Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative

Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative David Brock Date: 25 February, 2003   —   $9.75   —   Book product page Rating:

I had read about most of what's in this book elsewhere, but it was interesting to get the story of how Republicans lied and manipulated the press to discredit President Clinton from the source. One thing I didn't expect was how personal the book is. Brock's story as a gay man driven to conservatism by the ultra-political correctness he perceived in the Democratic Party in his college years and a desire to get closer to his father, and then his final reconciliation with liberals and his family because of Republican intolerance of his lifestyle and his growing distaste for the hate and lies of the right is a classic prodigal son story.

Brock gives a firsthand account of how someone can do all manner of vile things in pursuit of an ideology and the book serves as a warning for bloggers like me as well as anyone fighting for a cause.

In fighting for what I saw as a larger good ... I turned a blind eye to facts that did not suit my political aims. With little awareness of what I was doing, I proved myself capable of papering over monstrous moral wrongs in the perceived morality of my cause.

Frankly, I see this quite a bit on the political blogs where people defend their Party so thoroughly that they end up condoning things like torture and murder. Having been tempted to go that road myself at times in the heat of a rant, I ask myself, "Do I really believe this?" before posting anything.

Anyhow, from attacking Anita Hill and Bill Clinton to defending Iran/Contra, Robert Bork, and even Augusto Pinochet, David Brock chronicles his descent into the politics of hate and character assassination and, after much psychological suffering, his eventual redemption.

In opposing Clinton's impeachment, I was not, as it might seem, reflexively switching sides from right to left. In one respect, I was recovering the classically liberal political values that, in reaction to the PC left, I had identified as "conservative" fifteen years ago in Berkeley -- respect for the Constitution, skepticism about government power, defense of privacy and individual liberty, pluralist discourse, civility, and restraint.

In the real world of Washington politics that I saw up close in the following decade, the conservative movement stood more often than not for precisely the opposite of all these salutary values. And I quickly surrendered most of them myself on the way up the right-wing ladder.

To be sure, members of the Christian Right and the neocon culture warriors had every reason to voice their own view of politics, held by many with deep conviction and even patriotic fervor, but those views were not mine, and I could no longer front for them. In terms of social tolerance, civil liberties, fairness, choice, and civil right -- in my heart, I was always a social liberal, even as I betrayed myself by defending Bork, [Clarence] Thomas, and Gingrich and set off the first flare in the Clinton wars.

Only as I gave up my cherished place in the movement, which allowed me to confront the false right-wing ideology of exclusion, intolerance, prejudice, and hate that I had advanced so blindly, did I find my conscience and principles underneath. Now I was free to follow them.

David Brock currently runs the Media Matters website as a media watchdog, and I can't think of anyone more qualified for that job than the man who pioneered the vile media manipulation that characterized opponents of Clinton's Presidency and the ascendancy of the Republican Party.

tags: david brock  clinton  media