A Progressive Primer

Over the holiday weekend I got a chance to catch up on my reading, and one of the books that I read was the well-researched and well-written The Price of Right: How the Conservative Agenda has Failed America (and Always Will) by Alicia Morgan:

This book is a must-read study of how the neocon movement has driven America into the ground by creating, nurturing and perpetuating a number of destructive myths about this country: Trickle-down economics, America is a Christian nation, people are poor by choice because they are lazy, etc etc.

Alicia Morgan dissects each of these myths -- plus a lot more -- and shows in historical detail how each one has been made up out of whole cloth by the so-called Conservative Movement. Which in its current radical form is anything but conservative -- Barry Goldwater himself would not only not recognize today's conservatives, he would also be unwelcome in their midst.

Particular to my own interests, she devotes an entire chapter, cleverly entitled "Let Us Prey", to the Radical Christianist Fundos and especially to their ginned-up defensive position in the totally nonexistent "War on Christmas" waged by "secular progressives", showing how they have skillfully woven a web of lies to "prove" that they are a constantly-under-attack endangered minority.

Even though this book is, in a way, preaching to the choir (she even names her last chapter that), it nevertheless is a succinct and highly readable history-cum-exposé of the Radical Right and their plans to turn America into a nation that we progressives would not only not recognize but also not want to live in.

Highly recommended, not only for you but also as an ideal Xmas gift for that IBIL* of yours who always seems to ruin any family get-together with his wingnut bullshit.

Finally, in the interests of full disclosure, Alicia Morgan is a fellow Blogger Against Theocracy (see Last Left Turn Before Hooterville) whom I know through our mutual connection to Americans United for Separation of Church and State and I am proud to claim her as a friend. That said, in no way does this have an effect on my opinion of her book or my recommendation of it as required reading.

[* Idiot Brother-in-Law]