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140 of 213 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
More Red Meat For Her Base, But Little Else New or Revealing, January 17, 2011
This review is from: America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag (Hardcover)
As a moderate, I have been following Palin to see if she might be a viable candidate (from my standpoint) in the elections in 2012. I have read a few books by her and her autobiography, so I have a bit to compare to. I find it a sad commentary that the books written about her paint her in a better light than she paints for herself in the books she has written about herself.
I found this book to contain little new. It was Obama bad...Reagan great with no real analysis of what either had done. If Obama did it, or proposed it, it must be wrong with little to support her comments. The same occurred, in reverse, for Reagan. She seemed to ignore his more obvious flaws and tried to paint everything he did as great.
Throughout the book there are misstatements of fact when it suits her purpose. Some is current, while some was historical. I can't believe she didn't know that what she was writing was wrong, and if she didn't, then maybe she needs to do a little research into a subject before spouting off.
I know there are people that think she is stupid, which I believe is a dangerous mistake. On the contrary, I believe she is quite intelligent but she doesn't use her intelligence when making statements. One possibility is that she intentionally does not want to let on that she is intellectually on a par with those she labels as "elite" in order to deliberately deceive her base. Either that, or she is just intellectually lazy.
This is a book for the base (and to make some money) and should be seen as such. She doesn't reveal much new and the rhetoric is about the same as always. If you love Palin, you will love the book. If you are not a fan, you won't like this book.
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104 of 162 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Actually, I'd like negative stars for this one, January 15, 2011
This review is from: America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag (Hardcover)
I have to admit that I have only made it through 230 out of the 269 pages in Sarah Palin's book, America by Heart. I also have not read her previous book; it seemed to have disappeared by the time I'd heard about it. Basically, I was unable to read past page 230, because Palin inserts an Emily Dickenson poem here, including what I felt to be a very loose and inaccurate interpretation of the poem, using it to support some political statement. To be fair, Palin's book is basically nothing more than a mosaic of material quoted from other writers and thinkers, including such oddities like references to the animated movie The Incredibles, block quotes more than a page long, some of which include quotations of their own, and enough Reagan quotes that I feel I should just read something by the man himself to find out what Palin thinks, though in that case I would miss out on the fact that she has read at least one article from the Onion that I also have, without understanding its sarcasm properly.
Anything that could pass as an original thought from Palin has a tendency to be contradictory, such as her assertions that America is an exceptional country paired with her distaste for those who wish to hold our country to a higher standard because of that very exceptional nature. She claims that the country must be taken back, without acknowledging that those who took the country by electing our current president were also American citizens. Palin does not mean this book to garner support for herself from those not already her followers, as the book is full of disparaging statements about liberals. Also, despite her chapters having topics, there is no overarching organization to this book to indicate why those chapters are presented in the order they are. Her writing style reminds me of how my sister explained her research paper writing process when she was a sophomore. "Papers are easy," she said, "I just get all my quotes together, then fill in the spaces with transitions and BS."
Basically, Sarah Palin seems to be the Stephenie Meyer of politics--very popular, but ultimately not a contender for the highest quality (with apologies to Meyer, who has only published one book I haven't read, and can improve). Also, I have odd suspicions about her faith (Palin, not Meyer, who is clearly a Mormon). For one thing, she never quotes the bible, instead throwing in the overused pagan truism "god helps those who help themselves" from Aesop's fable about Hercules and the carter. Also, in addition to never mentioning attending church, the only theology she mentions that she believes is something about the "sweet by and by" in her words, which implies that this world is irredeemable or impossible to improve, and that our reward will come only after death. Palin also includes a little anecdote of her life wherein she makes it clear that her faith in this was unable to console her for the trouble she was going through at that time, underscoring the fact that she either doesn't really believe it, or that her understanding of her own faith is flawed.
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8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Conservatism for dummies in a school for the simple-minded., November 17, 2011
This review is from: America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag (Hardcover)
Extolling the virtues of flags, freedom, and faith, Sarah Palin (I will use her name as a substitute for the real author) has managed to write one of the most insipid and fatuous books I have ever read. Palin's simple-minded and entirely erroneous cognitive framework goes something like this. There is a battle in the country between regular, god-fearing folk and evil, bureaucratic loving liberal elitists. The liberals want to insert government into ever nook and cranny of your life; the Republicans want you to enjoy freedom. The liberals drink red wine and laugh at your stupidity; the Republicans eat meat and drink beer and sympathize with your ideals. The liberals want to extend handouts to favored friends, leaving you with the bill; the Republicans want to kick out special interest groups and let you control your own income. This Manichean picture of the world could be continued, but I'll spare the details. Palin believes that she wants to take America back to the pristine love of freedom of the Founders. Unfortunately, she has absolutely no idea what the Founders actually said or did. Contrary to popular mythology, the Founders were disgusted by democracy and quite consciously fashioned a system of elitism. James Madison, one of the more "populist" of the Founders, noted that the government needed to "protect the minority of the opulent from the majority." He realized, that is, that as America's land wealth became more and more concentrated, the people would become more and more fractious. Madison noted that if there were a democracy in England, sweeping agrarian reforms would be implemented; he did not want that fate to befall America. Thomas Jefferson, probably the most "radical" of the Founders, did not attend the constitutional convention and it is unclear that anyone would desire to go back to his vision of a natural aristocracy living in agrarian bliss. Palin's nonsense about free markets is equally silly and misguided. The Founders were at least intelligent enough to understand that free markets (free trade) would confine the nascent U.S. to exporting fish and furs. Acutely intelligent and penetrating, Hamilton recognized the problem and suggested that the U.S. needed to cradle and grow its infant industries and protect them against more developed industries in Europe. Although his plans were not adopted in toto, they did form the basic outline for American development. Again, this is radically opposed to the currently fashionable nonsense about free markets and free trade. (Of course, every country that has sustained decent development eschewed free market and free trade proscriptions in favor of pragmatic protectionism and state centered development.) This book presents a tired archetypal battle--the liberal as an effete, wine drinking elitist who desires to destroy "traditional" America through a powerful, omnipresent and omniscient state apparatus, and the conservative as a robust, beer drinking commoner who desires to fulfill the promise of "traditional" America through free markets and faith--and runs with it. Doubtless it will appeal to some who have succumbed to its premises. For the rest, if you pretend that the book is a parody of conservatism in the 21st century, it does provide some entertainment.
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