How the Right Lost Its Mind

by Charles J. Sykes

Overview

"Bracing and immediate." - The Washington Post

Once at the center of the American conservative movement, bestselling author and radio host Charles J. Sykes is a fierce opponent of Donald Trump and the right-wing media that enabled his rise.

In How the Right Lost Its Mind, Sykes presents an impassioned, regretful, and deeply thoughtful account of how the American conservative movement came to lose its values. How did a movement that was defined by its belief in limited government, individual liberty, free markets, traditional values, and civility find itself embracing bigotry, political intransigence, demagoguery, and outright falsehood? How the Right Lost Its Mind addresses:
*Why are so many voters so credulous and immune to factual information reported by responsible media?
*Why do conservatives decide to overlook, even embrace, so many of Trump’s outrages, gaffes, conspiracy theories, falsehoods, and smears?
*Can conservatives govern? Or are they content merely to rage?
*How can the right recover its traditional values and persuade a new generation of their worth?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250199539
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/02/2018
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	64,757
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Charles J. Sykes is the author of several books on current affairs and education, including Fail U., A Nation of Victims, and Profscam. He has written pieces for the Wall Street Journal and Time.com among others, and in 2016 was featured for his critiques of Donald Trump and conservative media in articles on the front page of The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, and NPR. A longtime host of the #1 conservative talk-radio show in Wisconsin, he resigned that position and is now a regular contributor to MSNBC.

Table of Contents

I. HOW THE RIGHT LOST ITS MIND
1. Did We Create this Monster?
2. Confessions of a Recovering Liberal
3. The Attack on the Conservative Mind
4. The Conservative Idea
5. Storm Warnings
6. The Perpetual Outrage Machine

II. THE POST-TRUTH POLITICS OF THE RIGHT
7. The Alt Reality Media
8. The Post-Truth Politics of the Right
9. Drudge and the Politics of Paranoia

III. THE TRUMPIAN TAKEOVER
10. The Fox News Primary
11. Limbaugh’s Flop
12. The Bigots Among Us
13. The Rise of the Alt Right
14. The Binary Choice
15. What Happened to the Christians?

IV. RESTORING THE CONSERVATIVE MIND
16. Trolls and Flying Monkeys: The Right’s New Culture of Intimidation
17. The Contrarian Conservative

Editorial Reviews

When gale-force winds blew through politics in 2016, leaving moral and institutional wreckage in their wake, many conservatives went into a crouch. Charlie Sykes stood out by standing up. With this scorching book, he reports on the road to ruin and points conservatism toward recovery.” –George F. Will

"Stark, honest, unflinching....Highly recommended." - Library Journal (starred review)

"A courageous book." - Kirkus

"Bracing and immediate." - The Washington Post

"An important work. Any serious-minded citizen, no matter of what political persuasion, will benefit from reading it and carefully contemplating the powerful message." - The Washington Times

"Through well thought-out, researched historical analysis, Sykes supports his thesis in engaging fashion for those who search for answers." - Under the Radar

"A dissection of conservatism’s 2016 collapse but also a canny historical analysis." - Commentary

"Sykes...diagnoses problems in the conservative movement that the Right is still very much grappling with. While some of Donald Trump’s Republican political critics now sound no different from the Democrats or even the Resistance (but I repeat myself), Sykes is instead a leader of the loyal opposition." - The Federalist

From the Publisher

★ 10/01/2017
What happened to the Republican Party? That's the knotty question Sykes (A Nation of Victims) cuts into in this, despite its inflammatory title, stark, honest, and unflinching look at the steps that moved the right to the fractious party it is today, argued from a voice within the camp. Sykes is not rejecting conservatism but providing a contrarian voice to the state of affairs as embodied by the support for and election of President Donald Trump through ideological bubbles and a vocal conservative media. Was the act emblematic of the modern conservative's ideals, or a fluke, out of line with the principles of Republicanism? Where does the "alt-right" end and conservatism begin? And, more seriously pressing than the identity crisis of a political party, what kind of world is being shaped by the politics of this evolution and blurred lines? Sykes concludes with advice to conservatives for how to recover their values and suggestions for how to exorcize the party from its problems. Exceedingly readable, Syke's voice comes across as clearly as if over the airwaves. VERDICT Highly recommended. Sykes provides a valuable contribution to the arguments happening in the GOP about the party's future and priorities.—Laurel Tacoma, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA

Library Journal

2017-07-17
A "contrarian conservative" tries to come to grips with what his side of the political aisle has become, and he loathes much of what he sees.Sykes (Fail U.: The False Promise of Higher Education, 2016, etc.) is a "Never Trump" conservative who has maintained that position after Trump's presidential rise revealed many in that cohort to be opportunists. The author is an earnest conservative who is truly heartbroken and angry about how conservatism has degraded in recent years, and he lays out in clear and honest prose the many problems with a conservative movement that has been taken over by angry white nationalists. "Sometime in the last decade," writes Sykes, "conservative commentator Matt Drudge began linking to a website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. By doing so, he broke down the wall that separated the full-blown cranks from the mainstream conservative media, injecting a toxic worldview into the Right's bloodstream. The conservative movement never recovered." The author also asks whether or not he was partially responsible, through his conservative talk radio show, myriad media appearances, and prolific writings, for the current situation. Except perhaps on this last question of his own culpability and that of pundits like him, the author has written a largely convincing, compelling book. He tends to romanticize a golden age of conservatism, that of William Buckley and Ronald Reagan, both of whom on more than one occasion revealed elements of white nationalist thought. Buckley delivered plenty of screeds against the civil rights movement in his National Review, and Reagan, who opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, had his fair share of racism-tinged gaffes, including his statements about "strapping young bucks" buying T-bone steaks and "Welfare Queens" as well as how "humiliating" the Voting Rights Act was to the South. Still, the author's points about our current state are solid. A courageous book destined to make Sykes a target among many of the worst elements that he eviscerates, which will, sadly, just confirm the strength of his thesis.

Kirkus Reviews