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Title: Made In Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics by Michael Lind ISBN: 0-465-04121-3 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 17 December, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.42 (26 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Michael Lind¿s central theme is not substantiated
Comment: I thorough enjoyed Michael Lind's efforts pertaining to the political and cultural history of Texas. This relatively short book is perhaps the best that I've seen in this regard. You will learn much about Texas' rapidly disappearing racism and anti-intellectualism which should not be ignored. The author's attempt, however, to describe the thinking of the Bush administration as a result of Texas' reactionary past leaves much to be desired. Did the publisher encourage Lind to do so to increase sales? If nothing else, he overlooks the demographic changes that have taken place in the last quarter century. Many Texas Republicans like myself were born and raised in an entirely different part of the country. Our background is often more liberal and cosmopolitan. The younger indigenous Texans care little about preserving the status quo of Neanderthal bigotry. President Bush, after all, is himself the uncle of a number of Hispanic children. Also, Lind fails to place sufficient emphasis on the neo-conservative intellectuals who he concedes greatly influence the President. Bush may be an evangelical Christian, but a high number of neo-cons are rather secular in the tradition of Leo Strauss. They are primarily non ideological intellectuals who shun utopian schemes, and instead prefer pragmatic responses to the issues of the day. Lind may disagree with their overall views on the Middle East, the environment, and economic policy, but he is not justified in essentially calling them a bunch of wild eyed crazies. Moreover, Lind seemingly fails to realize that George W. Bush does a vastly superior job marginalizing the radical right-wing lunatics than do the Democrat leaders in controlling the extremists of the left-wing variety.
Is there a possibility that Michael Lind is quickly becoming the Pat Buchanan of the neo-Liberals? "Like present-day Israel," adds the author,"Texas before the Civil Rights Revolution was a Herrenvolk (master race) democracy, combining populism within the majority ethnic nation with the state-enforced subordination of ethnic minorities." This sentence is most disturbing. Is he really accusing Israel of being a racist state? Lind is compelled to further explain himself. The author is fairly bright and insightful. I have no problem recommending the work he coauthored with Ted Halstead, The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics. There is much food for thought offered in this provocative study. Alas, my guess is that Lind may have been seduced by the favorable attention he receives from the Liberal establishment. He is often pointed out as their token Republican representative at their white wine and brie cheese get-togethers. Is it possible that Michael Lind might soon grow out of this phase? We can only hope so for the author is still quite young and will most assuredly not disappear anytime in the near future.
Rating: 5
Summary: A sobering view of our 43rd. president.
Comment: First, to be honest, I did not vote for George W. Bush. Probably like many people I viewed him as well-meaning but under-informed, an underachiever in life who was handed the reins of power through pure luck and powerful connections. I was sure, with the help of his father and the elders in the Republican Party, he would surround himself with competent advisors and ultimately pursue a course of moderation and good sense in both domestic and foreign affairs. Therefore, when some of the early initiatives out of the White House seemed counter to earlier expectations (abrogation of important treaties, anti-environmental positions, unilateralist and militaristic approaches to complex world problems, a dangerous and unbalanced approach to the Middle Eastern crisis) my visceral discomfort with this man has evolved into alarm. This book by Michael Lind confirms my worst fears. It is a scholarly and objective survey of the culture from which our president arose. As Lind points out, we have had southerner presidents who were liberals and northerner presidents who were conservatives, but never since Andrew Jackson have we had a southern conservative holding the most powerful office in the land. Lind does a thorough job of analyzing the state of Texas from the demographic standpoint, pointing out that the majority of the population reside in East Texas which is intrinsically part of the deep south. These people largely originated in Scotland and Northern Ireland (Scots-Irish) and brought with them to this country a 17th and 18th century British outlook on class and empire, typified by the attitudes of a land-holding aristocracy. In an economic sense their ancestral model is Thomas Jefferson. In a chapter entitled "Southernomics" he describes how this region evolved on the plantation model of extraction of raw materials (oil, cotton, minerals, etc) and the exploitation first of slaves and more recently of low wage and undereducated menial workers (modern day "serfs"). This model favors "free trade" and opposes tariffs in order to maximize profit in the exportation of commodities. It places low value on preservation of natural resources while promoting their extraction and utilization. Lind contends that this model has shaped our 43rd president's thinking about economics. He contrasts an "old boy network" style of management and connections peculiar to the deep South with the traditional culture that shaped most of the rest of the country, one that is based on an economic model of meritocracy, emphasis on the creation of ideas, the valuing of higher education as the key to economic development. Lind is careful to avoid over-generalization as he points out that Texas is a diverse state, and that these two economic models both exist in the state and are in fundamental conflict. For example, he points to many Texas leaders who typify modern liberal enlightenment attitudes, people like Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn, Wright Patman, and Ross Perot.
The most disturbing aspect of this book for me begins with a chapter entitled "That Old Time Religion" which exposes the influence of the southern Protestant fundamentalist religious culture on George W. Bush, and how this in turn has become a driving force in the almost messianic identification of this president with the right wing in Israel and Mr. Sharon. This plays into fundamentalist dispensationalist dogma about the End-times, Armageddon, and The Second Coming. It further sheds light on the peculiar alliance of these mostly southern Protestant militaristic and fundamentalist masses (who provide the electoral clout) with a powerful intellectual neoconservative elite (who provide the brains) and who now control our defense department. These people hold a radical and fundamentally new view of American foreign policy, one that promotes a doctrine of preemption and the aggressive exercise of American military power. They are tightly allied with the Zionist movement both here and in Israel.
This is a powerful and very disturbing book. Michael Lind has tried not to over-emotionalize this information but he obviously feels passionately about these issues. He has given us a well-researched and thoughtful expose' of the real forces that are driving this president. Everybody should read it!
Rating: 5
Summary: The Truth Hurts
Comment: Clearly, this book has a message that many people would rather not hear. But Michael Lind insists on revealing the slime hidden beneath the rock. It is not always a pretty picture. However, this is still a fascinating exploration of the peculiarities of Southern politics. Also an important one, because the phenomenon has now been nationalized thanks to corrupt campaign financing and the quirks of the electoral college, which denied the White House to the candidate who won the popular vote in 2000. Anyone who is interested in how and why the United States is overextending and bankrupting itself to the brink of national suicide will find many answers in this book.
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Title: Up From Conservatism by Michael Lind ISBN: 0684831864 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 15 July, 1997 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth by Joe Conason ISBN: 0312315600 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 25 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential by James Moore, Wayne Slater, James C. Moore ISBN: 0471423270 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 21 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush by Kevin Phillips ISBN: 0670032646 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The Human Tradition in Texas (HUMAN TRADITION IN AMERICA) by Ty Cashion, Jesus F. De LA Teja ISBN: 0842029060 Publisher: Scholarly Resources Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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