Mr. Book just finished The Corrosion Of Conservatism: Why I Left The Right, by Max Boot.

Boot is another one of those who says the problem with conservatism is Donald Trump. He wrote, early in the prologue, “There was no possibility, I figured, that the party of Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan would endorse Trump for president. Was there?”

Sure, Trump for president was a preposterous thought at the time, but if it had any chance, of course, it would be that party. What is so far fetched about the party of Barry Goldwater’s extremism, of Richard Nixon and others’ racist southern strategy, of Nixon’s criminality, of Reagan’s voodoo economics that was designed just to help the rich, of the Reagan administration corruption and of the autocracy of Bush 43/Cheney would be the one to find someone who could combine all of that into one person? And why it is so far fetched that the party that twice gave us a movie actor as governor of the most populated state, and then gave him to us for the presidency, would be the one to give a TV “star” for president?

The author makes it very clear early that he is a Reagan lover.

The author shows his hypocrisy when he wrote, “as a Russian Jewish immigrant in America and a conservative Republican at Berkeley, I had had plenty of experience being a minority.” So, he is no problem supporting a political movement that has a long established pattern of opposing minority rights. But, where he really shows his hypocrisy was “My exposure to the Christian Science faith deepened my appreciation for the diversity of America and made me realize I could like people very different from myself even if there were far more of ‘them’ than there were of people like me.” It’s the classic mindset of a political bigot who thinks that, as long as he personally likes members of minority groups, it’s OK to support the party with the long history of suppressing their rights. It’s just another version of the old saying “some of my best friends are black.”

When commenting about Weekly Standard’s editorials during the Clinton administration, the author claimed “These editorials could be seen as contributing to the growing tendency in American public life not just to disagree with one’s political opponents but also to try to annihilate them—a trend that ultimately culminated in the election of Donald Trump, a Republican who vituperates Democrats as traitors and charges that ‘they certainly don’t seem to love our country very much.’” If he thinks this just started on the right during Whitewater, he obviously hasn’t heard of this man named Richard Milhouse Nixon, who brought us the enemies list and whose dirty tricks sabotage of the Democratic party ultimately led to this break-in at a hotel.

Eventually, we get to the part about the book where the author turns on Trump. We already know that is still a big conservative who supports their agenda. With the exception of saying the quiet part out loud about the parties’ hatred of democracy, there was nothing unique about Trump’s agenda that we haven’t seen from the party in the past 60 years. We already know that he finds nothing wrong with racist policies (which are acceptable to him since he’s not personally racist against any individuals) or he be attacking Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan and the Bushs. We know that he has nothing against voodoo economics or would have turned on Reagan and the Bushs. We know that he has nothing against corruption, or he would have turned on Nixon, Reagan and Bushs. We know that has nothing about autocracy or he would have turned on Bush 43/Cheney. We know he has nothing about conservatism in general or he would have turned on the Republican members of Congress, the Supreme Court and all of their allies in the states.

What are left with is Boot is nothing more than every other member of the “never Trump” tribe. They really love his policies, since he’s just a continuation of them. They just don’t want him to face the face of the party.

It is laughable when Boot attempts to claim that Trump was a rejection of conservative views, when in fact it the natural continuation of what we’ve been seeing from them over the past 60 years.

Nothing in Boot’s criticism of Trump was anything new. Nothing that hasn’t been said better than he did, by more reliable sources than him.

Finally, towards the end of the book, he claims to have had an epiphany and suddenly realized the Republicans and conservatives have been wrong the whole time dating back 60 years. I don’t buy it. Anyone who could be so stupid that he didn’t see the problems over the past 60 years, before he finally did, could just as easily regain his stupidity once Trump eventually disappears from the scene. And, if he was honest in his change of opinions, he wouldn’t have spent so much space claiming that Trump was a deviation from conservatism of the past vs. so little space saying now he was wrong about the past.

In a brief section on what he now believes, the author attempts to back away from some conservative positions. I don’t really buy it. When someone is big supporter of a political movement that has used lying (or using George H.W. Bush’s euphemism, “engage in disinformation”), they’ve given me all the reasons I need to not trust them.

A lot was resting on the outcome of reading this book. I was considering putting in a NetGalley request to review Boot’s upcoming biography of Reagan. But, first I needed to know whether he was just a former conservative who now sees the evil of “St. Ronald” or whether he still worships at the alter of Ronald. I’m convinced that it’s the latter, that book won’t be nothing more than hagiography.

I give this book an F. Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an F equates to 1 star. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, and Goodreads.

Mr. Book originally finished reading this on June 20, 2024.