Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative

I give the author, a journalist, one of my HIGH ratings for one reason: He takes on one of the most malevolent and well-funded conspiracies active in Politics today, from the inside. And he did it in 2009. The Right Wing had conquered the national media and was demonizing all who stood in their path to power.

Once one of the high-paid warriors against Liberals, he became nauseated by his role, and began a MEA CULPA confession, indicting himself, along with what is in fact a "vast right-wing conspiracy" against Liberals.

Brock has exposed the thousands of "documents and videos" pumped out by the foreign-owned Fox News ("News") media monopoly which claim to have "proof" of Clinton "Crimes", but in fact are filled with misinformation and show more deception.

Brock painfully discloses his own role as the point of the spear in a campaign specifically designed to destroy the reputations of the Clintons, and their supporters. He reveals that he lied. He misinformed. And he was well-paid for doing so. And he was part of a deliberate attempt to destroy the leadership of moderates as well as liberals -- few "left wing" opponents are even mentioned. He documents, with details and corroborative facts, the truth that an extreme Right Wing plutocracy has taken over the media. And they lie to the American people.

{This REVIEW is not yet completed; still researching.} show less

The author of the hatchet job on Anita Hill decides to switch allegiance, and this is his explanation of why. For anyone expecting a mea culpa, be prepared for a book where the author simply decides to point fingers at everyone else for his behavior - in effect, one long whine about how the left drove him to the right, and the right is to blame for all his not-so-nice actions through the 1990s. If you expect soul-searching and introspection, you won't get it here. Although loved by the left, and raised onto a pedestal after this book, it comes across as nothing more than a whiny schoolboy who didn't get his own way, so he went over to the other side to be appreciated.

I'm not politically saavy enough to have recognized more than a fraction of the people in this memoir, so I found myself skimming for the interesting stories, points or references to situations I was familiar with. The most intriguing threads were the explanation of how the GOP was working behind the scenes during the 1980s and 1990s, Brock's weaving of the impact of his closeted gay status on his writing, and the early portraits of people like Anne Coulter and other talking heads who have since come to prominence. Unlike the rather disingenuous apologia of Michael Finkel after his exposure for having made up stories as a journalist, Brock's explanations for how and why he came to be writing stories that turned out not to be factual show more rings true and his remorse sounds genuine. I am left feeling somewhat better informed about a period of politics that I was only paying cursory attention to when it was happening. show less

I agree with the many reviewers here that this was an interesting look at the internal workings of the political right in the U.S. in recent decades. However, I did not have to know the name of every Georgetown restaurant the author had a clandestine meeting at. Nor do I need to know everyone's drinking habits. This would have made a wonderful long article. As a book it has a feeling of being repetitious and in places just dull. It does deserve at least a skim, if for no other reason than to let Brock set his former record straight.

A fascinating read about a period in American politics where I was becoming politically aware. The book was very interesting in the way the political machine on the conservative right works.

I also thought it was interesting to read about the author's identification as a gay man in conservative right movement and how that affected his relationships and his status in the movement.

My leaning is not to credit anything Brock says. I would like to believe that this turn around of his is real, but I am doubtful.

In any case, this is worth reading for the background on how the conservative mindset functions.

Another important book in my political development. Its depiction of the Machiavellian Right is damning.