Posted on 02/10/2002 4:56:18 PM PST by The Drowning Witch
The sound of the ax is heard now throughout the land, and depending on where you sit on the political continuum, you may perceive the sound as one of righteous sharpening or one of endless grinding. But there is no doubt as to the targeted necks: Bill and Hillary Clinton are first in line, followed closely by Big Media, political correctness and the '60s in general, or at least the revolutionary and self-indulgent portions.
In one of those strange alignments that happens every so often, three of the top 10 New York Times nonfiction best sellers are attacks on what the authors (Pat Buchanan, Barbara Olson and Bernard Goldberg) see as liberals run amok. A little further down the list are two more (by Bill O'Reilly and Peggy Noonan). Add to those two biographies of strong presidents (John Adams and Teddy Roosevelt) and three books honoring America's response to Sept. 11, and you've got a star-spangled hammerlock on what Americans are reading.
These are "books about American greatness, books that assault the Clinton legacy and the liberal elites who embody it, and above all, books about strong moral character and how to achieve it," Stanley Kurtz wrote in a recent National Review Online column. "Of course, none of this means that conservatives have won the culture war," he continued. "But it surely means that the culture war is far from over, and that the pendulum is swinging mightily in a conservative direction."
Swinging is certainly a good way to describe some of these books, not in a sexual sense but in the manner of a good fist fight. Pat Buchanan, whose 1992 Republican National Convention speech put "culture war" into the national lexicon, has always been a brawler for his beliefs, and his "Death of the West" continues (and in some cases recycles) his carpet-bombing approach. Likewise the late TV commentator Barbara Olson, who was a passenger on board the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, and whose book reaming the Clintons is as mellow as Mike Tyson with a toothache.
But the surprise has been Bernard Goldberg's "Bias," No. 1 on the Times list, and the odd duck in this lineup because it was written by an avowed Democrat. Goldberg was a correspondent for CBS News for 28 years and one of its stars, but he wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece in 1996 accusing his institution of liberal bias. It was brave, but not the brightest career move, and Goldberg writes that he paid dearly. Shunned by most of his colleagues, he resigned in 2000.
Goldberg settles some scores with anchor Dan Rather, portraying him as "the Dan," a Godfather-type character who rules CBS News like a Tony Soprano in a tailored suit, brooking no dissent from underlings. This is not even a new take, but Goldberg moves on to more worthy efforts. The TV networks, he believes, don't really favor one party or politician over another, as some conservative critics have charged. "Real media bias comes not so much from what party they attack," he writes. "Liberal bias comes as the result of how they see the world," especially through politically correct lenses.
The centerpiece of his argument is network coverage of the homeless and AIDS in the 1980s and '90s. In both cases, he contends, coverage focused on victims who appeared closer to the mainstream of viewers, which gave a skewed picture of the majority of people who were homeless or HIV-positive. TV news did this in part because it was listening too intently to advocacy groups, Goldberg writes. There is more, some of it padding, but much of it worth heeding.
Dan Rather also takes some lumps in O'Reilly's "The No Spin Zone," joining Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Sean Combs and of course, the Clintons and anyone near them. Largely a rehash of his popular Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor," the book vibrates with O'Reilly's gruff Irish wit and elbows-on-the-bar social criticism. And although he's the conservatives' darling, he isn't afraid to call out Laura Schlessinger on day care or President Bush on capital punishment. Just one caveat about O'Reilly: He sometimes refers to himself as the Zone, which makes him sound like some sort of comic-book hero.
"He's running on equal parts patriotism and skepticism," novelist James Ellroy writes in a wonderful afterword about the author. "The book pinpoints the fatuous nature of liberal-conservative discourse . . . [and] shows us how much our society is ruled by blindly followed and reflexive political classification."
If O'Reilly evades easy classification, Ronald Reagan personifies classic conservatism. In "When Character Was King," former speechwriter Peggy Noonan ("What I Saw at the Revolution") offers a loving biography of the former president, whom she calls "the last great man." In Noonan's starry, starry eyes, Reagan has not done one single thing wrong in 90 years; "Character" is not as clear-headed and sharply observed as "Revolution" was. But when she visits him in his Alzheimer's twilight, there isn't a tear-jerker in Hollywood to compare to the overwhelming emotional wallop.
As much as Noonan loves Reagan, Barbara Olson hated the Clintons. "The Final Days," which she completed just before her untimely death, is as vituperative as any book ever written about the couple. She certainly had plenty of raw material to work with, especially the 140 pardons Clinton issued on his last day in office, and she works it relentlessly.
After these four books, it comes as a shock to read Pat Buchanan's assertion that "conservatives have lost the moral certitude they had when they were young and theirs was a fighting faith." Whether you agree or disagree with O'Reilly, Noonan and Olson, moral certitude seems in abundant supply.
But Buchanan's vision is much darker than the others, built on population statistics that show birthrates declining in Western industrial countries and increasing in Third World countries. The only way to save ourselves is by American women having more children, he writes. But one wonders how badly he even wants to save the country since it is, he states, "a cultural wasteland and a moral sewer . . . not worth living in."
Buchanan makes even some fellow conservatives uncomfortable, and his attacks on immigrants here, especially Mexicans, probably won't win him any Rose Garden invitations in the near future.
Phil Kloer writes about popular culture for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
What do you mean, the liberals aren't running amok. What a wuss!
Too bad. Deus Vult! 'Pod
I read the title with interest. Do we need a license? Is there a "bag" quota? Are they considered game or vermin? So many questions, so little time.
I am reminded of the movie Michael Collins when after the biys had done a job he chided themm for riddling the corpse with bullets. Bullets don't grow on trees he told them. He said the had done good but hold down the riddlin'
Stay well - stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
No need for anything that drastic. All we have to do is remove the labels warning to cook pork and chicken before eating. In no time at all, sidewalks will be filled with sick and dying liberals puking up pieces of raw meat.
O'Reilly isn't the conservatives' darling as much as he is the liberals' pain-in-the-Clymer.....O'Reilly also believes in Global Warming and doesn't hesitate to invoke the ol' "government should do something" mantra whenever unpleasant events (i.e., life) rears its ugly, unfair head. Face it, Phil...O'Reilly is Fair and Balanced to a fault.
(laughing)......don't suppress your feelings next time......
You got that right. He does annoy the libs mightily though....primarily because his ratings are so high. Still he actually wants to raise taxes on SUV's . That certainly is not a conservative position. Then again, you gotta love his attacks on Jesse Jackson.
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