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Loading... Stand Up Fight Back : Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and the…by E. J. Dionne Jr.
None.  Othemts | Nov 22, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0743258584, Hardcover)One thing all can agree George W. Bush deserves credit for is creating a groundswell of bestsellers in the run up to his 2004 reelection campaign. Most of the anti-Bush tomes of the time are marked by a sense of outrage and anger. It says something that even E. J. Dionne, Jr., a radio and print columnist noted for a generally placatory left-center tone, allows a clear sense of outrage to creep into his take on the Bush II era, starting with the title. Indeed, Dionne's discontent grows more pronounced with each page, though ultimately Stand Up, Fight Back maps out practical responses to what the author sees as the two maladies that infect contemporary politics--resolute conservative maliciousness and irresolute liberal defensiveness. The Washington, D.C.-based scribe chronicles the three-decades-long ascendancy of the right in response to Democratic complacency. The key for the G.O.P. was its "clarity of purpose and a certainty about the moral superiority of their creed." Dionne, however, finds gaping holes in right-wing morality, notably when chronicling the 2000 Florida debacle and the "grotesque" Supreme Court decision that handed the presidency to the second-place finisher in the popular vote. Dionne wraps things up by outlining a program to stall the precipitous shift to the right. It would be engineered by a moderate and liberal alliance that emphasizes fairness, compassion, justice, and the common good. Not particularly original, and certainly there are bolder perspectives on the current political landscape, but by navigating the practical path, Dionne may have penned one of the season's most influential reads. --Steven Stolder(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 06 May 2011 14:17:19 -0400) No library descriptions found. |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
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“FDR saw fear as something the could paralyze a nation and prevent action. Bush (like Harry Truman and Vandenberg before him) saw fear as moving the nation to action…A cynic might say that the only thing Republicans had to fear was the end of fear itself.” (p. 57)
“The party that once galvanized a nation by declaring that there is nothing to fear but fear itself has become afraid – afraid of being too liberal, afraid of being weak on defense, afraid of being culturally permissive, afraid of being seen as apologizing for big government. Democrats are obsesses with telling people who they are not. As a result, no one knows who they are.” (p. 88)
“Bipartisanship is certainly honorable in the right cause. It is dishonorable when it serves as a way of dressing up extreme and partisan policies in the false colors of moderation. Honest opposition is always better then timid capitulation.” (p. 103)
“It is possible, … to believe that the United States faces enemies who must be defeated without believing that the world is headed in the wrong direction. It makes more sense to see the forces behind those who blew up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon not as the wave of the future, but as marginal figures whose very extremism is an expression of frustration at the failure of their ideas. The evidence of the last fifteen years suggests that the power of those who support free societies and democratic values is on the ascendancy, not the decline. The most realistic view is that the United States will have more than enough allies in the battles it must fight and the work it must do – if it seriously seeks them out. Battling misguided pessimism is an essential task because when pessimists are wrong, they often bring about the very results they most fear.” (p. 134)
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