What's a Nice Republican Girl Like Me Doing in the ACLU?

Republicans have a lot more in common with the ACLU than they think! For decades conservative Republicans have railed against the liberal American Civil Liberties Union and its state affiliates for defending unpopular causes from the rights of criminals to flag burning, pornography, and Nazi marches down Main Street. So what possessed the Indiana CLU to put a card-carrying Republican at its helm? How could anyone who supported George Bush be a civil libertarian?In this fascinating...
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Republicans have a lot more in common with the ACLU than they think! For decades conservative Republicans have railed against the liberal American Civil Liberties Union and its state affiliates for defending unpopular causes from the rights of criminals to flag burning, pornography, and Nazi marches down Main Street. So what possessed the Indiana CLU to put a card-carrying Republican at its helm? How could anyone who supported George Bush be a civil libertarian?In this fascinating first-hand account, Sheila S. Kennedy explains her amazement at stalwart conservatives who seem to think that being a Republican is utterly incompatible with a firm devotion to civil liberties. In perceptive, humorous, and easy-to-understand anecdotes, Kennedy, a self-described Goldwater Republican, skewers the rampant misrepresentations about civil libertarians, the ACLU, and those who have abandoned the libertarian heart of the GOP. With robust enthusiasm and a fervent conviction that the nation needs a Liberty's Lawyer, Kennedy offers her thoughts on The Great Prayer Wars, The Criminal's Lobby versus Tax and Spend Conservatives, The Gay Nineties and Family Values, Purveyors of Filth at the Local Library, A Day at the Legislature, or Can These People Really Be Representative? and more.Her book makes a worthwhile contribution to American political thought. -Publishers WeeklyA long-awaited and badly needed rationale for the work of the American Civil Liberties Union . . . well worth the time it takes to read it . . . -Indiana Business JournalKennedy displays a philosophic consistency that is remarkable . . . -Indianapolis StarSheila Suess Kennedy (Indianapolis, IN) is professor of law and public policy at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Purdue University in Indianapolis. She is the author of Distrust, American Style: Diversity and the Crisis of Public Confidence; What's a Nice Republican Girl Like Me Doing in the ACLU?; and God and Country: America in Red and Blue, among other publications.