Principles and Heresies

“Slippage” and the Theory of the Lesser Evil

“Better to win with Eisenhower than lose with Taft”—this slogan of 1952 tore the American Right in two, sounding the death knell of the Republican Party as a conservative force and giving the New Deal revolution an eight-year period to consolidate itself and prepare for the next leap forward towards socialism. A tragically concrete expression of the “lesser evil” theory of politics, it brings into sharp focus the malady that has for many years devitalized American conservatism and inhibited the growth of an effective political opposition to the Liberalocracy that year by year moves us further down the road to totalitarianism.

FS

About the Author

Frank S. Meyer

Frank S. Meyer was a senior editor of National Review.

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“Slippage” and the Theory of the Lesser Evil

“Better to win with Eisenhower than lose with Taft”—this slogan of 1952 tore the American Right in two, sounding the death knell of the Republican Party as a conservative force and giving the New Deal revolution an eight-year period to consolidate itself and prepare for the next leap forward towards socialism. A tragically concrete expression of the “lesser evil” theory of politics, it brings into sharp focus the malady that has for many years devitalized American conservatism and inhibited the growth of an effective political opposition to the Liberalocracy that year by year moves us further down the road to totalitarianism.