DEATH BY LIBERALISM

A cri de coeur from another outraged right-winger about the supposed evils of liberalism.

If Sarah Palin could command a sentence, she might write something like this: “A self-styled elite has surreptitiously implemented policies that kill their fellow citizens without discussion, without debate, with no agreement or even awareness on the part of the public at large, without any consideration of alternatives and options.” That killing bit seems to disturb American Thinker contributing editor and novelist Dunn (Full Tide of Night, 1998, etc.), who hits on it at several points from the very first sentence, in which he intones, “Liberalism kills.” But why and how? It kills because all those welfare queens out there make us work until our heart muscles pop out of our American chests, something that those un-American liberals are secretly hoping for. It kills because regulations on things such as pollution keep us all from being fabulously rich. It kills because, as at Fort Hood, soldiers aren’t allowed to sport personal weapons while on duty, which allows disaffected Islamists to go on the rampage. (If only soldiers were allowed to carry guns!) It kills because it lacks the wisdom of George W. Bush, “his sense of purpose, his clarity of vision.” It kills because it’s a not-so-secret front for environmental extremists such as, well, Barack Obama, who really wants to eliminate humankind through such nefarious programs as cap-and-trade, “which will leave only a handful of wretched survivors living a Neolithic existence.” It kills because it puts things like health-care reform in place, launching the trajectory from “idealistic origins” to “degeneration accompanied by mass fatalities.” And so forth. Those swayed by such things will find aid and comfort in Dunn’s screed; those versed in logic and history will find many points with which to argue.

To this book’s favor, though, there are more footnotes than in a Glenn Beck diatribe, and without the Woodrow Wilson bashing.