I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican: A Survival Guide for Conservatives Marooned Among the Angry, Smug, and Terminally Self-Righteous [Hardcover]

Harry Stein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 2009

With biting wit and amusing personal anecdotes Harry Stein's I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican chronicles the every day survival of those plucky conservatives marooned in liberal bastions that loathe them, from Manhattan to Hollywood-and even deep bleu France. The result is a conservative's guide to love, work, dinner party mischief and staying un-smeared in liberal America.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A journalist and novelist,Harry Steinis the author ofHow I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (and Found Inner Peace). He is a contributing editor toCity Journal. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books (June 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159403253X
• ISBN-13: 978-1594032530
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #586,907 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

264 of 283 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Putting a humorous face on something getting ever less funny., June 5, 2009

By 

lighten_up_already2 "lighten_up_already2" (Kirkland, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican: A Survival Guide for Conservatives Marooned Among the Angry, Smug, and Terminally Self-Righteous (Hardcover)

Well, it isn't quite a "can't put it down" book, at least not for me. But perhaps the reason why I can only read it a few chapters at a time is because it is more scary to me than funny. (I tend to reserve the five star rating for the books I can't put down).

Through numerous first-hand examples (completely believable to me because I live in a very "blue" city), Harry Stein shows just what it's like to run up against the ideological biofilm of political correctness, or "progressive conformance" as I prefer to call it.

Stein writes with humour and seems to have a gift of calmly relating events that, if you pay attention as you read, you can tell caused him lot of emotional grief. As one who has tried to reason with people immersed in ideology myself (on a far smaller scale than Stein has) I know that it can be an experience as dumbfounding as it is disheartening.

The scary part of it all is that this book provides a first hand, up close and personal view of how so much of our society, particularly in the areas of information and history transmittal, have been taken over by people steeped in rage and self-righteousness brought on by their own voluntary enslavement to an ideology, and who have turned almost entire professions into education camps for the propagation of their worldview.

The totalitarian spirit is not only alive, but very well indeed, and growing like a virus in our republic. We may soon be mastered by those who cannot even seem to master themselves in the area of basic emotional control, much less in staying calm enough to entertain opposing points of view with an attitude toward civility and basic fairness.

267 of 287 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Less funny than you would think..., July 4, 2009

By 

lew "lwndw123" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican: A Survival Guide for Conservatives Marooned Among the Angry, Smug, and Terminally Self-Righteous (Hardcover)

Don't judge by the cover. This book is not funny. I spent 40 years of my life living in Communist Poland. Now Communism is long gone, and I am U.S. citizen. And I am figuring it out that in today USA presenting myself as Republican is actually more dangerous and is creating more problems that presenting myself as anti-communist when living under Communist regime. It is OK to be on a party and make jokes about Bush, Palin, McCain and such. Actually, this is mandatory. It is NOT OK to make jokes about Biden and Obama. Once, for such jokes, I was requested to leave. Requested by my good friends.

I believe that this book is not funny. It is tragic. As tragic as what is going on in this country

146 of 163 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Funny Look at the Plight of a Conservative Living in a Blue State, June 1, 2009

By 

J T Cooper "book review editor" (Marietta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican: A Survival Guide for Conservatives Marooned Among the Angry, Smug, and Terminally Self-Righteous (Hardcover)

Posted June 1, 2009, 1:09 PM EST: Harry Stein has written another political hit book about the plight of a conservative living in a blue state. I found myself laughing out loud at his descriptions of his encounters with the liberals in his home town and how he dealt with, or avoided contact with, these foam at the mouth, raving, irrational, pinko liberal bed wetting degenerates who think they have the only political answers to everything. The book has a serious and troubling side; namely the academic world's suppression of conservative thought and the blacklisting of academics who are not liberal in their thoughts or ideas. There are other areas of discrimination that he describes in great and disturbing detail, particularly in the world of newspaper and magazine journalism and radio or television work. I was fascinated by the book and the rich and often humorous stories he tells. I received a copy in New York and read the entire book before I reached home. It is hard to put down, so don't start reading it at night, or you won't get much sleep. I will wait with great impatience for his next opus conservatorius and in the meantime will get my legislator wife to buy a bunch of these books for our holiday giving. You should also get his first book: How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.