22 March, 2006

Republican Disenchantment

Kevin Phillips used to be a Republican but now identifies himself as an independent. His latest book is American Theocracy and the Gray Lady has a review. In it, the former Nixon strategist decries the Republican party that emerged out of the late 1980s. He focuses on three issues:

One is the role of oil in defining and, as Phillips sees it, distorting American foreign and domestic policy. The second is the ominous intrusion of radical Christianity into politics and government. And the third is the astonishing levels of debt — current and prospective — that both the government and the American people have been heedlessly accumulating.

Check out the review for more and then listen to Phillips explain himself over at Democracy Now.

Phillips readily admits that there is little in his book that is new & original. Instead he has compiled a littany of pre-existing complaints to explain why he didn't leave the Republican party, but that it left him. Thusly, the most interesting part of his interview on DN!, for me, was when he described the views of fellow conservatives at Republican social gatherings. He recounts how many Repubs expressed dismay over the current administration and the state of their party. When the program was over, I felt more hopeful that the Republican candidate in '08 might be someone who doesn't view the world in strictly black & white terms and someone who will not feel beholden to zealots determined to rid science classes of science. Perhaps this could inspire the Dems to field a candidate who won't spend an entire campaign trying to wrap him or herself in the flag and saying, "Look! I'm religious too!"

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