Publication Date: September 1, 2010 | ISBN-10: 1936227029 | ISBN-13: 978-1936227020 | Edition: First Printing
“We all agree with the Taliban.”—Rush Limbaugh, October 9, 2009
America’s primary international enemy—Islamic radicalism—insists on government by theocracy, curtails civil liberties, embraces torture, represses women, wants to eradicate homosexuals from society, and insists on the use of force over diplomacy. Remind you of a certain American political party? In American Taliban, Markos Moulitsas pulls no punches as he compares how the Republican Party and Islamic radicals maintain similar worldviews and tactics. Moutlitsas also challenges the media, fellow progressives, and our elected officials to call the radical right on their jihadist tactics more forcefully for the good of our nation and safety of all citizens.
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“It isn’t possible to understand American politics now without understanding the worldview and arguments of Markos Moulitsas. If you still believe the beltway caricature of the squishy, compromising, conciliatory American left, American Taliban should disabuse you of that notion.” —Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show
“Moulitsas alerts us to a clear and present danger in America: radical zealots who disregard our Constitution and our freedoms and who disguise themselves as patriots.” —Roger Ebert, film critic
“I can’t remember a time in my life when anti-intellectualism and intolerance—from America’s prejudice against evolutionary science to its reactionary condemnation of a scholarly African American president—has been more pervasive. The time has never been more ripe for a book such as this. American Taliban reminds us that fanaticism isn’t always an import.” —Brett Gurewitz, Bad Religion
“A thorough compendium of right-wing hypocrisy and selective memory that is either hilarious or tragic, depending on your mood. And it’s all lovingly couched in outrage and profanity.” —David Cross, I Drink for a Reason
“While not afraid to laugh at the American Taliban, Markos Moulitsas sees the culture warriors for the insidious, dangerous force they present to a free and democratic society.” —Amanda Marcotte, Executive Editor, Pandagon.net
“Markos writes with a conscience and armed with facts to let you know: no, you’re not crazy. What you suspected all along was true—America’s right wing lives on a myth of self-constructed lies about the Other, with a juvenile disregard for reality, and Obama’s presidency has further radicalized an already radical conservative movement.” —Janeane Garofalo, comic and actor
“Markos Moulitsas vividly exposes how the radical right and many leaders in the Republican Party , contrary to their incessant claims, actually hate the cherished American values of freedom, justice, tolerance and diversity of thought and expression. With sparkling clarity, American Taliban sounds the alarm on the well-funded, highly-placed authoritarians in this country who work daily to strip away civil liberties and viciously malign gays, women and other groups, and shows why they are treacherous to American democracy. We better listen.” —Michelangelo Signorile, The Michelangelo Signorile Show, Sirius XM Radio
“American Taliban makes it clear that in a blind taste test the only way you’d be able to tell the difference between the GOP and Taliban philosophies would be beard hair.” —Sam Seder, author, F.U.B.A.R: America’s Right Wing Nightmare
“Markos Moulitsas exposes Limbaugh, Palin, Beck, O’Reilly, Boehner, Gingrich, the Teabaggers, and the Birthers as mullahs of a modern American Taliban hell-bent on imposing their narrow-minded political jihad on us all.” —John Aravosis, editor, AMERICAblog.com
“American Taliban shines a blinding light on the conservative right’s dark agenda. Anyone who genuinely cares about America should read this book.” —David Coverdale, Whitesnake
About the Author
Markos Moulitsas is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos, which gets 2.5 million unique visitors every month. He is a two-time book author, a former Newsweek columnist, a regular guest on national tv and radio news shows, and a weekly columnist at The Hill newspaper. He is also the founder of SportsBlogs, Inc. (SBNation.com), a fellow at the New Policy Institute, and a member of the boards of several progressive organizations.
Product Details
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Polipoint Press; First Printing edition (September 1, 2010)
Many of the one- and five-star reviews here on this book are obviously linked to the reader's political views. My objective rating is right up the middle, largely for two reasons: there's little here that I didn't already know and frankly the quality of the writing is somewhat lacking. Most of the material in the book will be familiar to anyone who has paid modest attention to the cultural and political landscape since 1980 and even the specifics will be old hat to anyone who might remotely be considered a political junkie. It is, in some ways, a rehash of mainstream political reporting on the American conservative movement of the last 30 years.
That said, American Taliban offers something to a larger audience, those who may not have paid much attention to politics between presidential elections or have for one reason or another avoided immersion into the morass of hypocrisy, duplicity, and deceit that has marked the right since at least the 1972 election. It's all here: the secret organizations, the shady corporate contributions, the legitimate sounding foundations, the suburban churches, and all the wealthy white men who have led such organizations since the 1950s. Markos offers a sometimes compelling critique, arguing that the core values of these men (and sometimes the women) really do parallel those of the Taliban in many ways. This is not surprising, since theocracy and nationalism look fairly similar across time and space. The important thing for those who are unfamiliar with the details is the very clear case he lays out to demonstrate that while American conservatives love to talk about freedom, patriotism, the Constitution, equality of opportunity, and sometimes even social justice they really support none of these things.... Instead, they operate within a massive and well funded political structure that was designed to maintain the power of a small, white, male, Christian elite at the expense of everyone else. The fact that they have sold this set of values cloaked in the rhetoric of patriotism and Christianity for so long is only testament to the general lack of critical thinking among the voting population as a whole.
