tikistitch

Authoritarian governments are identified by ready government access to information about the activity of citizens and by extensive limitations on the ability of citizens to obtain information about the government.

--Prof. Robert G. Vaughn, summarizing the work of Alan Westin, and as quoted by John Dean in his book, Conservatives without Conscience.

OK, we actually bought a book by John Dean. We know, he was the Watergate Guy Who Squealed, but still, Richard Nixon, EWWWWWW! Anyways, Olbermann ordered us to read it. And we wuvs Keef. ♥♥♥

Annnnnd, we gotta admit, it's pretty fascinating. Tiki was raised in a New Deal Orthodox household, so we had no clue at all about any of the philosophical underpinnings of the modern Conservative movement. (Conservatives, to us, were that crewcut guy at dad's work who was always raving about flouridation.) So, Dean spends the first couple of chapters getting everybody up to speed. He has a disarming honestly, freely admitting all the contradictions and petty rivalries and intellectual disconnects that cobble together conservative ideology. He also confirms a long-held prejudice, that a lot of supposed conservative philosophies are completely reactionary in content. (Where would Ann Coulter be without "liberals" to screech at?)

Also, Dean is a total research geek! He's got bazillions of footnotes leading to various other interesting-sounding books and web sites (ack, just what we don't need, more readin'), and even refs to original literature--like, in refereed journals 'n stuff! It's been a while since we delved into the pure psych literature (other than, professionally, to figure out why medical doctors act the way they do). Dean references papers on a new-ish theory called "motivated social cognition" that's making us all swoony about original research. Whoa, a reality-based conservative! We've just had a prejudice smashed. Ah, well.

On the down side, he idealizes Barry Goldwater to a really excessive amount. Hey, Goldwater was great as a cranky, opinionated old guy, but didn't he also spend a lot of his early years hanging out with scary Mafia dudes in Vegas?