Customer Reviews

The Art of Political War and Other Radical Pursuits

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Horowitz has captured in this book what many thoughtful Republicans and observers around the country have attempted to convey for years: Republicans do not communicate their message in a manner that endears them to large blocs of the voting populace, and they do not make their opponents the enemy of those same voting blocs - a practice leftists have perfected over the years. That practice is called The Art of Political War.

Horowitz is a concise and relentless thinker, creating hard realities in this book that even the most self-acquitting Republican politico would be hard-pressed to ignore. He makes succinct that Republicans have failed to position themselves on the side of women, minorities and the poor, and as a result have been easily painted as intolerant, mean-spirited and hateful. Electoral results from 1996 and 1998 bear him out on this, and it is clear from this year's Bush effort that some in the GOP are taking heed of his counsel - with the Bush emphasis on the state of education a primary example. Horowitz argues forcefully and thoughtfully that the failure of the US education system can be laid squarely at the feet of the Democratic Party, who have controlled the school boards and city councils of every major city for the last 60 years. He contends that because Democrats are so beholden to the teachers' unions, they will rip away the bottom rungs from poor and minority children in exchange for hordes of campaign cash from the fastest-growing and most undeserving union in the country: the white-collar government worker. He could not be more correct, and the teachers' unions could not be more shameful.

I saw on an ad recently where Horowitz' book has been endorsed by Karl Rove, chief strategist to the Bush campaign, as "the perfect guide to winning on the political battlefield by an experienced warrior." Every Republican interested in changing the culture of the party and winning elections should take note, buy this book and read it cover to cover.

Horowitz as a former Communist and radical liberal knows how they think, feel and act. He knows all their dirty tricks and how they pull them off. These insights are further developed in his books "The Politics of Bad Faith - The Radical Assault on America's Future" and also in "Hating Whitey and other Progressive Causes".

He clearly reveals the underlying principles of Liberals, which apparently many of them do not even recognize. They have a missionary zeal to remake humanity in their image, and remake the country according to their viision - which is drastically different from the founding principles of the United States. The use of smear campaigns and character assisination apparently is acceptable because Conservatives, in their minds, are truly "bad people", and it is "right" to do anything that advances their cause.

Like any other utopian scheme, their "Liberalism" is bound to end in disaster, as has Communism and all other forms of totalitarianism and is well on the way in the United States now.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who honestly seeks to understand what is going on politically, and why things have been going as they have.

Anyone interested in conservative politics has probably heard of David Horowitz, inexhaustible political author, columnist extraordinaire, ... among other things. A couple of his more notorious books are "Hating Whitey" and "Radical Son".

Horowitz writes in a consistently aggressive style and he always stays true to his Conservative Libertarian ideals. One particularly interesting book of his is "The Art of Political War And Other Radical Pursuits". This title was released in the year 2000, prior to the infamous Presidential election fiasco.

This book is split into two main sections, as its title is divided. And also, as the title suggests, the first part of the book seems to be patterned after the classic, "Sun Tzu, The Art of War".

In the first section of the book, Horowitz clearly defines the players, the rules, and the tactics of this "political war". The liberals are predictably playing outside of the traditional rules, while the conservatives stand aside and complain about the fouls. There are no shortages of specific examples to illustrate these truths, and Horowitz is not afraid to draw conclusions.

He calls for fighting fire with fire. I'm just not so sure that the politics of personal destruction works all that well. I'd rather see the conservatives stick to their principles and avoid playing the game altogether. Either way, the first section of the book stands tall as a beacon of conservative understanding in modern politics.

The second half of the book is even more interesting as Horowitz covers a variety of controversial topics. One of his most popular topics is "Hating Whitey", his book and the title of a thought-provoking chapter in this book. He clearly holds true to his overall outspoken position against racism of any form. Considering that he is a former Black Panther, I find him to be credible when he speaks about white racism. Yet, even considering his hardcore civil rights career, which continues to this day, he is labeled a "racist" by demagogues from the left at every prospect. And he continues on, fighting the oppression from these very leftists with which he used to associate.

His strongest point in this chapter lies in the negative results of the 'help' of the mainstream Black civil rights leaders. Horowitz concludes, "The continued suffering of disadvantaged black communities and the continued under-par performance of black school children is a price the well-heeled civil rights establishment is apparently willing to pay for guilt tributes from all-too-accommodating white 'oppressors'." Jesse Jackson is truly an extortionist, and Horowitz lets him have it.

One particularly poignant chapter is entitled, "Guns Don't Kill Blacks, Other Black People Do". Horowitz fills the chapter with scary statistics that point toward a dire situation in the US where people need to promote and accept personal responsibility for social ills, rather than laying the blame on other people and inanimate objects. He makes sense.

