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The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians and the Battle to Control the Republican Party
by Ryan Sager
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Wiley (2006-08-25)
ISBN: 0471793329
EAN: 9780471793328
Dewy Decimal #: 324.2734
Hardcover: 256 pages
SKU: 08100317
Condition: Very Good Very Good
Comments: First Edition, First Printing. Hardback in very good condition with no markings. Dust jacket in very good condition with minor shelf wear. Tight binding and clear crisp text. Very nice book.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Praise for The Elephant in the Room
"This funny, sobering, smart book reminds Republicans that having beliefs isn't good enough. You have to act on them. Winning isn't enough; you have to win with a purpose in mind. Ryan Sager sounds a real call to arms. The party would be wise to hear it."
--Peggy Noonan, columnist, The Wall Street Journal
"An insightful and eminently readable account of the current conservative crackup. Anyone who wants to understand American politics today needs to read Sager's chronicle of the ongoing civil war in the conservative ranks."
--Paul Begala, coauthor of Take It Back
"Two feisty American factions are at daggers drawn. No, the fight is not conservatives versus liberals. Rather, it is libertarian conservatives versus 'social issues' conservatives. In this illuminating examination of the changing ideological geography of American politics, Ryan Sager suggests that the conservatives must choose between Southern and Western flavors of conservatism. He prefers the latter."
--George F. Will, syndicated columnist
"Sager picks up where Bruce Bartlett left off with Impostor. The Elephant in the Room tells us how libertarians and the Christian conservatives are at swords' point over Bush's 'big government conservatism.' Anyone who wants to understand this important debate should get a copy of Sager's book."
--John B. Judis, coauthor of The Emerging Democratic Majority
"Ryan Sager offers an eloquent, elegant argument that the GOP has lost its way--an argument that even those of us who disagree with many of his criticisms and object passionately to many of his characterizations must take with the utmost seriousness."
--John Podhoretz, author of Can She Be Stopped?
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Customer Reviews
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Refusing to Take his Share of the Blame
Rating  (1)
Date: 2007-12-29
2 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
I once thought of myself as a libertarian, until I actually starting trying to interact with them. This may sound harsh, but the only word I can use to describe the libertarian philosophy is, well, shallow and materialistic. Ryan Sager pretty much proves my point in this book. I agree with his general sentiment that we should avoid religious extremism within the party, but Sager takes it one step beyond that. He basically thinks that Republicans ought to be totally indifferent to ANY kind of questions about culture and religion.
This is why I can't quite embrace the libertarian ideology- they seem to have little concern with anything other than money and self- gratification.
One way this was brought home to me was with case of a senator in my home state of Louisiana: David Vitter. When it came to light that he'd been having affairs with prostitutes, I made the mistake of saying some less than flattering things about him in front of a self- described "libertarian Republican."
This person had a different reaction to Vitter's escapades. That is, anyone who expressed any kind of concern, AT ALL about Vitter paying for sex was a Religious nut job and was destroying the Republican party.
This person told me that he literally didn't give a damn about who Vitter slept with, as long as he "kept his hands off my money."
This person hadn't bothered to think through the implications of what Vitter's actions meant for him and his fiscal priorities. It didn't cross their mind that a guy who lied to his wife and paid for sex (which is illegal) may be less than trust worthy.
My concern was that if he is willing to lie and break promises to his wife, (and values voters), then he can just as easily do the same thing to fiscal conservatives.
This isn't the argument of a religious nut- it's the argument of a person who thinks about more than his immediate, short- term self- interest. It's the kind of thinking that Ryan Sager and many other libertarians seem incapable of.
I don't consider myself a part of the "religious right" or even a "social conservative." But I often find myself defending them when people like Sager insist that they shoulder ALL of the blame for GOP'S losses.
They deserve some of the blame to be sure for things like the ridiculous Terry Schiavo debacle.
But Libertarian ideas have done more than their share of alienating the middle class.
Sager manages to miss another "elephant in the room" called "free-trade." Libertarians aggressively promote the kind of trade deals that handed Michigan, Pennsyvlvania and Ohio to the Democrats.
Millions of manufacturing Jobs have been lost to off shoring in those states, made possible by libertarian-inspired trade deals.
Open borders with Mexico is another staple of Libertarianism- and hugely unpopuplar with middle America and another reason we lost in '06.
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Superb!
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-12-14
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Before coming across this book, I had never heard of Ryan Sager. What a pleasant surprise when I began reading! I will definitely keep my eyes out for anything else published by him.
Mr. Sager has written -- excellently, by the way, and often with laugh-out-loud humor -- all the things that I'd been thinking (and often getting frustrated & angry about) politically for the last 6+ years. It was like reading my own nebulous thoughts and feelings on the hijacking of conservatism by big-government Evangelicals, only done in a much more articulate and well-researched way than my own ramblings could ever have managed.
His primary thesis is that the alliance between 'social conservatives' (those concerned primarily with 'values' issues rather than individual rights or small gov't, and who are often Southern & evangelical) with 'libertarian' or 'fiscal conservatives' (those focused more on small gov't and individual rights, more likely to be from the interior West), is in danger, primarily as a result of the Bush Administration and the 2000-06 Congresses, combined with historical changes. According to Sager, this alliance, first begun in the 1950s, first brought to national prominence in the Goldwater campaign ('64), and brought to electoral victory by Reagan in the '80s and Gingrich in the mid-90s, was a marriage of convenience. The two strands of 'conservatism,' which in fact seem contradictory when you think about it, allied first against communism (and the aftertaste of the New Deal), and then, in the '90s, against the Clinton administration. Now, however, without a foe both strands recognize (libertarian conservatives tend to be less hysterical about the Islamic threat than social conservatives), the marriage is on the rocks.
