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Audiobook5 hours
Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle
Written by Jeff Flake
Narrated by Jeff Flake and Milton Jeffers
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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Currently unavailable
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About this audiobook
"A thoughtful defense of traditional conservatism and a thorough assault on the way Donald Trump is betraying it."—David Brooks, in his New York Times column
In a bold act of conscience, Republican Senator Jeff Flake takes his party to task for embracing nationalism, populism, xenophobia, and the anomalous Trump presidency. The book is an urgent call for a return to bedrock conservative principle and a cry to once again put country before party.
Dear Reader,
I am a conservative.
I believe that there are limits to what government can and should do, that there are some problems that government cannot solve, and that human initiative is best when left unfettered, free from government interference or coercion. I believe that these ideas, tested by time, offer the most freedom and best outcomes in the lives of the most people.
But today, the American conservative movement has lost its way. Given the state of our politics, it is no exaggeration to say that this is an urgent matter.
The Republican party used to play to a broader audience, one that demanded that we accomplish something. But in this era of dysfunction, our primary accomplishment has been constructing the argument that we're not to blame. We have decided that it is better to build and maintain a majority by using the levers of power rather than the art of persuasion and the battle of ideas. We've decided that putting party over country is okay. There are many on both sides of the aisle who think this a good model on which to build a political career—destroying, not building.
And all the while, our country burns, our institutions are undermined, and our values are compromised. We have become so estranged from our principles that we no longer know what principle is.
America is not just a collection of transactions. America is also a collection of ideas and values. And these are our values. These are our principles. They are not subject to change, owing to political fashion or cult of personality. I believe that we desperately need to get back to the rigorous, fact-based arguments that made us conservatives in the first place. We need to realize that the stakes are simply too high to remain silent and fall in line.
That is why I have written this book and am taking this stand.
—Jeff Flake
In a bold act of conscience, Republican Senator Jeff Flake takes his party to task for embracing nationalism, populism, xenophobia, and the anomalous Trump presidency. The book is an urgent call for a return to bedrock conservative principle and a cry to once again put country before party.
Dear Reader,
I am a conservative.
I believe that there are limits to what government can and should do, that there are some problems that government cannot solve, and that human initiative is best when left unfettered, free from government interference or coercion. I believe that these ideas, tested by time, offer the most freedom and best outcomes in the lives of the most people.
But today, the American conservative movement has lost its way. Given the state of our politics, it is no exaggeration to say that this is an urgent matter.
The Republican party used to play to a broader audience, one that demanded that we accomplish something. But in this era of dysfunction, our primary accomplishment has been constructing the argument that we're not to blame. We have decided that it is better to build and maintain a majority by using the levers of power rather than the art of persuasion and the battle of ideas. We've decided that putting party over country is okay. There are many on both sides of the aisle who think this a good model on which to build a political career—destroying, not building.
And all the while, our country burns, our institutions are undermined, and our values are compromised. We have become so estranged from our principles that we no longer know what principle is.
America is not just a collection of transactions. America is also a collection of ideas and values. And these are our values. These are our principles. They are not subject to change, owing to political fashion or cult of personality. I believe that we desperately need to get back to the rigorous, fact-based arguments that made us conservatives in the first place. We need to realize that the stakes are simply too high to remain silent and fall in line.
That is why I have written this book and am taking this stand.
—Jeff Flake
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Reviews for Conscience of a Conservative
Rating: 3.8125 out of 5 stars
4/5
16 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book describes the problems with the Republican party from the perspective of a person who has been in the senate and knows these issues personally. It provides Jeff Flake's argument against Trump and political expediency that has surrounded the news cycle for some time. I hope people who notice how bad the media is read this book to understand how the politicians feed into it and gain from said news cycle; as well as people who still have a hope that good leadership can come from either political party. This book is a level headed shot of sanity in comparison to the sound bites that plague our social media feeds that go viral.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm not even a conservative and I liked it! Read it in a couple of days. After reading it though, it made me realize that we all have a little bit of "conservative" in us and that our love for country should always come before any political ideology. A succinct and well articulated rebuke of the current administration. Couldn't have said it better!
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was an interesting take on a Republican from a different time. Great overview on how the US has become so partisan over the past twenty years or so.
1 person found this helpful