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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A marvellous polemic, 7 Aug 2008
...if you're Democratically- (as opposed to democratically-)inclined, of course. Glenn Greenwald's object in life appears to be to take the fight to the right-wing Republican loonies, to repossess the ground that they have taken and dominated for so long, namely, the ideas that Republican men are real men, Republican women are real women and Republican little furry green creatures from Alpha-Centauri are real little furry green creatures from Alpha-Centauri, and only they can be trusted to bring security, low taxes, free gas, high morality and family values, and to have a direct line to God (who, as everyone knows, votes Republican, if He knows what's good for Him). On the other hand, Democrats are faggotty, wimpish, limp-wristed, girly men, their womenfolk are dragons, harridans and dykes, and they're friends of terrorists, poofters, global warming liars, Big Government, Satan and Richard Dawkins (the last-named two possibly being one and the same).
Mr. Greenwald mercilessly (and repetitively - but then, this appears to be a Greenwald trait) exposes the lies, distortions and utter humbug of these appalling people, starting at the archetypical American hero John Wayne, ultra-hawk, who, like his distinguished successors Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Kristol (Sr. and Jr.), etc., etc., furiously struck heroic poses but strenuously avoided combat, and were happy enough to send others off to do the dying. Remember Dubya's contribution to the Iraq War; he gave up golf, poor baby. I did love the contrast between the disgusting San Francisco liberal and potential civilisation-ender Nancy Pelosi (one husband, children and grandchildren) and that sterling defender of family values Newt Gingrich (multiple wives, sordid divorces, multiple affairs).
To me, as a limp-wristed, cheese-eating, domineered, surrender Yurpeen, the most worrying thing of all is that a book like this needs to be written at all. Those of us outside the USA can see it all clearly and how silly it all is. The scary thing is that so many in the USA apparently can't or won't. They ignore substantial issues and concentrate instead on trivialities, and that these trivial issues decide who will be the leader of the world's most powerful armed forces, with his or her finger on the trigger of a major nuclear arsenal. If John Edwards had good positions on issues facing the country, I would be interested, regardless of the facts that he spent $400 on a haircut and combed the results for half an hour at a time (funny that nothing is made of John McCain's taste for seriously expensive Italian shoes).
Has US political dialogue and the things that determine elections really sunk so low? As I write, John McCain (basically a fine and honourable gentleman, I believe) has unleashed the Rovian Republican attack dogs whose job is to dig up dirt for an easily-conned (or willing to be conned) electorate. One can sense the desperation that this is his last chance at The Big One and that he'll stoop to any dirty trick to get it. As Mr. Greenwald says, Mr. McCain is More Of The Same. And you'd think that the US electorate could see through it all by now. Apparently not :-(
Trouble is, you just know that, if the pendulum were to swing the other way, the Democrats would become just as rotten, corrupt, petty and downright dishonest. The system itself is at fault. If Mr.Greenwald's book wakens America up to the fact that it needs major surgery on (or complete replacement of) its institutions, in order to move away from being the world's largest banana republic, it will have done a great service.
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