In Conservatives Without Conscience, John Dean, who served as White House counsel under Richard Nixon and then helped to break the Watergate scandal with his testimony before the Senate, takes a vivid and analytical look at a Republican Party that has changed drastically from the conservative movement that he joined in the mid-1960s as an admirer of Senator Barry Goldwater. Listen to our interview with Dean as part of our July 13 Amazon Wire podcast (along with interviews with Garrison Keillor and Henry Rollins) to hear how he originally conceived of the book with the late Senator Goldwater, and the social science research he drew on to put together his portrait of the "conservative authoritarian." (You can subscribe to regular Wire podcasts here.) And take a look at Dean's choices for the best books to read on the American presidency in our Grownup School feature.

On the heels of his national bestseller Worse Than Watergate, John Dean takes a critical look at the current conservative movement

In Conservatives Without Conscience, John Dean places the conservative movement’s inner circle of leaders in the Republican Party under scrutiny. Dean finds their policies and mind- set to be fundamentally authoritarian, and as such, a danger to democracy. By examining the legacies of such old-line conservatives as J. Edgar Hoover, Spiro Agnew, and Phyllis Schlafly and of such current figures as Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, and leaders of the Religious Right, Dean presents an alarming record of abuses of power. His trenchant analysis of how conservatism has lost its bearings serves as a chilling warning and a stirring inspiration to safeguard constitutional principles.

Former Nixon insider and legal counsel, John W. Dean, writes from a perspective few others can match about governmental abuses of power, especially in the Bush-43 administration. His position that conservatives believe themselves to be morally superior to the rest of the country, thus entitled to rule others and take actions, regardless of how contrary to the U. S. Constitution they may be, is a strong indictment. Whether this is a wake-up call for non-conservatives, or a reminder to true conservatives that even they can wander off-course, it is also notice that others are watching, taking note, and connecting the dots.

John Dean, the conscience of Watergate, continues to chronicle the strange turns the Republican party has taken since his days in power in the Nixon Administration. "Conservative Without Conscience" is not an indictment of all conservatives. Indeed, Dean is still fond of his days as a Goldwater Republican and his friendship with Barry Goldwater, godfather of what seems like a long-dead sector of that party. Dean turns his lawyerly, analytical mind to understand where his party has gone wrong. He provides a history of American conservatism, from the monarchial leanings of Alexander Hamilton to the more recent shenanigans of Newt Gingrich, Jack Abramoff and Pat Robertson. He distinguishes the various branches of conservatism -- from libertarian to cultural, social, economic and neocon conservatisms. Dean also goes to lengths to try to define conservatism, a surprisingly difficult task.

His most devastating and worrying chapters center on the work of social psychologist Robert Altemeyer, who has made a career studying authoritarian personalities. Altemeyer identifies people using two scales, classifying them as RWAs or SDOs. RWAs, or Right Wing Authoritarians, tend to be followers -- they are politically conservative and religious. People with a Social Domination Orientation (SDO) are the natural leaders that RWAs and others looks up to. SDOs seek personal power, are self-righteous and amoral, despite whatever religious affiliation they might have. God help us from the double high scorers, who are both RWAs and SDOs. Dean sees some of our more troubling conservatives -- Tom Delay, Dick Cheney, Gingrich, Robertson and Abramoff as exhibiting the traits of double highs. Neocons and religious conservative groups seems especially attractive to authoritarian personalities.

In spite of his wariness and bluntness about some of the right's leading lights, in "Conservatives without a Conscience" Dean seems to retain and even take pride in his conservative credentials. Dean hopes to bring a measure of reflection to a crowd not naturally good at it. Written just prior to the 2006 election, which resulted a slim majority of Democrats in Congress, it is a plea for Americans to be more careful about the leaders they pick. A fine book that helped this old liberal look at conservatives more clearly and even sympathetically.

Some claim that John Dean's book "Conservatives Without Conscience" is a biased political polemic. I disagree. He cites several objective academic studies along with hundreds of other sources to make the case that the so-called conservative movement has become one driven by "authoritarians". These are people with a certain psychological bent who either love -- and follow -- authoritative figures, or are themselves authoritarian.
He also claims that today's conservative movement bears little resemblance to the ideas promoted by Barry Goldwater.

John Dean was one of Richard Nixon's principal legal advisors during the Watergate years. He provided detailed testimony on the coverup to Congress, mostly from memory. When the Oval office tapes surfaced, his testimony proved to be almost exactly correct in detail, down to the exact statements, persons and dates.

I also recommend Dean's recent book, "Broken Government". along with Thomas Franks' "The Wrecking Crew".
For a good review of George W. Bush's ethics, which helped me understand this president's bizarre leadership style, read Peter Singer's "The President of Good and Evil".
In a few weeks, this will be ancient history, but there are lessons for us in the past eight to thirty years of conservative influence in the federal government.
Also, it isn't over yet, given the precarious balance in the Supreme Court, the need to repair administrative policy, plus deal with those contentious hangovers in the Congress.

This book serves four purposes. First, it provides a short, but well-referenced history of political conservatism in the Anglo-American conscious over the past 500 years with major emphasis on the 20th century. Second, the book examines how Watergate was a watershed movement in coservatism, and how the reaction to it helped lead to the neoconservatives of the early 21st century. Third, the book shows how certain ideas and ideals of the conservative movement have attracted a certain personality type into its ranks, specifically an authoritorian personality. Last, the book examines the lives and careers of key authoritorian individuals, all Republicans, in positions of authority or influence. The latter include Pat Robertson, Senator Bill Frist, ex-Congressmen Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay, and G. Gordon Liddy. The portrait painted by the author is of a bunch of spoiled white boys with strong streaks of egotism, sexism and cunning. Overall, quite a scary picture of some of the leaders of the Republican party, and how they have changed the culture of Washington for the worse. The author also places himself in context, showing how he was part of the authoritorian Nixon White House. All in all, a good book to read that provides a unique angle on the past 2 decades.

Being a moderate in the USA today is not easy during an election year, we need to constantly hear the sniping on both sides. I was trying to find some information about what happened to conservatives to make them so angry and mean spirited. John Dean provides part of that answer. Their movement was high jacked by authoritarians that pretend to be conservatives. As someone that voted for and supported both Reagan and Clinton, I find our polarization troubling to say the least, to find someone that explains why and how it happened is a relief.

John Dean comes at the issue in a reasoned and dispassionate way that allows the reader to make up their own mind. This is a great change from so many political books today that pummel the reader as though they are too stupid to make up their own mind about complex issues.

Whether you are blue or red, right or left, read this book, share this book, tell people about the main idea of this book. Conservatives are not bad, authoritarians are bad. We do not need to live in fear of liberals, terrorists or foreigners, we need only fear and control the real danger - that we turn over our great democracy to the hypocritical liars that pretend to be conservatives. This book makes sense of today's corrupt and sad political situation. We can save our great republic, but we need to understand the real danger and John Dean lays it out perfectly.