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COMMON NONSENSE Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance By Alexander Zaitchik Wiley. 282 pp. $25.95
The gist: Glenn Beck transformed himself into a right-wing hero through cheap sentiment, outrageous manipulation of his audience and clever self-promotion. In its own words: “Beck is the latest in a long tradition to prove that a vision needn’t be serious to package and sell. It need only be compelling on its own deformed terms. His brand of righteous antistate conservatism tantalizes so many precisely because of its operatic nostalgia, opiatic history, and tin-can Orwellian imagination.”
OVER THE CLIFF How Obama’s Election Drove the American Right Insane By John Amato and David Neiwert PoliPoint. 284 pp. Paperback, $16.95
The gist: In November 2008, the right wing lost its mind and has yet to recover: Extremists prowl the land, fill the airwaves, preaching that America is doomed under Barack Obama. In its own words: “The American Right’s descent into madness, embodied in its takeover by right-wing populists, was more than a problem just for serious conservatives who understood that it would ultimately prove to be their destruction. The very nature of the insanity that was being unleashed posed a larger problem for the nation at large — namely, the implicit threat of violence and extremist unrest, represented most vividly by the revival of the militia movement.”
AMERICAN TALIBAN How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right By Markos Moulitsas PoliPoint (forthcoming in September)
The gist: Republican extremists might as well step into their Taliban robes because they share the traits and tactics of Islamic terrorists in their preference for theocracy, limited civil liberties, repression of women, torture and the use of military force instead of diplomacy. In its own words: “Our American Taliban go beyond a rejection of science, progress, tolerance, and multiculturalism, to an utter disregard for the United States Constitution and our democratic traditions.... These aren’t people who love America and what she stands for; these are people who only love America when they have control and can impose their authoritarian ideology.”
REPUGLICANS They Came to Feed on the Body Politic! By Pete Von Sholly and Steve Tatham BOOM! Town. 127 pp. Paperback, $14.99
The gist: An artist and stand-up comedian deliver ghoulish illustrations of right-wing standard-bearers — Sarah Palin with fiery red eyes, pointy ears, bloody drool — and scathing biographical descriptions. In its own words: “He’s like your grandpa when he hasn’t had a bowel movement in a really long time and he’s all balled up in anger. He’s Pat Buchanan! Crotchety and defiant, his insides are lined with vitriol.”
TOXIC TALK How the Radical Right Has Poisoned America’s Airwaves By Bill Press Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s. 310 pp. $26.99
The gist: The right wing rules American talk radio, setting the conservative agenda, and the abundance of its bellowing has drowned out the chirps and squeaks from the left. In its own words: “Unfortunately, as we hear from listening to most conservative talk show hosts, [the influence of talk radio] has mostly been in a negative direction: tearing people apart, exploiting divisive issues, pitting one group against another, and denying honest differences of opinion. Toxic talk . . . has seriously damaged the level of political discourse in this country.”
Judging by the political shelves, we are gearing up f be an uncivil war. The titles right — are rude, self-right the summer’s literary flame believe the conservatives, w gaged in a war on the Unite secular-socialist administra the nation we love. And w for rebellion in the red state believe the liberals, we ha publicans going insane af their White House defeat. We have the right wing
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exists — and all thought away? You judge. Here ar
Steven Levingston is the nonfiction edito Bookworm.
THE WASHINGTON POST • BOOK WORLD • SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 2010
This summer, conservatives and liberals fight their battles with books.
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