Vanguard

Issue date: 10/8/07 Section: News

An essay by a University of South Alabama professor has been selected for the anthology "The Best American Political Writing of 2007."
Dr. Ethan Fishman, professor of political science at USA, originally wrote "Not Compassionate, Not Conservative" for the winter 2007 edition of "The American Scholar."
In this essay, Fishman describes the conservatism of the Bush administration as a form of pseudo-conservatism. He concludes in his article that as long as Americans fear attacks from powerful enemies and remain fearful of their status in society, pseudo-conservatism will persist in American politics. The article was based on a 1954 "The American Scholar" article about McCarthyism written by Richard Hofstadter. Fishman credits Richard Hofstadter with the prophetic claim: "We do live in a disordered world . . . of enormous potential violence, that has already shown us the ugliest capacities of the human spirit . . . These considerations suggest that the pseudo-conservative political style . . . is one of the long waves of [contemporary] American history and not a momentary mood."
According to Fishman, "Today, another form of pseudo-conservatism threatens American institutions. Under the administration of George W. Bush, our public policy has for six years been shaped by those who discount reason to practice a politics of largely inchoate sentiments."
"The American Scholar" is a quarterly magazine of literature, science, history, public affairs and culture published by the Phi Beta Kappa society.
Fishman has published another article in "The American Scholar" titled "Unto Caesar." Published in the autumn 2007 issue, it "examines traditional American attitudes regarding the relationship between church and state," according to Fishman.
Among his many scholarly publications, Fishman has also written "Likely Stories: Essays on Political Philosophy and Contemporary American Literature," published by the University of Florida Press in 1989, and "The Prudential Presidency: an Aristotelian Approach to Presidential Leadership," published by Praeger Publishers in 2001
Fishman has taught political science at USA since 1980. He earned his bachelor's degree at Harpur College, his master's degree at SUNY-Binghamton and his Ph.D. at Duke University.

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