As a former registered Republican, turned off from the Party by the Bush Administration's and the Hastert/Lott/Frist Congresses' big spending (they made Clinton look like a fiscal conservative!), religious pandering, government enlargement(NCLB, Prescription Drug entitlements, anyone???) and Wilsonian interventionism (make the world safe for democracy!), I have now been a proudly registered Libertarian for several years.
It is here that I differ with Mr. Sager (and agree with several other reviews of this book) because I don't share the author's optimism that the alliance between libertarian and social conservatives can (or, even moreso, should) be fixed. Instead, I think the Republican party may well be on its last legs if it continues to pander to Southern Evangelicals at the expense of the rest of the party. Many people like myself don't like the fact that the two options in major parties today are a big government party that takes the Bible literally (GOP) and a big government party that doesn't (Dems). If these trends continue, I think we can expect more Democratic electoral victories. Whether the Libertarian Party or some other option will take the place of the GOP if it does indeed disintegrate(like the Whigs in the 1850s) remains to be seen......
Still, this book is excellent, very well-written, and I think vital to anyone who wants to understand what's going on in the Republican party & conservative movement today. I couldn't put it down and read it very quickly. This is the best book on current politics I've read in a while.
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What about the Corporate CEOS?
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-12-07
2 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
Everything is accurate in the book and the commentaries on it except the fact that both the book and everybody here is overlooking >> there is a third and extremely powerful faction in the Republican Party that straddles both Libertarian and Big Government factions. And they are the faction in power. That is the Corporate CEO big money bigwigs who get far more of their agenda enacted than either the social conservatives or the libertarians. And they do it by having it both ways. Huge tax cuts aimed at them? Why that's 'libertarian', isn't it? Big subsidies such as the medicare drug plan, which shuts out any 'free market' competition while at the same time granting new entitlements forever? Why that's 'compassionate (social) conservatism'! Gigantic No-bid contracts for Halliburton, Bechtel, etc? That's Republicans 'Strong on defense'! No regulation for pollutors? No increase in mileage standards to free us from oil dependence on our enemies? Libertarian! Both libertarian and social conservatives are played for suckers by these guys, and they are the ones (literally) running the White House and controlling the actual Republican agenda.
The deep contradictions in the Republican 'coalition' have been there all along. It's corporate 'big government socialism for the corporations and the rich, capitalism for the poor and middle class' Privatize social security to pump billions of taxpayer money to Wall Street con artists? Libertarian AND big government compassionate conservatism at the same time! Huge tax breaks for the world record breakingly profitable oil companies >> NONE of which is passed on to the consumer (about as likely to reduce oil dependence on our enemies as tax breaks for alcohol production would end alcoholism) ? Strong on defense! That's been the real 'social engineering' that's been going on in the last 10 years. A giant Amazon river of public money for these guys, and a $500 tax 'break for the rest of us". A piece of red meat thrown to one side or another has kept this unholy alliance alive as improbably long as it has. The dustbin of history is sweeping the whole mess away, since the American people more and more realize whose agenda is REALLY being brought to life by the monied elite that actually runs the party.
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Illuminating
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-10-10
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Wow, it's so clear to me now! An unpopular war wasn't the half of how the Republican leadership self-destructed.
This book presents a stunningly eloquent exposition of the current state of the Republican Party, from the perspective of 'before the fall'. Essential information for voters on the motivating ideas of US federal leadership. This book will make the Republican half of the story strikingly clear.
The writing is entertaining and an 'easy read' while covering what could be a dry subject. The book is of modest length but impressive depth. It reads like a conversation with a master of the subject conveying a rich scope in a terse 250 pages.
I can understand Kristen's review below but it hardly seems fair to criticize a book for doing what it promises, explaining the battle for control, so well that the reader wishes there was an easy answer. Sager could have given us one, as we are so accustomed to hearing from political candidates. I'm glad he did not. It would have encouraged readers to consider the `problem solved' and slip back into our daily complacency. Having seen and understood the Republican dilemma I feel motivated to address it and armed with the clarity to push through pat answers for real actions.
Now where's the book that will explain the Democrat malaise, including why their leadership seems to hate the central values of the American Experiment?
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Excellent analysis that totally misses the point.
Rating  (2)
Date: 2007-08-12
6 out of 9 customers found this reveiw helpful
Ryan Sager quite clearly and carefully tracks the history of the conservative coalition and how its promise, for the most part, has been either thwarted or outright betrayed. Unfortunately, his vague and sometimes shifting references to the titular "elephant in the room"- the fact that conservatives only hold power through the alliance of social conservatives and civil libertarians- miss the point his analysis actually makes. His attempt to argue that the alliance should be reformed only shows that, for libertarians at least, it would have been better if the alliance had never been made at all. Indeed, throughout the history of the alliance the libertarians come off as second-class stooges to the big-government social conservatives, receiving little more than table scraps under Reagan and nothing at all at any other point in the alliance's forty-year history.
More to the point, Sager really gives no alternatives to libertarians except the traditional alliance- despite the fact that it is now clear social conservatives want nothing to do with small-government ideas or goals. The book makes it crystal clear that not only do libertarians have no hope of a new alliance with any faction of the Democrats- united in the drive for socialism- but that the social conservatives would rather see the alliance destroyed and an overwhelming Democratic hegemony for the next decade than give up any part of their new agenda. Sager's book leaves no options for libertarians except to continue following the lead of the big-government Republicans in the faint hope that those people will honor their side of the alliance- something they have never done.
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