Customer Reviews

Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help (and the Rest of Us)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

While the bestseller lists usually contain one or more conservative books providing a survey of what is wrong with liberal thought or how liberals are undermining America, this book deserves to be set apart and taken much more seriously. Rather than a glib survey of the popular scene with sharp barbs tossed at the usual suspects, Mona Charen provides us with six powerful essays. She is a former White House speechwriter, and her gift for fashioning vibrant and passionate prose in the service of a well constructed argument shows in every page of this book.

These essays take on liberal articles of faith and leftist bureaucratic groupthink. Mrs. Charen demonstrates how the culture of non-judgment and soft punishment is connected to the great increase in crime for the past several decades. She shows how blind the establishment has been to why Giuliani's policies in governing New York actually had an impact.

She also illuminates how the race relations industry stifles progress and demagogues the issue of race in our country. Her discussion of the predictable (and predicted) debilitating influence the creation of "entitlements" has had on our country. To the point that one Supreme Court justice actually compared the entitlement of welfare to a medical license or a license to practice law. It is as if all jobs were sinecures and it was up to the government to allocate them according to their whim. You will just shake your head when see the foolishness of these policies laid out in this essay.

Of course, more than one person predicted that these policies along with other changes in our culture would lead to fewer strong families and the cost this would have on children. Many bought into the notion that if the adults were happier divorced then the children would be happier. Those that said this was lunacy were shouted down. Nowadays, it is clear that government policies have made a powerful contribution to weakening families and harming children. Again, read what Mrs. Charen says and you will learn how this has been a decades long fiasco.

The author also does a fabulous job in demonstrating how the homelessness crisis was a pure creation of the left on the one hand emptying the mental hospitals directly onto the streets and then misrepresenting both the mix of who was actually homeless and how many of them there were. Under Reagan and the first Bush there were gillions of them. Under Clinton, none. Under Bush II we are back to at least a kajillion. Ho, ho, ho.

No one is taking lightly those truly in need and we all should help out local programs at our churches and homeless shelters and the Salvation Army to get food and shelter to all in need. The point here is the naked politics of the reporting on this issue.

The last essay is on the tragic destruction of our public schools over the past several decades. The growth of the education bureaucracy has taken needed resources away from the classroom. The establishment cries for more money even when we spend hundreds of billions of dollars and keep increasing the amounts tossed into that sink hole. Yet what our students actually know shrinks - but they feel really proud of themselves and are experts on popular culture.

If you are going to get just one book on important current issues I would recommend that you give this book serious consideration. Strongly Recommended.

Up until the Vietnam War. Democrats and Republicans quarreled incessantly over a wide range of issues, but one issue that they always agreed on was national security. That feeling of solidarity began to corrode as pro-Marxist thought began to infest America's colleges and mass media. Vietnam drew the battle lines. Iraq etched this line indelibly in the minds of the Left. Mona Charon sees this demarcation as an unbridgeable gulf that has led to a dissolution of much of the promise that used to be called, in pre-politically correct days, as the American Dream of true hope and sustained progress. In USEFUL IDIOTS, Charon takes the Left to task as she notes how liberals have ruined America in foreign affairs and now in DO-GOODERS, she does much the same as she focuses on how liberals have exacerbated a wide spectrum of domestic calamities ranging from urban crime to welfare abuse to homelessness and finally to the collapse of our educational system.