Another standout chapter, "The Intellectual Class War", covers the peculiar fact that many of the most outspoken anti-capitalists are the most successful capitalists in the country. The very people who benefit the most from our liberties are those who tirelessly try to destroy it. Again, Horowitz bombards his reader with hard evidence that is undeniable.

Perhaps the most satisfying part of the book is his detailed analysis of three prominent Leftist elitists who concocted their own biographical information to suit their agenda. Let me just say that the conclusion is priceless.

David Horowitz speaks to the average citizen when he writes. He is a former hardcore Leftist, and shouts with authority and believability on these matters. He also takes the opportunity to attempt to set his record straight, being that his is a regular target in the politics of personal destruction.

This is a book that should be on every conservative's shelf. It is straightforward and honest, as well as enlightening. Sometimes a shock to the system is needed to make forward progress. This could be it. I highly recommend this book.

The latest addition to his awe-inspiring list of insightful political books, The Art of Political War, is pure Horowitz and is true to his anti left bias. Like The Art of War by Sun Tzu and Machiavelli's, The Prince, The Art of Political War is an intense primer on dealing with one's enemy. Unlike, Tzu's book of strategies, which is not specific to a particular cause, or Machiavelli's strategies for rulers, Horowitz begins this essay with strategies addressed specifically to Republicans. He identifies six "principles of war", beginning with "Politics is war conducted by other means" which he suggests, "the left understands, but conservatives do not". After defining the six principles he very effectively demonstrates how they can be put into practice. He proposes, that Republicans can, if they, among other things "stop complaining that life is unfair", in respect to the media having a liberal bias, and "address the American People directly." He suggests, not at all tongue-in-cheek, the "Democrats cannot be trusted with the nation's security" and with a very sharp tongue, advocates "The bottom line is that Democrats are responsible for everything that has gone wrong with the public schools that can be caused or fixed by public policies."

These, and many others frequently inflammatory assertions throughout the book, are vintage Horowitz. They ring true because Horowitz has a long history of being an insider on the left and the right. Friend and foe alike, if they are honest, admit Horowitz has a profound understanding of many sides of the political landscape. They may, and more than many do, disagree on his motives. Some people argue he has seen the light while others say he, in fact, saw a better way to make a living. Either way, his writing, specifically in The Art of Political War, is a modern day espousal of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli.

Many of you, who like me, are old enough to remember Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, will be moved with his sensitive use of her declaration that the nation must have "a single standard for every American when judging what is just and unjust." In just a few pages he draws stark contrasts between Congresswoman Jordan's 1980's human rights and civil rights pronouncements with the "demonstration of striking insensitivity and bad taste" of the current civil rights leaders. It's not something you will read in the Times and the Post or hear on the evening news.

Probably the best demonstration of his terse writing skill, attention to detail, and his clear memory of past events is his letter to fellow radical Art Goldberg. Goldberg and Horowitz, no longer comrades-in-arms, go toe-to-toe on what each knew and when they knew it, relating to the Black Panthers. Horowitz, a heavyweight, who far outclasses him, easily counters Goldberg's lackluster offense. More important than who won, is how Horowitz, consistent with what he wrote in the Radical Son, works Goldberg, and symbolically the 60's radical left, into a box, indicting them of, at a minimum, ignorance or at worse complexity in murders committed by the Black Panthers.

Political ideologues and novices alike will find The Art of Political War helpful; many will see it as a blueprint, analogous to The Contract With America. The Art of Political War is an easy, thought provoking read.

Speaking as a former leftist, I have to say that David Horowitz here lays out a pretty hard but in many ways honest map of the "progressive" mindset and how it leads them to certain political strategies. He then goes on to make some pretty interesting recommendations for conservatives and Republicans in order to combat that in politics.

It's certainly a pretty good picture of what one side of the political fight looks like today. Leftists especially will find interesting how conservatives view them--there's more here than they might expect. This document has been very popular in Republcan circles and formed at least part of the Bush election strategy in 2000.

One question Horowitz fails to ask himself and thus his audience is whether or not the strategies used by the political left are as effective as he thinks. Horowitz mostly seems to advise conservatives to take up the most negative methods used by the left to win elections. The question is: will doing so alienate the "silent majority" types who resent and react negatively to the types of tactics he advocates?

Insightful and thought-provoking, this book played a big part in the American political campaigns of 2000, and might well play as big or bigger a role in 2002 and 2004. As such, it's very interesting reading, no matter whether you agree with Horowitz or not.

