Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn from Conservative Success Review

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I bought this book together with "The Good Fight" by Peter Beinart. While both books have their utility, neither is as good as Joe Klein in "Politics Lost." Waldman gets five stars to Beinart's four mostly because he is much more readable, has many useful tables including an analysis of the states where extremist Republicans as well as extremist Democrats are weak, and his book is generally focused on the left of center middle and the caring citizen as opposed to policy wonks that Beinart addresses in his book.
Page 111 is a very fine diagram of the issue columns that the Democratic Party simply does not address responsibly nor--a theme throughout the book--courageously. Over-all the book does a very fine job of defining the distinctions between conservatives and progressives, as well as the distinctions between what conservatives stand for and what they say, and what progressives stand for and do not say.
The author spends most of his time comparing conservatives to progressives (code for left of center liberals) which is something of a pity because he appears to have a very well developed sense of the issues and what the center and left-center can and should stand for.
There are two bottom lines in this book, and both of them make eminent sense to me:
1) Don't bring a knife to a gun-fight. The author points out in detail how inept and weak and unfocused the Democrats are at every stage of the political game beginning with high school and collage political clubs.
2) Stand for the public, for the individual taxpayer, for the blue-collar worker, the working poor, the lower middle class. The author stresses that this is a fight between those who respresent special interests and believe the government role is to liberate the marketplace (code for allow the looting of the Commonwealth) and those who should be representing the masses of individual workers and taxpayers.
The author takes a long view and believes that it will take a great deal of time to recover from the total abdication to the extremist Republicans. While this nice in principle, the book does not focus as well on what it will take to win over-whelmingly; for that we recommend Joe Klein's "Politics Lost." On the issues, Matthew Miller's "The Two-Percent Solution."
On a personal note, I would add that the author's focus on "Being Right is Not Enough" is perfectly consistent with my own view that "Vote Democratic Is Not Enough." Rove and Cheney have demonstrated, twice, that they can steal Presidential elections that are close--through Florida in 2000, through Ohio is 2004. Even if every liberal-progressive adopted the ideas in this book, they would not be enough. We need a multi-party focus on electoral reform and crushing the extremist Republican thieves (I am a moderate Republican), crushing the special interests, and restoring the Republic to the public---a Republic of, by, and for the People, not Corporations.


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The Disappearance of Childhood Review

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(More customer reviews)Based upon Postman's description of childhood and the reason for its being, our society may be in jeopardy of losing this long-standing concept. Postman says that childhood came into existence about the time of the printing press; it arose out of a need to become a literate society in which adults controlled the information that children could access. Children had to learn to read so they could gain this information. Thus, schools were necessary. Furthermore, the adults' control of the information established a gap between adulthood and childhood. Adults could provide information to children when they deemed it was appropriate to do so. With the growth of electonic media and the move into the information age, adults have somewhat lost their control over the information; consequently, the gap between adulthood and childhood has been narrowed. Children are exposed to those"adult" ideas and thoughts sooner now because of their access to the information, i.e. consider today's television programs as just one example. Postman even contends that adults are more "child-like" in some ways; he give examples of the lack of distinction between clothing and language for adults and children. Perhaps a bit unfairly, Postman blames many of the less than positive changes in today's society on the media. However, this is a great read and provides a lot of "food for thought." The historical perspective that Postman provides on the "invention" of childhod is fascinating. His tracing of the developments growing out of the information age are logical and make a lot of sense. While he raises our concerns, Postman offers no real solutions to the problems.

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Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal - America's Racial Obsession Review

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(More customer reviews)Honesty above all else must the motto of author Erik Rush. Nothing is held back, and if you don't care for the truth, that's too bad. In the foreword, Mr. Rush addresses "black folks" and "zealous white progressives" that will most likely be upset by his book: "If you believe that The View is a television program that reflects the American majority perspective, that Jesse Jackson is a righteous man, and that Barack Obama is a great leader, then you're set in your beliefs." He goes on to say that those groups will probably not be swayed by the logic or evidence in his book. Reverse racism is exposed in the book as well as the black activists like Jesse Jackson that feed off of reverse racism. In the last chapter, the author states that, "We currently have a situation in which 90 percent of black Americans are politically aligned with that which is profoundly evil, people and forces that are poised to transform our society into something wholly other, the antithesis of its intention, and something with which when completed, Americans will not be pleased." He goes on to warn that by then it will be far too late to save our country. Mr. Rush claims that the rest of us have been intimidated into "abject fear of criticizing or opposing black Americans and their benefactors and allies". The author's hope is to expose the truth before it is too late. Included in the book are many examples of the racism practiced by the Democrats in the past. I remember most of them and have always wondered why blacks were so attracted to such a racist party. Read the book and you will gain a different perspective on race.

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Negrophilia studies the undue and inordinate affinity for blacks (as opposed to antipathy toward them) that has been promoted by activists, politicians and the establishment press for the past 40 years and which has fostered an erroneous perception of blacks, particularly in America. The book dissects the dynamic of race relations and race politics with an emphasis on same since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, how these are likely to develop given a Barack Obama presidency, and how conscientious Americans may discern the deeper truths of these matters and thus develop healthier perceptions.

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