Charon does not intend DO-GOODERS to be an even handed book. She intends it as a polemic against a mindset that places the rights and welfare of the unworthy individual against those of society at large. Charon notes how the Left has taken the traditional credo of America--the rights of the individual must be respected by the collective mass--and have transformed it into the rights of the individual must always supercede the rights of the many. She notes that the America of 2005 is one that would hardly be recognizable to the traditional Democrats of JFK, Hubert Humphrey, and Scoop Jackson. The police are hamstrung in their efforts to control crime. Welfare is seen as a socialist right rather than as what had once been viewed as a somewhat repugnant alternative to poverty by an earlier generation. Modern educational pedagogy stresses esteem and multiculturalism over what used to be called the ABC's. Charon notes that liberals are united in their efforts to remake America into what passes for culture in France and Germany. She wisely points out that both of those countries suffer from social ills that this country has avoided. The recent riots in France serve as a sobering harbinger as to what might lie ahead for the United States should the radical Left tilt of the Democratic Party continue unabated. DO-GOODERS is a timely book that proves once again that those who think that they know what is best for the rest of us do not even know what is best for themselves.

Original socialists (sic) wanted to emancipate the honest workman. Undereducated, he was not well equipped to improve this position or negotioate.

At least in Europe, there was some success... between 1880 and 1920! They got -somewhat- liberated.

Ever since, instead of freeing people, the socialist wanted to develop a nanny state, where Mother Knows Best(tm). And as the State grew, freedom deminished.

It's pretty amazing so many people still fall for the trap of the Do-gooders, who lead people to believe they can get all kinds of freebies on OTHER man's wallet.

Yet the only thing they achieve, is distributing money OUT of the wallet of average people, making them more dependent, and less able to lead their own lives, and make ends meet.

Now everybody turns to the state for answers. Most money is however wasted to endless bureaycracy, not end-goals.

Do-gooders very eloquently shows how this develops, the attitudes, reactions of people. Real world examples. I just hope many people read this. Once you do, not only do people immediately recognise them to be true, they might see the emerging trend.

I don't remember who said this: "Knowledge is favourable to liberty. Educate the people and they will apply the remedy."

This is another startingpoint.. A good one, too.

If left-liberals really have such good intentions, then how come none of their proposed solutions ever work?

Mona Charen says, in effect, that it's for two reasons:

(1) Such liberals evaluate their efforts by intention rather than by results. They're more interested in their own moral opinion of themselves than they are in the actual well-being of the victims of their misguided 'beneficence'.

(2) Their intentions aren't all that great anyway. Self-reliance and self-responsibility are a sound and reliable moral foundation for a stable social order; compassion and soft-heartedness are not.

In order to substantiate these claims, Charen sorts through some thirty years' worth of 'social programs' drummed up by Sargent Shriver's Bleeding Hearts Club Band -- welfare, affirmative action, programs to deal with mental illness and homelessness, and so forth -- and points out just where and how they have failed. There isn't really any question that they _have_ failed, but if you require persuading on that point, Charen will oblige you.

(She also clears up lots of mysteries in the left-liberal worldview. You may have wondered, for example, why people who have never had a good word to say about traditional families suddenly start slobbering about 'family preservation' when the subject of adoption comes up. It turns out that, in this context, by 'families' they mean 'crack-addicted single mothers and their boyfriends'.)

I've got minor issues here and there. For example, I think there's some overkill in the blame-it-all-on-the-hippies department and some occasional silliness about the 'counterculture'. (Ken Kesey's _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_, though plausibly read as favoring some sort of reform of mental-health institutions, is hardly a manifesto for turning genuinely dangerous mental patients loose on the streets. In general, I think Charen resembles too many other current pop-conservative writers in failing to appreciate the real value of 'questioning' even if traditional 'answers' turn out to be right.) I also think she misunderstands or misrepresents Thomas Szasz a bit (and not just because she spells his name 'Szacz'). For that stuff, she loses a star. But her positive case is sound.

Despite a mild lack of appreciation for the need to limit government behavior, she also doesn't claim (as a previous reviewer suggests) that the police should be able to do whatever they want. The problem is that criminals are _let go_ when they're not properly Mirandized, or when search warrants aren't properly executed, or . . . you get the idea. If there were a feasible way to punish the police for cutting corners _without_ freeing known criminals, Charen would presumably be all for it. (And at any rate, even fans of _Miranda_ should agree that some of her examples are pretty egregious.)

