Conservatives Without Conscience

By: John W. Dean

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

On the heels of his national bestseller Worse Than Watergate, John Dean takes a critical look at the current conservative movement

In Conservatives Without Conscience, John Dean places the conservative movement's inner circle of leaders in the Republican Party under scrutiny. Dean finds their policies and mind- set to be fundamentally authoritarian, and as such, a danger to democracy. By examining the legacies of such old-line conservatives as J. Edgar Hoover, Spiro Agnew, and Phyllis Schlafly and of such current figures as Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, and leaders of the Religious Right, Dean presents an alarming record of abuses of power. His trenchant analysis of how conservatism has lost its bearings serves as a chilling warning and a stirring inspiration to safeguard constitutional principles.©2006 John W. Dean; (P)2006 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A penetrating and highly disturbing portrait of many of the major players in Republican politics and power ... riveting."
-Booklist, starred review

"A fierce indictment of Republican politicians ... the sheer outrage in Dean's book has power of its own."
-Chicago Tribune

Not Dean's Strongest Book

John Dean's biggest strength as a writer is to share history, in particular events that he personally saw and experienced. He has done that quite well in some of his other works. This book veers into social and political commentary that, while interesting, could have been written by almost any professional writer. He quotes and recounts so much of other people's work in the areas of psychology and sociology that it is, at times, hard to distinguish his own unique thinking from that of whom he quotes.

Overall I did find the material interesting, but not balanced in any way. There were few weighty comparisons to people on the opposite side of the political spectrum. I was disappointed by that fact. I wanted to better understand why people on the left think the way they do as much as those on the right. That probably was not the mission of this book but I wished it had been.

Pertinent reading in July 2017

Valuable observatioms, written about 10 years ago, and almost more important reading now than it was then.

Respectable Conservative Perspective

Despite his past issues, John Dean is what a respectable Conservative is. Country over party.

Bad boys

John Dean's very fine book on the authoritarian conservative tradition is, despite its title, an excellent primer on contemporary American politics in general. Other writers, whose books are available from Audible, have noted that, at one time or another, both Democrats and Republicans have been the bad boys of Congress. LBJ stole, among other things, the 1948 Texas Senate election from Coke Stevenson (LBJ: Master of the Senate by Robert Caro). JFK was a randy, immoral, secretive executive willing to use the Mafia to topple Fidel Castro (Robert Kennedy: His Life by Evan Thomas). Nixon used the CIA to oust Salvador Allende from his elected presidency of Chile (Nixon and Kissinger by Robert Dallek) . It goes on and on. Amoral authoritarian behavior is not just Republican. It's the core of a life of political power.

Highly Perceptive

What made the experience of listening to Conservatives Without Conscience the most enjoyable?

The narration is excellent.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

Dean has an intelligent and perceptive understanding of the motivations and subsequent actions of a group of Americans who stop at nothing to get what they want.