Who Will Speak for Middle America?
BEAUTIFUL LOSERS ESSAYS ON THE FAILURE OF AMERICAN CONSERVATISM By Samuel Francis Columbia, Missouri University of Missouri Press, 1993 237 pages, $37.50 Though widely read as a syndicated columnist, Samuel T. Francis does not enjoy mainstream journalistic respectability. He is not invited onto TV talk shows, even those featuring conservative columnists, and is not part of the political conversation between what Francis regards as the almost (ideologically) indistinguishable right and left. His voice and demeanor, like his political commentary, are unchangingly glum, and his views of the current ‘conservative movement’ so unrelievedly negative that members of that movement will not likely greet this anthology with enthusiasm. Despite undisguised contempt for the ‘happy talk’ of those resigned to being ‘beautiful losers,’ what Francis says about the American right is entirely on target. His anthology of essays assails almost every received assumption of respectable N.Y. – D.C. conservat