A worthy follow-up to _Useful Idiots_ and a nice companion volume to Coulter's _Slander_ and _Treason_, Patterson's _Reckless Disregard_, and all your other current favorite liberals-have-it-all-wrong books.

In a fitting follow on to "Useful idiots," Charen gives us more examples of liberal `wisdom,' poor projections, data-free assertions, perverse psychology, and other well-intentioned (they are `do-gooders' after all) but ill-conceived and ill-advised policies and practices from the left side.

In 236 concise pages, with 21 pages of footnotes and a two-page partial bibliography, she makes her case. Sometimes the bad advice from the left is so bountiful that she appears to engage in overkill. Let's just say that there is plenty of evidence.

Six chapters cover crime (the impact of Giuliani's zero tolerance policies on the murder rate in NYC saved thousands of lives; psychiatric hospitals have reduced their patent count by hundreds of thousands since the 1950s and guess where they end up), racism (heavy-handed, dishonest Democratic party pandering to African-Americans means that Dems get 85% of the African-American vote but not since LBJ the majority of the national vote, and LBJ's civil rights legislation passed because of Republicans and despite Democratic opposition), welfare (Charen quotes single one mother of six children from six different fathers who tells NYC mayor John Lindsay that it is her job to bear children and his job "to take care of them."), families (traditional two-parent families are the best form of poverty prevention ever invented), homelessness (Charles Osgood projects 19 million homeless by the year 2000, using the conventional wisdom of Mitch Snyder's admitted made-up figure of 3 million homeless in the eighties; see psychiatric population, above), and education (public schools spend little of their budgets on students, books or even teachers who teach, and when they do teach the subjects increasingly have little to do with a useful education).

Depressing and disturbing but detailed and devastating.

Note: On p. 194 she identifies Blanche Lincoln as (D-AK). I think AK means Alaska, and Lincoln is from Arkansas (AR).

There are three books as of recent that I would suggest picking up. This being one, the others being 'Black Rednecks, White Liberals' by Thomas Sowell and 'Do As I Say (Not As I Do)' by Peter Schweizer.

However just like Schweizer's work, Charen's 'Do Gooders' preaches to the choir. There is no doubt that both books are well-researched with pristine documentation. The critics found on this ratings board merely throw personal jabs at Charon, a trait of anyone who cannot debate facts and merit.

Sowell's 'Black Rednecks...' cuts to the quick and takes you back to the origination of these phoney ideas and idealism that have had a tremendous negative impact on US society. You cannot deny the destruction of the Black family as it relates to one parent homes, more often than not they are saturated in poverty and chaos. This coupled with supposed civil rights leaders such as Jesse Jackson, who is more content in alligning his political tendencies and lining his pockets than actually accomplishing something, it is no surprise they are in the present conditions.

Honestly I believe Charen tried to capitalize on the present wave of conservatism rippling through our political structure. Likewise this popularity has been, albeit accidentally, able to advance itself based on A. The failures of the left, B. The radical tone the left has taken (Soros, Michael Moore, Howard Dean, moveon.org, etc) and C. The deepening attachment the left has with the Democrat Party and vise versa.

However what she truly fails to do in her text is show how conservatism has been bastardized by the Republicans for votes. As a conservative I believe in less governmental influence and I believe in only paying a minimal share, instead emphasizing self-reliance. There is no doubt that Reagan was more capable than Carter when it came to the role of the President. However a true conservative would have sliced the government down and not allowed it to grow. There is no doubt that Clinton was and is a morally irreprehensible individual, which one would think would influence his decision-making. There is no doubt that George W. placed a better equipped cabinet together than Clinton. However just as with Reagan, George W. (along with Clinton and his father George HW) failed to scale the size and depth of the federal government. Quite possibly the only shining achievement of conservatives in the past 20 years has been welfare reform, which only materialized because then President Clinton was dragged kicking and screaming to sign it into law.

