Now that we are approaching the “silly season” of elections, let’s get down and dirty with the shortest political book you might ever see; and possibly the funniest and most honest: Ann Coulter’s “Slander.”
Despite being on the New York Times bestseller list, it has none of the pretentiousness. Coulter writes in clear, plain English, with biting humor and enough footnotes to prove all of her points. The point of the book is explained quite clearly in the subtitle: “Lies Liberals Tell about the American Right.”
For example: perhaps you’ve heard of the conservative-controlled media; aside from Katie Couric, the media seems to be filled with Democratic presidential campaign workers, from Chris Matthews of “Hardball” to Larry King. There are too many examples to cite. Coulter refers to an instance of James Carville filling in for Larry King on CNN one time. She goes on to outline all of the malicious little details reporters don’t let you hear (Al Gore saying, “who are those guys?” when pointing to statues of Washington and Jefferson).
Overall, it’s a fun little book. It’s also slightly frightening when you look at the quantity of the lies Democrats have been telling for about 17 years (e.g., there were more articles about Alzheimer’s disease in Reagan’s re-election year than in any year before or since, shadowboxing the “Religious Right”). Coulter almost literally compares IQ points of Democrats and the Republicans that they call stupid, contrasting people point to point. She also goes over the frightening aspect of the Mafia-esque political “protection” within Washington, D.C.; Robert Packwood’s sexual assaults were ignored by National Organization for Women (founded by leftist Betty Friedan) until he was no longer usefully supporting legislation they wanted (like abortion laws).
Again, it’s a good, solid book that anyone can read, from registered Democrats to people who haven’t voted in years. While it is as politicized as a bad episode of “Crossfire,” Coulter seems interested in one thing above all else: the truth. She distinguishes between the upper class and high-end liberal elitists and the casual, everyday folk like you. There are times when she feels her audience has everything in common (I’m still at a loss trying to figure out why she believes her audience watches NASCAR races).
It’s a short book; easy to read, footnoted beyond reproach and detailed enough to let you keep track of the incidents cited without needing to watch the news.
Election day is the time of year where you can fool all of the people some of the time, and that’s usually enough to get elected.
