Early Sunday morning I couldn’t get to sleep, so I lounged around on the couch and read Joe Conason’s Big Lies until about 3:30 a.m. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from the book. Perhaps a regurgitation of the information I already had from my extensive blog reading. But what this center-left reader found was disappointing. See, I really want to find the political book that really will make a difference. This isn’t it. I suppose I should have known that because it is five years old and it didn’t make a difference during the last presidential election.
The political discourse at the national level is dominated by narrative. In other words, stories. It’s not dominated by issues. What you hear about generally in the news and other places about politics is not about health care, or foreign trade, or even social issues like gay marriage. When I do hear things about them they are just short talking points. Instead, what we get is infinite parsing of candidates’ and politicians’ and their associates’ statements, looking for some insight into their character
. And by character, it generally turns out to be looking for ways to twist those statements into evidence for a pundit’s ingrained view of the politician’s character. Thus is born stories like Al Gore said he invented the Internet. What a liar!
Never mind that he never said anything like that.
The idea behind Big Lies is that Conason would debunk ten of the major narratives and expose them to be lies. While I think he picked his targets well, his writing leaves something to be desired. He jumps around from anecdote to anecdote and the result is something less than convincing. I want a systematic and thorough evisceration that leaves little room for countering. This will convince the already convinced.
A lot of the arguments aren’t so much here’s why the Democrats are better
as throwing more dirt up about the Republicans’ many inadequacies. For instance, on the lie that Republicans are the party of family values, Conason trots out a litany of failed Republican marriages, Republican affairs, and Republican closeted gays. Rather than examine their policies and effect on families and compare it to the Democrats’ and how the latter is better. The defense of the Democrats is limited to noting that the Clintons’ marriage has lasted decades despite problems, and that they offer pro-family policies. But Conason never explains and compares those policies.
Disappointing.
Of course, I’m not really out scouring for the books that do what I want. Mostly I’m just reading the ones that I come across cheap (in this case free). So it’s probably more my fault, in light of Sturgeon’s Law.
Title: Big lies: the right-wing propaganda machine and how it distorts the truth
Author: Joe Conason
Imprint / publisher: Thomas Dunne / St. Martin’s / Holtzbrinck
Format: Paperback
Length: 245 p. (includes index and lots of end material)
Publication date: September 2003
ISBN-10: 0-965-12241-7
Subject: United States — Politics and government — 2001-
Subject: United States — Politics and government — 1993-2001
Subject: Propaganda, American
Subject: Conservatism — United States
Subject: Right and left (Political science)
LC classification: E902.C365 2003