If you are just now switching your political leanings or need a refresher as to some truths about the left, then pick up all three of these books.

Mona Charen, who has shown a strong ability to disarm liberals on a regular basis through her syndicated newspaper articles, has written a brilliant book that addresses issues such as, education, Affirmative Action, and Welfare.

There's nothing liberals can say to counter the points Mona makes. While Mona's style is less confrontional like that of Anne Coulter, she is nonetheless witty, bright, and on target.

I highly recommend this book as important reading for anyone who wants to analyze the failures of liberalism and set the record straight.

A conservative friend loaned me this book and I agreed to read it. Page after page, I was left speechless. For a while I tried to sputter out a rebuttal but I finally had to stop trying. It was great to finally admit that all this "do-gooding" is bad for everyone. I can finally stop working to deny poor children a better education through voucher programs. All this time I was smug and I thought I knew what was best for other people. This author explains in her confident way what is really best for other people and how I was wrong. She picks great examples of famous liberals saying stupid things and then tears those quotes apart. Too bad for us liberals that those were our best and only arguments. That was all we had. Dang.

Mona Charen is an accomplished author ,extremely knowledgeable and has put together a factual overview of the social changes that have taken place in America (and even to a greater extent in Canada) since 1960.
By far and away,these changes have bee Liberal in concept and instituted and encouraged by Liberals.
Whether you consider yourself a Conservative or a Liberal,you have to agree that the chances in Law &Order,Racial Sensitivity,The Family,Welfare Reform,Homelessness,Education,and other aspects of Social Well Being have been Liberal in thinking.In none of these areas can one even attempt to argue that changes made have been to encourage Conservative ideals. The author examines the changes that have taken place ,shows what the results have been ,with back-up facts.You don't just have to take what she says without questioning;.You live with all these things going on around you every day.
What Charen has so well laid out is how and why these changes were made.All you have to do is to ask yourself if these changes have tended to improve society or have they led to the problems we now face.
Society faces continual struggles between Small Government-Big Government,Opportunity-Entitlements,Free Enterprise,Self Sufficiency-Dependency,Initiative-Victimization,Citizens-Hyphenated Citizens.
What ever happened to the ideas of JFK who asked?
"Ask not what your country can do for you.Ask what you can do for your country."
This book shows how much Liberal ideas have been entrenched into American Society,what great benefits were hoped for;and what has been the result.
As Liberalism,Collectivism,Socialism and even Marxism continues to expand into every area of society;will it be for the better or not?
It is worthwhile remembering that America was founded on well accepted beliefs,freedoms,self-reliance,small government and prospered and grew into the greatest country on earth where people of every stripe yearned to come. They came with only one desire ,to have an Opportunity .Opportunity has been replaced with the concept of Entitlement.This has succeeded nowhere it was ever instituted and the record is showing the same results in America.
One can only assume that for Socialism to succeed;first Capitalism must be destroyed.
As the newly elected guvernment ,under the Presidency of OBama takes over;there is bound to be further advances in Liberal ideas and solutions to society's problems. Will it become a better society or will it be more of the same--but with greater vigor?

Ahhh, there's nothing better than seeing a new book from the always analytical Mona Charen. My local newspaper, the Omaha World Herald, once carried her editorials on a regular basis. They also reprinted at one time the conservative opinions of Thomas Sowell and Michelle Malkin. Alas, no more. Now I get an eyeful of Bill O'Reilly and George Will balanced by a bunch of leftist hacks I'd just as soon ignore. Although her biting wit has been missing from my paper for some time, I fondly remember spending many a day perusing Charen's observations about the latest left-wing lunacy. Reading her articles and her two books, I soon came to the conclusion that dear Mona is sort of an old guard conservative, meaning Ronald Reagan era conservatism. It's not surprising, really. Charen once worked as a speechwriter for Nancy Reagan as well as served time in the White House's Public Affairs Office. She also helped spread the word about the White House's policies in Central America. For a comprehensive examination of 1980s conservative/liberal battles as seen through the eyes of Charen, read her book "Useful Idiots." If you want a book that addresses specific liberal social policies that have led to domestic disaster, read this book.

"Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help" feels like an echo of conservative treatments released in the 1980s. There is nothing original here in terms of subject matter--Charen writes about the destructive influence of left-wing thought and action concerning homelessness, schools, crime, racial sensitivity, and the welfare state. Nearly every author in the conservative camp covers most of these issues at some point, but Charen's book is slightly better than most thanks to her reliance on massive statistical evidence to back up her horrific assertions. And they are horrific in the sense that decent Americans have let this nonsense go on for far too long, now going on forty years too long. Ever since the counterculture blighted the American landscape, we've had nothing but problems that seem to go on and on without end. Problems including but not limited to sky-high divorce rates, massive explosions in the numbers of both violent and nonviolent crimes, a tidal wave of costly entitlement programs that bring dependency to thousands upon thousands more citizens every year, an increase in drug use, and an embarrassing number of single mothers.

Charen begins her book by casting us back into time, back to the days of the mid to late 1960s when the Supreme Court expanded the rights of criminals through the Miranda and Mapp cases. Sure, these rulings certainly helped some innocent people charged with a crime escape wrongful convictions, but they led to far more thugs getting off on technicalities. These rulings also opened the door to a leniency towards criminals that continues to shock the public. Charen shows us how Judge "Turn 'Em Loose Bruce" Wright operates in the courtroom, and how Justice Harold Baer let a gang of narcotics dealing thugs go because their efforts to flee from the police constituted "a normal response for residents of Washington Heights" since it is widely known in that neighborhood that cops are "corrupt, abusive, and violent." Leniency on crime not only insults the intelligence of most Americans, it also breeds more crime and fosters distrust of authority in poor neighborhoods where most of these offenses take place. Throw in at roughly the same time LBJ and his "Great Society" programs, which threw billions of bucks at insolvable problems while normalizing riots and other objectionable behaviors, and you've got a foundation for endless heartache.

According to Charen, it was only a hop, skip, and a jump from legitimizing criminal behavior to endorsing the idea that the mentally ill deserved to walk the streets just like the rest of us. After all, if criminals are only practicing an alternative lifestyle surely the residents of the local asylum should have an equal opportunity to live life to the fullest. Thus began the emptying out of state hospitals and the concomitant rise in homelessness. Someone suffering from a long-term illness, like a man named Larry Hogue who terrorized a neighborhood in New York City for years because the authorities couldn't put him away, did not deserve to spend his days locked up where he could receive long-term assistance. Nope, liberals argued that Ronald Reagan and a lack of affordable housing led directly to the plight of the homeless. Remember the days of Comic Relief in the 1980s, the heavily hyped Hollywood gala that ran for nearly the entire span of Reagan's presidency? Homelessness, these people told us, was a big problem exacerbated by having a heartless republican in the White House. Amazingly, homelessness disappeared the day Clinton assumed the presidency. Wow! Slick Willie cured a problem plaguing millions by merely taking the oath of office! Actually, according to the author, studies conducted by numerous groups found the number of homeless in America was at most 250,000 people, hardly the numbers regularly cited by liberals.

Charen relentlessly repudiates further liberal policies and actions. School vouchers, a touchy political hot potato, comes under fire. Liberals hate vouchers because they suspect, and rightfully so, that allowing students to attend private schools will undercut the education establishment. They won't come out and say that, of course, because to do so would amount to admitting that most of their campaign contributions come from the teachers' union. In other words, it's far better to let the nation's kids languish in mediocre public schools than give up those reelection dollars. Nice. I could go on and on, but why bother? There is plenty of relevant information in the book that explodes many of the political left's most cherished beliefs. Readers sick of watching the country take a downward spiral will want to check this one out. Then read "Useful Idiots."