Rule and Ruin

The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, from Eisenhower to the Tea Party

By: Geoffrey Kabaservice

Narrated by: Michael Bulter Murray

The chaotic events leading up to Mitt Romney's defeat in the 2012 election indicated how far the Republican Party had rocketed rightward away from the center of public opinion. Republicans in Congress threatened to shut down the government and force a U.S. debt default. Tea Party activists mounted primary challenges against Republican officeholders who appeared to exhibit too much pragmatism or independence. Moderation and compromise were dirty words in the Republican presidential debates. The GOP, it seemed, had suddenly become a party of ideological purity.

Except this development is not new at all. In Rule and Ruin, Geoffrey Kabaservice reveals that the moderate Republicans' downfall began not with the rise of the Tea Party but about the time of President Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address. Even in the 1960s, when left-wing radicalism and right-wing backlash commanded headlines, Republican moderates and progressives formed a powerful movement, supporting pro-civil rights politicians like Nelson Rockefeller and William Scranton, battling big-government liberals and conservative extremists alike. But the Republican civil war ended with the overthrow of the moderate ideas, heroes, and causes that had comprised the core of the GOP since its formation. In hindsight, it is today's conservatives who are "Republicans in Name Only".

Writing with passionate sympathy for a bygone tradition of moderation, Kabaservice recaptures a time when fiscal restraint was matched with social engagement; when a cohort of leading Republicans opposed the Vietnam war; when George Romney - father of Mitt Romney - conducted a nationwide tour of American poverty, from Appalachia to Watts, calling on society to "listen to the voices from the ghetto". Rule and Ruin is an epic, deeply researched history that reorients our understanding of our political past and present.

Today, following the Republicans' loss of the popular vote in five of the last six presidential contests, moderates remain marginalized in the GOP and progressives are all but nonexistent. In this insightful and elegantly argued book, Kabaservice contends that their decline has left Republicans less capable of governing responsibly, with dire consequences for all Americans. He has added a new afterword that considers the fallout from the 2012 elections.

©2012 Geoffrey Kabaservice (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Excellent and important history and insightful discussion

This is a fairly thorough discussion of the history, causes, and consequences of the right-wing seizure of the Republican Party from Eisenhower to the present.

Narration is excellent except for a few mispronunciations.

Highly recommended.

Interesting, but could be half as long

Interesting history and very thorough. Honestly it could be about half as long and It’d be more engaging.

Kabaservice doesn't make the case

This is a superb chronological exposition of the history of the GOP from the time of Eisenhower - but his failure to counterbalance the narrative by discussing the Democrat's lurch to the left of the political spectrum diminishes a well told albeit history of politics over the last 60 years. Blaming the GOP for the dysfunction in DC is totally disingenuous. Both party's lurch away from the center are equally culpable. However, since the conservatives want less government they will probably be more content with the idea that nothing gets done anymore.

excellent explanation of the crazy train clown car

Thorough review of how centrism in the GOP failed this country and lead to crazy town in the GOP. I hope he does an update of how they went off the rails since 2012 to 2021 and straight into alternative reality land.

Rule and Ruin

I note that this was published in 2014. I shall be looking this author up to see what he has to say about 2026- 2021. What he proposes has indeed come to pass. I have only voted Republican once in my voting life. I shall NEVER make that error again.