Book A Mundo

The first series of shipments have arrived. There are two surprises from my trolling the book stores this weekend. The Stories of Ray Bradbury (Everyman, 2010) with an introduction by Christopher Buckley, and The Library of America's volume Marshall: The Writings. The reason we believe there could be a strong Supreme Court is because of John Marshall, who established its control and authority over interpreting the Constitution. Some of us look forward to the day we have one again which we can respect.

Most of today's shipment are oldies but goodies:
Chris Hedges American Fascists: The Christian Rights and the War on America (Free Press 2008). Some of Hedges analysis revolves around the religious right formed by Pat Robertson types, which now in the age of Obama have been surpassed by a more virulent strain. While not up to Hedges' standards, Leah Burton's Theo Palinism: The Face of Failed Extremism ( 2009) gives you a glimpse of how extreme are Sarah Palin's religious views and their political implications.

For a social scientific view of our current climate, Marc Hetherington and Jonathan D. Weiler have produced Authoritarianism & Polarization in American Politics (Cambridge, 2010).

Former conservative or maybe still an old-time conservative Kevin Phillips wrote American Theocracy : the Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century in 2006 (Viking, 2006) to warn us about the changing face of the Republican Party and how it became dominated by the Religious Right. The book is dedicated to the millions of Republicans--present or lapsed--who opposed the Bush dynasty. In this book, he writes that this toxic combination would destroy the country. In Bad Money updated last year (Penguin, 2008) he writes about our overreach through the war in Iraq, a terrible energy policy, the housing bubble and how the crisis of American global capitalism might be our dance in the sunset.

Kevin Phillips' books forced me back to Bruce Bartlett's The New American Economy:The Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward (Palgrave, 2009). Bruce Bartlett was one of the fathers of supply-side economics and was a treasury official under George H.W. Bush. His sharp criticisms of the conservative movement in the last few years led to his ostracism in a manner reminiscent of the recent episode involving David Frum. Barlett was one of the Republicans who agreed with Paul Krugman that the stimulus package was too small. Bruce Bartlett has his own blog and often you will see his writings discussed by Andrew Sullivan on his Daily Dish.

I was going to spend Easter writing about the religious fundamentalists studied by Bob Altemeyer but decided to spend my time thinking happier thoughts. His findings about religious fundamentalists explain such things as Diaper Dave Vitter, the Louisiana Senator caught as a customer of a Washington prostitute and in New Orleans as a cross-dresser, being able to still campaign on family values and be given a lead role by the Republicans in arguing against Healthreform. He was the clever man who introduced an amendment to prohibit funding to ACORN, another urban myth. Or the case of Promise Keeper Senator Ensign paying off his aide while he had an affair with his wife and yet moving on without missing a beat. It seems Senator Ensign will soon be indicted. Altemeyer explains alot of this by using Dietrich Bonhoffer's notion of "Grace on the Cheap" where someone declares him or herself born again and therefore able to continue to commit such acts. This also explains the degree to which such politicians will be forgiven and these egregious acts will be forgotten.

The sexytime RNC continues to meltdown with the resignation this afternoon of the leading fundraiser and the chief of staff. I have been bombarded by e-mails of Rasmussen polls showing everything from teabaggers having greater popularity than Obama and Republicans sweeping all the 2010 mid-term elections. I have trouble with all this. Even Nate Silver predicted great moves by the Republicans and Charles Cook predicts the Republicans will win back the House. But looking closely at www. swingstate. com and even the Cook polling data, you see that the Democrats probably bottomed out and that their losses in the House look to be in the neighborhood of 20-25 seats. But if things only marginally improve, they should even trim that number. That's why I find it hard to go as desparate as even Nate Silver, whom I deeply respect, or Charles Cook.

But I leave you today with this sobering thought, given the beliefs of the Republican base ,which I have written about before, if Republicans win back the House, I feel they will be compelled by their base to impeach President Obama. These are people without regard to the national interest or the affect such a move would make on the prestige of our country. If you are oblivious to the damage done to the country by the last administration and you really believe in American exceptionalism, then why would you care about our standing in the world?
Just a thought.