporting to show that social conservatives and neoconservatives are, on the whole, demonstrably authoritarian, bigoted, irrational and amoral, Conservatives Without Conscience
offers helpful hints such as "Conservatives without conscience do not have horns and tails," and evinces a telling fascination with politicians' shady book deals. Though there is clearly much to condemn in the policies and tactics Dean deplores, assailing everyone from French political theorist Joseph de Maistre to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to the chairman of Yale University's conservative association as "Double High" social- dominance-oriented authoritarians undermines his journalistic credibility. Dean's lurid accusations may be entertaining, but they add little to the reasoned debate that Washington so sorely lacks today.

Starred review from July 1, 2006
In a book that will likely bring the full force of the Republican Party, the Bush White House, and Christian conservatives down on his head, Dean (former counsel to President Nixon) argues that some leaders of the Republican Party and of the conservative movement generally are authoritarian personalities without conscience. Having planned to coauthor a book with Barry Goldwater, Dean continued after Goldwater -s death to read works such as T.W. Adorno and others - "The Authoritarian Personality", Stanley Milgram -s "Obedience to Authority", and Bob Altemeyer -s updates to such earlier research. Critics will contend that Dean is not qualified to discuss such complex material, but he successfully summarizes sophisticated social psychological and political science research for the average reader. Essentially, Altemeyer has identified people whose high scores on a battery of questions qualify them as -Double High, Right Wing Authoritarians, - which means that they are highly dogmatic and excessively deferential to authority and admit that -moral issues of right and wrong behavior -&are irrelevant to them. - Dean applies these theories to many VIPs on the Far Right and, in a final chapter, provides examples of the harmful effects wrought by -conservatives without conscience, - e.g., Gingrich, DeLay, Frist, and Cheney and, by implication, the President. Though the book has its weaknesses -the writing is sometimes ponderous and the conversational footnotes are distracting -its thesis is clearly and logically established with endnotes that provide thorough documentation for the author -s arguments. Very highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ "3/15/06.]" -Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, PA"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2006
With the perspective of a former Republican political insider, and experience in the Watergate scandal when he was White House counsel to Nixon, Dean takes a sincere, well-considered look at how conservative politics in the U.S. is veering dangerously close to authoritarianism, offering a penetrating and highly disturbing portrait of many of the major players in Republican politics and power. Looking back on the development of conservative politics in the U.S., Dean notes that conservatism is regressing to its authoritarian roots. Dean draws on five decades of social science research that details the personality traits of what are called "double high authoritarians": self-righteous, mean-spirited, amoral, manipulative, bullying. He concludes that Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, and Tom DeLay are all textbook examples. Dean calls Vice-President Cheney "the architect of Bush's authoritarian policies," and deems Bush "a mental lightweight with a strong right-wing authoritarian personality." Dean maintains that conservatives without conscience have produced such a hostile, noncollegial environment in Congress that threats of resistance through filibusters have been met with threats of a "nuclear option" and that conservatives have used fearmongering about terrorist attacks to the point where the nation faces a greater threat of relinquishing its ideals of democracy. Dean appeals to conservatives to find their consciences and to all Americans to take serious heed of what is going on in the nation. Readers of all political perspectives will find this book riveting. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)