The general problem with the book is its tone. While I can appreciate an Al Franken rejoinder to Rush or even a dryer James Carville memoir, Markos is not that kind of writer. His book reads not unlike a well-edited series of blog entries, chatty, engaging stories, some data, into which the occasional expletive or slang phrase is interjected to "keep it real." This style has its place and may reach an audience with this book. But I would have been personally much happier with a more professional tone and a less partisan presentation of the information-- which, in its own right, is a damning condemnation of American conservatism anyway. Why dumb it down by pushing the style more toward l33t speak than a presidential address? The lack of "seriousness" (if I may) will prevent this book from becoming anything more than another partisan tome; it's easy to reject not on a factual basis but because of how it's written. It will not be taken seriously by the mainstream media or others who actually influence the way the masses think. Granted, we may not need another Richard Hofstadter at this point but one would have wished for a more professional voice if only to make the book sound more credible to those not familiar with its content.
On the balance _American Taliban_ is an interesting compendium of anecdotes and data to support a straight-forward critique of the current state of American conservativism.As such it is damning and depressing. I wish millions would read it but I fear the particular approach taken will limit its influence to a smaller audience, including the kinds of people that are likely responsible for most of the one- and five-star ratings here at Amazon.
Recommended for: young voters, political neophytes, anyone that call themselves conservative and make under $500K/yearRead more ›
Excellent work. Points out the foolish macho nationalism affected by so called conservatives. The kind of "conservatives" who think nothing of running up debt, growing government, declaring illegal pre-emptive wars based on lies, and ruining the environment. barry Goldwater is spinning like a top in his grave that such people call themselves conservatives. The kind who are saps for the wealthy and global corporations because they are so scared of everything they can only react with bluster and anger and are easily used. As a multi combat tour Marine Corps vet and a proud progressive I have no problem seeing them get a little taste of their own medicine albeit with much more class and factual accuracy than anything they can muster up. It's past time to fight back against ignorance and blind anger engendered by the fear of these corporate pawns.
Markos connects the dots on the obvious (to those that care to see it) facts that the right wing power bases are abusing America for the short term gains of millionairs, the ego of the religious extremists that make up their self defeating base and to generate wealth from advertising on their hyped up media empire. It is a fascinating and dangerous connect of thoughtless, emotional and ego-driven extremist that serve. Hopefully, the majority of Americans will reject the extremism and idiocy that is growing in blind, frothing support.
which pleases the author no end. The fact that it couldn't be more obvious that not a single one of these silly commentators read the first paragraph of Kos's book isn't the point. The point is that they're driven to comment about it. Compelled. Unable to restrain themselves.
Matt Yglesias, who usually wears a white hat, reviews American Taliban with actual intellectual honesty, but Matt strays from the mark this time. He says, yes, Markos is correct about the endless cross correlations between the Afghani and the American Taliban in almost every regard, except the *degree*. Sure, Matt, but that fact hardly absolves the corporate-funded Christian mega-jihadists hell bent on destroying America in the least. The important point is that they are one and the same.
Moreover, Yglesias, misses the very reason why this book was crafted, and Tristero on Hullabaloo insightfully sets him straight:
"Matt can claim as often as he likes that he is not in any real sense equating the Taliban and William Kristol and be quite sincere about it. But simply because Kos - secondhand - got him to talk about it, that is exactly what he is doing.
And that is exactly what we want the right to do as well. We want them to defend their extremism by debunking the comparison with Taliban. Talk about it in detail, please! Tell us all about the important differences between al Qaeda's homophobia and Focus on the Family's. Explain all the nuances so we understand.
And the more they explain how different they are, the more the two are rhetorically associated. And invariably, the more plausible the comparison becomes."
Moulitsas has an agenda - one he's been more than successful with. He doesn't want a handful of "1" ratings on Amazon - he wants thousands.... And there's real reasons why not a single one of them squared off against Markos' basic premise - that the Afghani and American Taliban are essentially identical down to the last exquisite detail.
They couldn't possibly object to this. Because they are.Read more ›
While getting people all riled up about 'the muslims' the American right is often the same ones in bed with them for the purposes of getting cheap oil to run American cars. This power arrangement has existed since the 1970's--if not earlier. But our government does not want to disclose this to a gullible American public.
Their remaining in office, and in power rests on maintaining a delicate power balance over the American people. Fear of an 'unknown' people and culture then keeps the American people subserviently voting in those who promise to keep the country 'safe'. Interestingly, we do not stop to question the politics/structure of this very arrangement.
Because if we did, we would discover some lurking similarities between the two governments. Maintenance of 'safety' comes through control of social customs including gender/sexual roles. 'Disparate' American Christian conservatives and Muslim Saudi Arabian conservatives are ultimately linked together in much simmilarity by their distrust of a sexuality comming outside of a very narrow and male heterosexual boundary. The two seemingly different groups have more alike than initially appears.
I read this book as the friend of somebody who had been in New York during 9/11 and those people are themselves a member of a 'minority religion' often attacked by several of the American Christian fundamentalists now rushing to oppose a mosque. And I'm also coming as the relative of servicemembers whose Middle East tour of duty enlightened them to other perspectives and religions. Learning about a religion different from their own Roman Catholicism was an unexpected benefit of military service.
This book is really informative. It of course would be a good read for a government public affairs class.... But a gender studies class with an emphasis on government should also utilize it. The thesis and supporting evidence is very timely.Read more ›
