Books, Arts & Manners

Thunder on the Right: The “New Right” and the Politics of Resentment By Alan Crawford Pantheon, 381 pp., $13.95 In a meeting of New Right tacticians several years ago, Paul Weyrich, an irresistible force within the group, announced: “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not for Reagan. If he gets in, we’re out. We’d have no input in that Administration.” Weyrich is a savvy, unsentimental Washington operator and, as is frequently the case, he was on the money. Reagan went on to take the GOP nomination with a coalition of Californians, Old Rightists, and grassroots conservatives. The New Right was virtually shut out of his campaign, handed a punishing defeat in the selection of George Bush as vice presidential running-mate, and put on notice that the line of GOP succession runs not necessarily to Jesse Helms but quite possibly to the bête noire of the New Right, Congressman Jack Kemp.

These developments, reported recently under Detroit datelines; tend to sap the energy from Alan Crawford’s bustling study of the New Right, Thunder on the Right. Crawford’s purpose, he states at the outset, is to “speak frankly on the New Right and its damaging effect on the conservative cause.” It is the “responsibility” of conservatives, he believes, to “disavow and dissociate themselves from the radicals, reactionaries, and hucksters who work their side of the street.” In a heavily researched book that combines some sound analysis with titillating gossip, more than a few factual errors, and an undifferentiated ideological anxiety, Crawford succeeds only partially.

About the Author

Neal B. Freeman

Neal B. Freeman, businessman and journalist, was a director of National Review Inc. for 38 years.

Featured Tags

William F. Buckley Jr.

George H. W. Bush

Tom Wolfe

Thunder on the Right: The “New Right” and the Politics of Resentment By Alan Crawford Pantheon, 381 pp., $13.95 In a meeting of New Right tacticians several years ago, Paul Weyrich, an irresistible force within the group, announced: “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not for Reagan. If he gets in, we’re out. We’d have no input in that Administration.” Weyrich is a savvy, unsentimental Washington operator and, as is frequently the case, he was on the money. Reagan went on to take the GOP nomination with a coalition of Californians, Old Rightists, and grassroots conservatives. The New Right was virtually shut out of his campaign, handed a punishing defeat in the selection of George Bush as vice presidential running-mate, and put on notice that the line of GOP succession runs not necessarily to Jesse Helms but quite possibly to the bête noire of the New Right, Congressman Jack Kemp.

These developments, reported recently under Detroit datelines; tend to sap the energy from Alan Crawford’s bustling study of the New Right, Thunder on the Right. Crawford’s purpose, he states at the outset, is to “speak frankly on the New Right and its damaging effect on the conservative cause.” It is the “responsibility” of conservatives, he believes, to “disavow and dissociate themselves from the radicals, reactionaries, and hucksters who work their side of the street.” In a heavily researched book that combines some sound analysis with titillating gossip, more than a few factual errors, and an undifferentiated ideological anxiety, Crawford succeeds only partially.