Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy

270 Pages·2005·0.92 MB·English

by  Jacob S. Hacker

off center

off center
The Republican
Revolution and
the Erosion of
American
Democracy
Jacob S. Hacker
and Paul Pierson
Yale University Press
New Haven and London
Copyright © 2005by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including
illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by
Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by
reviewers for the public press), without written permission from
the publishers.
Set in Galliard type by SPI Publisher Services.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hacker, Jacob S.
Off center : the Republican revolution and the erosion of
Americandemocracy / Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13:978-0-300-10870-5(clothbound : alk. paper)
ISBN-10:0-300-10870-2(clothbound : alk. paper)
1. Republican Party (U.S. : 1854– ) 2. Conservatism—United
States. I. Pierson, Paul. II. Title.
JK2356.H155 2005
324.2734´09´0511—dc22
2005015114
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Part I: Abandoning the Middle
1 Off Center 25
2 Partying with the “People’s Money” 45
3 New Rules for Radicals 69
Part II: Broken Checks and Balances
4 The Race to the Base 109
5 The Republican Machine 135
6 The Center Does Not Hold 163
Conclusion: Meeting the Challenge 185
Notes 225
Acknowledgments 247
Index 251

off center

INTRODUCTION
When President George W. Bush took the stage to deliver his
State of the Union Address in 2005, he had plenty of cause to celebrate.
To begin with, he was on the podium, having emerged victorious in a bit-
terly fought election that saw him escape the embarrassing fate of his
father, who had been defeated after a single term. Yet the larger reason
for celebration was all around him—in the regal House chamber he
faced. Flanking Bush were Vice President Dick Cheney, Bush’s conser-
vative policy czar, and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, the head of
the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. In the audience
was House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the ultraconservative Texan
known as “The Hammer” who had pushed through a controversial redis-
tricting plan in Bush’s home state, padding the Republicans’ House
majority. In the audience, too, was Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of
Tennessee, who had helped the GOP increase its margin in the Senate to
fifty-five seats, to the Democrats’ forty-four. As Bush outlined his plans
for the long-standing conservative goal of partially privatizing Social
Security, the air of triumph in the room was unmistakable: A new order
had taken root. A conservative governing coalition, balanced on a razor’s
edge of partisan control, had seized the reins of power and was now dra-
matically remaking the laws of the land.
The feeling of accomplishment was certainly warranted. The president
and congressional GOP have not always gotten what they wanted, of
course. But given the closeness of the political divisions in the nation and
1