"George W. Bush, reviled by the left ever since he became
president, has recently accomplished the feat of acquiring a new
and unlikely set of detractors. The longer he flounders in domestic
and foreign policy, the more a vocal contingent of intellectuals
and columnists allied to the Republican Party is attacking him.
Unlike that of most Bush critics, however, their complaint isn't
that the president has veered too far to the right. It's that he
isn't conservative enough. In Leviathan on the Right,
Michael D. Tanner offers the fullest exposition of this line of
reasoning to date. Tanner is a lucid writer and vigorous polemicist
who scores a number of points against the Republican Party's fiscal
transgressions."
-The New York Times Book Review
Read the full review.
"In this thorough political analysis, Tanner examines the
transformation of conservative doctrine in America, decrying the
movement towards big-government spending. Since being elected,
George W. Bush has allowed the largest expansion of government
spending since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. According to Tanner,
this shift is not circumstantial, a result of post-9/11
considerations, but rather a fundamental shift in the conservative
paradigm. Articulate and incisive, Tanner's critique provides a
helpful overview of the issues facing conservatives today and an
introduction to the myriad facets of contemporary conservative
thinking-from national-greatness conservatives to technophiles to
compassionate conservatism. Tanner's arguments are considerate and
well-researched, and his optimistic belief in a return to
small-government conservatism is largely appealing."
-Publishers Weekly
"Since President Bill Clinton proclaimed the demise of big
government in a State of the Union address, the federal government
"spends more, regulates us more, and reaches far more into our
daily lives than it did before the Republican Revolution." This is
the thesis of Tanner, who argues that the Republican Party,
"supposedly the party of smaller government" and until recently in
power for over a decade, in fact succumbed to the many temptations
and opportunities to govern actively. Tanner is especially good on
the roots of big-government conservatism, an analysis based upon
his categorizations of neoconservatives, national-greatness
conservatives, supply-siders, technophiles, and the Religious Right
and his view of domestic issues like welfare, health insurance,
entitlements, and education. He presents a lucid argument that
deserves a place in any public or academic library collection
seeking to document contemporary U.S. politics."
-Library Journal
"Tanner offers an argument more likely to generate a discussion
than a partisan food-fight. Tanner cogently makes his case that Mr.
Bush's big-government policies alienated key constituencies within
the conservative movement and have rarely been clear-cut policy
success stories."
-Jim Geraghty, The New York Sun
Read the full review.
"So the Tanner gist to Republicans is soul-searching: Study this
book, think hard and get back to your roots and drawing board,
fast. You can't out-center the centrists. The future is yours to
lose. Or, conceivably, win."
-William H. Peterson, The Washington Times
Read the full review.
"How the party of limited government evolved into a new breed of
conservatives willing to use the power and resources of the state
to shape society in their own image is the subject of Michael
Tanner's excellent new book."
-Caroline Baum, Bloomberg.com
Read the full review.
"Tanner tells how Republicans have helped increase the federal
government's power. One is tempted to compare the Republicans to
preachers who denounce sin in the pulpit and then practice it at
the no-tell motel. But Tanner shows that such an analogy would be
off point. Instead of hiding their support for big government, he
writes, many conservatives openly embrace it. It would be as if a
pastor used the church bulletin to praise adultery."
-John J. Pitney Jr., The Politico
Read the full review.
""In simpler times, the phrase "big-government conservatism" was
considered an oxymoron. Today, it is the subject of heated debate
as well as an increasing number of books. The latest and perhaps
most policy-focused of these titles is Leviathan on the
Right.
-W. James Antle III, National Review Online
Read the full review.
"Essential for any college-level political science discussion of
modern American trends."
-Midwest Book Review
"Though this isn't the first book to condemn the modern perversion
of conservatism, Tanner's thorough research and excellent writing
might just make it the best."
-Laissez Faire Books
"Liberals are so convinced that Bush is the most conservative
president in American history, they have long overlooked his many
transgressions from conservative orthodoxy, well documented in the
new book Leviathan on the Right."
-Bruce Bartlett, Nationally Syndicated Columnist
"In his new book, Tanner details the degree to which the
Republicans in charge of Congress from 1995 through 2006 were drawn
into the vortex of political plunder and abuse. What Tanner tries
to explain is why the American political party that claimed to
defend individual freedom and limited government over the last 70
years has seemingly turned its back on those ideas."
-Richard M. Ebeling, The Freeman
Read the full review.
"A compelling critique of the growth of government under Republican
leadership. Like many of the other recent titles, Tanner's book
begins with a taxonomy of what he calls "big-government
conservatism"-but his is the most thorough. Tanner's approach is
analytical, not pejorative, and even though he pointedly disagrees
with big-government conservatism, he does not resort to caricature.
His nuanced explanation of neoconservatism is especially worth the
attention of that movement's critics on both right and left. He
manages to combine serious scholarship with readability. His
prescriptions-a return to federalism, spending cuts, entitlement
reform, pay-as-you-go, and term limits-are sound policies."
-Evan Sparks, American.com
Read the full review.
"Tanner has produced a devastating, damning work. It would be one
thing for true conservatives to accept a compromise in which the
GOP pushed to cut domestic government power while pushing an
activist foreign agenda. But Republicans today are busy expanding
government everywhere, all the time. Tanner systematically reviews
the flawed results of big-government conservatism. First, as
conservatives tasted power, they proved Lord Acton correct, notes
Tanner, referring to Acton's famous aphorism that 'power tends to
corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
-Doug Bandow, Antiwar.com
Read the full review.
"Leviathan on the Right is a powerful argument that not
only explains how today's brand of 'conservativism' is
fundamentally different from that advocated by Barry Goldwater and
Ronald Reagan but also shows the dismal consequences once
opportunistic Republican politicians and notionally right-of-center
pundits embraced big government intrusiveness and social
engineering. Tanner focuses brilliantly on domestic matters. Yet a
darker context is implicit: the hubris among neo-con crusaders,
technophile dirigistes, and other fine-tuners of human affairs in
the Bush administration is also what has led us straight into the
fiasco of Iraq."
-CC Goldwater, Executive Producer, Mr. Conservative: Goldwater
on Goldwater
"Leviathan on the Right is a rational and in-depth look at
the evolution of the Republican Party and government expansion.
This is a must-read for anyone who truly believes that less
government is better government."
-Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN)
"In Leviathan on the Right, Michael Tanner methodically
strips away the empty rhetoric employed by the current generation
of Republican leaders in Washington and lays bare the dirty little
secret of the vast majority of Republicans in positions of power:
they are not conservative at all, but rather distorted mirror
images of those they loudly criticize-liberals."
-Former Congressman Bob Barr (R-GA)
"Tanner names and details the gradual abandonment of the commitment
to limited government, federalism, and individual freedom that has
led us to the mess in which we find ourselves today."
-David Keene, Chairman, American Conservative Union
"In addition to documenting the Republican legislative embrace of
an ever-expanding federal government, Tanner provides a cogent and
persuasive analysis of the intellectual currents on the
center-right that have swept big-government conservatism into the
mainstream of Republican thinking. This book is a must-read for
anyone seeking to understand the Republican Congress's abandonment
of the limited government/personal freedom principles that won them
their majorities in 1994."
-Former Congressman Pat Toomey (R-PA), President, Club for
Growth
