The Long Goodbye

CONSERVATIVES are famous nostalgics. Apparently we also inspire nostalgia in others: To hear some people tell it, the conservatives of yesteryear were vastly superior to today’s. Some of the people lamenting our sad decline are liberals, while some profess to be conservatives themselves. But the storyline is generally the same. The conservatives of old had a prudent concern about overweening government and a fierce attachment to individual liberty. But conservatism has now, according to the critics, degenerated into the worship of power, an authoritarian cult of personality surrounding George W. Bush, and an impulse toward theocracy.

John Dean, President Nixon’s counsel, has made a book-length version of this argument. He recently wrote: “For more than 40 years I have considered myself a ‘Goldwater conservative,’ and am thoroughly familiar with the movement’s canon. But I can find nothing conservative about the Bush/Cheney White House, which has created a Nixon ‘imperial presidency’on steroids, while acting as if being tutored by the best and brightest of the Cosa Nostra.”

About the Author

Jonah Goldberg

Jonah Goldberg is a National Review contributing editor.

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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CONSERVATIVES are famous nostalgics. Apparently we also inspire nostalgia in others: To hear some people tell it, the conservatives of yesteryear were vastly superior to today’s. Some of the people lamenting our sad decline are liberals, while some profess to be conservatives themselves. But the storyline is generally the same. The conservatives of old had a prudent concern about overweening government and a fierce attachment to individual liberty. But conservatism has now, according to the critics, degenerated into the worship of power, an authoritarian cult of personality surrounding George W. Bush, and an impulse toward theocracy.

John Dean, President Nixon’s counsel, has made a book-length version of this argument. He recently wrote: “For more than 40 years I have considered myself a ‘Goldwater conservative,’ and am thoroughly familiar with the movement’s canon. But I can find nothing conservative about the Bush/Cheney White House, which has created a Nixon ‘imperial presidency’on steroids, while acting as if being tutored by the best and brightest of the Cosa Nostra.”