The book acknowledges but dismisses Republican shortcomings. Barry Goldwater is portrayed as an embarrassing exception to the majority of Republicans. Watergate and Iran-Contra are mentioned, but the implication is that they were not as bad as other Democratic scandals. In the latter point, he may be right and others have said the same thing, but he does not provide enough of an argument to assess the point.
The phrasing of the title, Back to Basics for the Republican Party, is instructive. Democrats will be offended by this book, not because of its lauding of Republicans, but because it trashes the Democrats in most partisan fashion. A mere few pages in, Zak claims:
The slave system, the very opposite of the free-market society our Republican Party advocated, required a vast regulatory and enforcement infrastructure to keep people enchained for the benefit of others, just as the socialist policies of the Democratic Party do today. Trapped in the role once filled by slaves before the war and then afterward by poor blacks during the Jim Crow era, an underclass today maintains the political and economic power of the Democratic Party elite and those in their employ, if indirectly, in the government bureaucracy.
Despite the demagoguery, Back to the Basics is filled with good historical information. The bibliography spans ten pages. For those genuinely interested in Republican history, this is a must-have book.
Article comments
1 - DrPat
in a state that does not make it easy to be Republican.
Lemme guess - California?