Reflections of a Radical Moderate - Hardcover

Richardson, Elliot

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679428208 ISBN 13: 9780679428206

Publisher: Pantheon, 1996

Synopsis

Ultimate Washington insider Elliot Richardson (a stalwart of the liberal wing of the Republican party) offers a cool and steady examination of the growth of political cynicism and the accumulation of hostility toward our government by its citizens. Published to conicide with the Democratic and Republican national conventions, this is a bracing account of what it means to be a responsible American today.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

hington insider Elliot Richardson (a stalwart of the liberal wing of the Republican party) offers a cool and steady examination of the growth of political cynicism and the accumulation of hostility toward our government by its citizens. Published to conicide with the Democratic and Republican national conventions, this is a bracing account of what it means to be a responsible American today.

Reviews

A self-described centrist, Richardson, with a long career in public service, including a stint as Nixon's attorney general, argues here that the moderate tradition combined with common decency offers the best hope for good government. In this collection of thoughtful essays, he examines the troubling cynicism toward politics that many voters express, which has led politicians to make unrealistic promises in order to stay in office. Although our complex problems do not have easy answers, elected officials, according to Richardson, have a moral responsibility to provide leadership by evaluating possible solutions and building citizen consensus before taking action. A liberal Republican who believes that the trend toward bigger government should be reversed, the author nevertheless feels strongly that government has a duty to respond to the needs of all its citizens, and he takes the new Republican leadership to task for demonizing teenage mothers. A reasoned and convincing analysis of what ails us.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A humane, optimistic view of national politics from a longtime Washington insider. Richardson (The Creative Balance, 1976), attorney general in Nixon's last days and a former key official in the departments of state and defense, asks us to remember all that is right in American politics: ``Every transfer of power from one administration to the next has proceeded without incident. No American politician has ever gone to the chopping block . . . There has never been even a hint of conspiracy to take over the White House and oust the President. And only one president has been forced out of office.'' American government works, he suggests, because Americans demand accountability and openness and shun ideology in favor of practical idealism; yet, for all that, there is a growing sentiment across the land, fueled by the media, that things have gone badly wrong inside the Beltway. Richardson, a moderate Republican, allows that ``politics as usual'' may require some fine-tuning: For one thing, he believes that Vice President Gore's National Performance Review Report hasn't gone quite far enough in setting standards for the way federal departments carry out their mandates. But he remarks, borrowing a metaphor from his surgeon father, that ``democracy in America is at a complaining stage. We don't have a prescribed course of treatment because we don't have clear diagnoses.'' And that. he adds, is due to the fact that no one wants to look at the root causes of our troubles, which are milder than we imagine them to be. The disenchantment with which voters view a system that, in Richardson's vision, is right in most respects ``invites political quackery.'' And no quack takes more hits than Ross Perot, for whom the mild-mannered and cordial Richardson seems to have a genuine disdain. ``The cynics are always wrong,'' Richardson comments. His hopeful book is a welcome relief from the gloom-and-doom polemics that now overfill the current-events stacks. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Best known as the man who refused to fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox during the Nixon administration, Richardson has held a number of elected and appointed positions in federal and state government. Relying on his vast political experience, Richardson critiques the U.S. government today and suggests how it can work better. Unlike his Republican colleagues, Richardson does not call for the arbitrary dismantling of government programs; instead, he urges readers to put their faith in the bureaucracy. Richardson identifies the sources he considers responsible for the currently popular distrust of the federal government and outlines the ever-widening issues facing the government. He also offers a clear vision of the "new world order" in which the United States must take a more active part in resolving both inter- and intrastate conflicts. Richardson's historical analysis is right on the mark, and his recommendations for improving government service across the board are worthy of public debate. His book will wonderfully complement upper-level and graduate courses in political science, particularly public administration, and should appeal to faculty in this area.?Patricia Hatch, Emmanuel Coll. Lib., Boston
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pantheon
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679428208
• ISBN 13: 9780679428206
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 284