Book Review: Rick Tyler’s “Still Right: An Immigrant-Loving, Hybrid-Driving, Composting American Makes the Case for Conservatism”
By: Dr. Thomas J. West Iii
Tags: Politics, Book Review, Books, Republican Party, Conservatives

Still Right is a wide-ranging book, serving as both an easily accessible explanation for why Tyler himself identifies as a conservative and as a full-throated defense of conservatism more broadly. There are, of course, the usual conservative positions, and Tyler leans particularly hard on the inherent value and beneficial influence of the free market, on the value of individual liberty, and on the power of faith. He’s also not afraid to tackle some of the thorniest political issues of the present moment, including both gun rights and abortion, and while my own position on those issues is about as different from his as can be imagined, he does seem to have well thought-out and philosophical reasons for believing the way that he does.

Admittedly, Still Right is a little light on the philosophical underpinnings of conservatism, but as someone who gets rather tired of that sort of thing anyway, I didn’t find that to be an impediment or a failing, particularly since Tyler clearly intends for his book to be more of a primer than a tome. There’s a value to the work that Tyler does here, particularly for those of us on the left who genuinely want to engage with our conservative fellow Americans in ways that don’t break down into the inevitable vitriol and name-calling. I can’t help thinking that if only more conservatives were like Rick Tyler, the state of civil discourse in this country might be a lot healthier and more functioning than it is at present.

Surprisingly, one of my favorite parts of the book was Tyler’s discussion of the role of his faith in his politics. I am not a particularly religious person myself, an in fact I have a profound skepticism (and, sometimes, hostility) toward those who are. Tyler, however, makes a convincing case for how faith can be a part of American public and political life without being obnoxious about it.

However, there are three significant flaws that mar Tyler’s book and that, as a result, substantially undercut the arguments that he wants to make on behalf of conservatism as a philosophy. First, he tends to lean far too strongly on straw-man arguments, most of which are put into the mouths of those that might potentially disagree with him. While this might make for satisfying reading for those already convinced of conservatism’s benefits — and while it certainly accords with the way that conservatives tend to view their opponents on the other side — it is particularly grating for those of us who are progressive. This is particularly glaring when he talks about gun rights and abortion, though it crops up elsewhere in the book. He also has a tendency to mischaracterize the actual beliefs of some political actors (in the case of abortion, this includes both NARAL and Planned Parenthood). It’s a curious rhetorical strategy to take for someone who supposedly wants to preach to the unconverted.

Second, he is intellectually inconsistent. Take, for example, his stances on climate change and abortion. On climate change, Tyler expresses a conditional belief in the scientific consensus about the intensity of the problem and the complicity of humanity in the state of the climate. On abortion, however, he seems very inclined to take the word of scientists about whether or not life begins at conception. If you are going to make a passionate defense of conservative philosophy, the least you should do is make sure that your arguments are philosophically consistent. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Third, and probably the most glaring, is the paucity of his evidence. Anyone who has seen Tyler on MSNBC knows that he has a rather folksy, down-to-earth demeanor, an affect that makes him a very likable personality. That serves him in good stead in the book, of course, but it doesn’t make up for the fact that he has a tendency to cherry-pick his historical examples to make his point. Admittedly, there’s only so much history and policy that you can cover in a book like this, and it’s clear that Tyler intends for this to be a beginner’s introduction. Still, I couldn’t help wishing for a bit more texture in how he approached the issues of concern to conservatism.