Why the Right Went Wrong Quotes

“It is a disposition that the historian Clinton Rossiter described simply but insightfully, writing when the right was at its turning point in the 1950s and 1960s. Conservatives, he said, have the obligation to “steer a prudent course between too much progress, which throws us into turmoil, and too little, which is an impossible state for Americans to endure.” Rossiter viewed conservatism’s “highest mission” as fostering “the spirit of unity among . . . all classes and callings” in the name of “preserving a successful way of life.”
― E.J. Dionne, Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond

“cuts that that majorities of the voters”
― E.J. Dionne Jr., Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond

“problems of the the new century”
― E.J. Dionne Jr., Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond

“Deregulation not only opened the way the crash of 2008.”
― E.J. Dionne Jr., Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond

“it owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas call centers and factories making computer components.” The Obama campaign couldn’t move fast enough to create a new ad. “What a president believes matters,” it declared. “Mitt Romney’s companies were pioneers in outsourcing U.S. jobs to low-wage countries. He supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. President Obama believes in insourcing. He fought to save the U.S. auto industry and favors tax cuts for companies that bring jobs home. Outsourcing versus Insourcing. It matters.”
― E.J. Dionne, Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond

“That stopped with the sale of the plant to Bain Capital.” The ad contained footage of Romney on the stump declaring: “I know how business works. I know why jobs come and why they go.” Soptic comes back: “They made as much money off it as they could and they closed it down and filed for bankruptcy without any concern for the families or the community.” If Rick Perry had called Romney-style capitalists “vultures,” another worker in the ad, Joe Cobb, chose a different villain. “It was like a vampire. They sucked the life out of us.”
― E.J. Dionne, Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond

“Translated into Senate votes, a minority share of the ballots would have yielded a filibuster-proof conservative majority based largely in the South and the Rocky Mountain West. The filibuster itself further increases the power of the smaller and mostly more conservative states: in principle, senators representing roughly 11 percent of the nation’s population can produce the 41 votes now required to block action.”
― E.J. Dionne, Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond

“In the 2000 election, George W. Bush carried 30 of the 50 states even as he lost the popular vote to Al Gore.”
― E.J. Dionne, Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond

“Republicans won in 2010 and 2014 because some 40 million fewer Americans vote in midterms than in presidential elections, and a substantial majority of those 40 million is inclined toward the Democrats.”
― E.J. Dionne, Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond

“To understand the impact of this combination of gerrymandering and the geographic factors, consider that Barack Obama received some 5 million more votes than Mitt Romney did in 2012 yet carried only 209 House districts. Romney carried 226.”
― E.J. Dionne, Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond