None of the arguments put forth by Glenn Greenwald in his latest rant against the Right, “Great American Hypocrites,†is going to come as a shock to anyone who has ever made a donation to MoveOn.org. But, that’s not to say it’s not highly entertaining read full of great argument starters.
Greenwald does a great job of tackling a handful of the biggest hypocritical arguments about the Republican Party that Conservatives love to trot out on talk radio and in election ads. Here are a few of the myths Greenwald deftly points out in the book: Myth 1: Republicans are for small government… Except for when they get us in debt to the tune of trillions of dollars, create new government agencies and want to start listening in on our phone calls without warrants. Myth 2: Republicans are wholesome family men who love (heterosexual) marriages.
How much do they love the institution of (heterosexual) marriage? So much that they want to marry again and again, just consider how many times Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, John McCain, Henry Hyde, Fred Thompson, Bob Barr and many, many more have taken the walk down the church aisle. And those God-hating, immoral Liberals simply want to embrace those silly San Francisco values. By the way, as Greenwald point out, House Speaker and San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi has been married to the same man since 1962 and they have five children and five grandchildren. Myth 3: Republicans love a war hero… as long as it’s not one them asked to do the fighting. Aside from McCain, the party and its faithful attack dogs on talk radio and Fox News are packed with those who managed to pull strings and call in favors to avoid having to fight in the Vietnam War. Both Al Gore and John Kerry risked their lives and volunteered to serve their country in Vietnam and their opponent George W. Bush, who put in a couple of days with the National Guard in Alabama, managed to come out looking like the military hero. Gore and Kerry, meanwhile, were painted as cowards and weak on military issues. Greenwald’s well documented examples, may not win over any hardcore conservative, but this smartly written and well-researched book should be on the night stand of every Daily Kos devotee.
Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myth of Republican Politics by Glenn Greenwald/Three Rivers Press/304 pages – paperback