"A virtue when pressed to the extreme may turn into a vice. Unreasonable devotion to an ideal, without considering the practical application of it, ruins the ideal itself."--Dr. Boyd K. Packer

This book is somewhere between a MANIFESTO; a "how-to" article on political action and expressing your MESSAGE; and a radon-alarm blazing in the night calling on conservatives to claim their MANDATE from the people to act.

This book is divide into five parts.

Part I, "The Art of Political War," is a wake-up call to conservatives that they need to "play the game of politics better." You cannot enact your agenda if you are not in power-end of discussion! He wisely points out that our target demographic is not other conservatives, or our hard-core members, but the undecided. And that we have to speak the language of these undecided constituent. The medium we have to deal with, especially the thirty-second sound-bite. In addition, he encourages us to be more viral and robust in standing for what we believe. This section is a must for anyone who wants to win an election. If you would rather sit on the side and complain and feel good about yourself in your idleness, then this section is not for you.

Part II deals with the censorship issue and what happens when conservatives allow censorship.

Part III is called "Hating Whitey," and being Caucasian myself, I don't mind the phrase. In the essays, Mr. Horowitz pulls upon his associations with the Black Panthers to explain why the racial dialogue is so stymied today, and how the militant black have co-opted Dr. King's peaceful dream.

Tangentially speaking, I am also of Irish decent (Carmony), and am not offended by Notre Dame's Logo, or as a Latter-day Saint, by the mascot of New Orleans football team, nor as a decedent of Danes am I offended by Minnesota's mascot, or as a Scot (Clan McBride), do I take umbrage to the "Scrooge McDuck" or "Groundskeeper Willie" stereotypes!

Part IV discusses the over-all culture war and radical pursuits of the left, its origins in academia and how the militant radical sustain their '60's agenda even today.

Part V contains personal essays about how the death of his associate at the hands of the Black Panthers led to his eventual disillusionment with the radical left. His turn-around had been so complete he has guest-hosted Limbaugh's radio program.

I admire people for their ideas, not their past, or skin color, or place of origin. So I can revel in an Abraham Lincoln as well as a Ravi Zacharias. It is ideas, not the man that concerns me!

Stylistically, Mr. Horowitz has a gift for writing, what I call "transparent text." His words and syntax do not get in the way of the message. Orson Scott Card and Octavia Butler have this ability; it is almost a mystical experience to read the writing of someone who has this talent. I sure don't have this ability.

David has the ability to speak to the heart-- the heart of an issue and the heart of the hearer. It is an ability to "make flesh" many of the "words" we have felt and believe. And is not that the job of any truth-teller?

CONCLUSION: In writing this, I realize that I will be judged not on the quality or content of the book or my feeble review, but on Mr. Horowitz's politics and my politics. So be it. Truth will not only prevail, but will grow shiny in use.

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book, where Horowitz covers the ways and means of political war. In the chapters that followed he showed examples of the principles in action, but then began to drift.

By the end of the book he'd returned to a recurring theme: his involvement with, and separation from, the Black Panther Party. By then it was far from obvious how any of this might fit in with political war. On top of which, if you've read his other books and his Salon columns you've already seen this material a number of times.

So, three stars. Don't get me wrong. I think DH is a great man. This is just not one of his greatest works.

This book touches on a new topic - political warfare, the marketing of ideology and how the leftists are winning at it. Horowitz offers some answers why the leftists and liberals are so good at it... the media certainly helps... I'd say scare tactics is #1... Horowitz hints that the right needs to shift back to its old platform of economic independence, personal responsibility and limited government - and work at getting its message across.

However, this book leaves you wanting for answers on what the right could do to reverse the trends. Horowitz is probably gearing up for another book. It seems the Machiavellian tactics that Republicans in general have taken is to be all things to all people... Their liberal-conservatives, or "compassionate conservatives" and tolerant of a lukewarm regulatory and welfare state. Historically, they don't win by being liberals.

Leave it to an ex-commie to tell the honest truth with such passion: In a world where some people apparently still muster blind faith enough to continue, for example, to buy what Howard Zinn is selling, Mr. Horowitz possesses an unwaivering moral integrity that is nothing less than heroic.

Modern American politics is a kind warfare without guns. In The Art Of Political War And Other Radical Pursuits, the once radical activist David Horowitz examines how Bill Clinton's generation of "centrist democrats" mastered the art of politics and successfully challenged their conservative opposition through the decade of the 90s. Horowitz surveys the six principles of politics that the left understands and conservatives do not. He then warns against the essentially liberal inclusion to supervise the lives of a dependent citizenry. The Art Of Political War is informative, candid, challenging, insightful, occasionally iconoclastic, and always highly recommended reading for students of the American political system in general, and the past decade of conservative political frustration in particular.