The Road to Rightville? Never!

[DeeDeeNY]

New York Times Sunday Book Review

The Road to Rightville

By STEPHEN METCALF
August 5, 2007

As I grow older, I avail myself more and more of the ancient prerogatives of old men. I hitch my pants high, shake my head at the barbarous young and drive a stone-cold 55 on the highway. I’m risk-averse and dress as I please. (In my beginning is my end: I’ve evolved from slob to hipster slob to ironic slob back, finally, to slob.) I distrust change, labor unions and Al Sharpton and believe that at high enough rates income taxes become confiscatory. In short, I am white, privileged, middle-aged and boring. But one thing I am not, and never will be, is a conservative. The recent essay anthology “Why I Turned Right: Leading Baby Boom Conservatives Chronicle Their Political Journeys” (Threshold Editions, $23) has given us liberals a chance to think about why, even in our calcifying stodginess, American conservatism remains a nonstarter for us, a stack of loyalty oaths we’d never be tempted to sign.

snip

As a sales pitch, the essays in “Why I Turned Right” are mostly a dud. But they offer a tantalizing clue as to how handsomely financed “fellows” at corporate-backed think tanks (a description that fits eight of the 13 contributors) manage to connect so unfailingly with a mass audience.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/books/review/Metcalf-t.html?ref=review

[phaseolus]

1. O'Rourke used to be liberal? huh??

...P. J. O’Rourke, in his engaging but maddeningly evasive entry, tells us he became a conservative “at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 4, 1997,” when his wife gave birth to their first child: “blah blah blah..."

That's a lie, right there. I remember reading O'Rourke back in the 70s, and he was quite conservative even then. It was always part of his shtick....

[DeeDeeNY]

2. Not surprising

I suspect there's very little honesty in any of the essays.