NUMBER: 84TITLE: Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order
AUTHOR: Mark Crispin Miller
STARTED: November 24, 2005
FINISHED: Decemeber 3, 2005
PAGES: 343
GENRE: Political Science
FIRST SENTENCE: On Independence Day of 2001, back when it was still permissible - indeed, obligatory - to mock the President's substandard English, Bush visited the Jefferson Memorial, ostensibly to venerate the Father of American Democray.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] Read an American newspaper or catch the news on U.S. television and you might get the impression that America's current leadership is "mainstream:" perhaps a bit more conservative and in its foreign policy more belligerent than its predecessors but still a federal authority that functions well within America's political traditions. But as Mark Crispin Miller argues here with great clarity and effect, we are in fact living in a state that would appall the Founding Fathers: a state that is neither democratic nor republican, and no more "conservative" than it is liberal. He exposes the Bush Republicans' unprecedented lawlessness, their bullying religiosity, their reckless militarism, their apocalyptic views of the economy and the planet, their emotional dependence on sheer hatefulness, and, above all, their long campaign against American democracy. Abraham Lincoln once observed that if the United States should ever be subverted, it would be conquered from within. That, Miller argues, is what will finally happen here, unless Americans - left, right, and center - become aware of this regime's intentions and work together to reclaim the nation for republican democracy.
REASON FOR READING: Assigned in MDIA 530: The Rhetoric of Propaganda.
THOUGHTS: While I agree with most of Miller's arguments (I consider myself an insanely liberal democrat), I take great issue with his methods. Miller sets out to explain to his readers how the whole of the American public is being duped by one man's administration. Unfortunately, he takes one too many harsh digs at the President and his administration. He crosses from critic to harasser and basically nullifies his entire argument. The second half of the book consists almost entirely of bashing Bush. While I don't support most of the President's policies and plans, I would never deem to take as many below the belt pot shots as this man does.
There were many parts of the book where I thought Miller made a great point about the Bush administration's use of media and political manipulation but then proceeded to cross the line into personal attack rhetoric. If Miller was attempting to convince anyone he failed utterly. I support most of his points, but I was disgusted with the way he wrote this book.
This book would be a phenomenal read and argument, but it was too much of a partisan attack for me. The writing and factual content were amazing. The digs killed it.
MISCELLANEOUS: I still can't believe this book was assigned at my school.
KEEP/SHARE/CRINGE(?): Selling back to the bookstore.
RATING: 6/10 [Good]
CR: The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman
RN: The Pirate Prince by Gaelen Foley
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