Customer Reviews

Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics

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I recommend this book be read wearing asbestos gloves. Greenwald's tone is emphatic and sometimes vociferous with dozens of passages written in bold. With a large font, these fairly jump out at the reader. His theme is just as bold and twice as profound and accurate with facts that the current events follower will readily recall.

In "Great American Hypocrites," he first takes aim at the American icon of masculinity and bravado, John Wayne, whom he brands for cowardice under fire from the Selective Service Act. John Wayne received a deferment claiming that he had a wife and three kids to support while other actors, younger and older, in similar circumstances hurried to enlist and fight for their country. While promising to enlist he ignored additional summonses from his draft board until his studio could intervene on his behalf.

Greenwald postulates that men such as Wayne need to overcompensate for their cowardice by throwing their wholehearted support to future military interventions so they will feel like patriots and men of courage. It is equally important to label people who avoid service or dissent against a war as cowards and traitors. This is an important point that the author makes.

By waving the flag and calling for war, they become courageous, strong, and patriotic. By denouncing those who disagree, the dissenters become cowardly, unpatriotic, and weak. Perfect examples of this are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who avoided combat by any means, while depicting a true war hero, John Kerry, as an effete, namby-pamby. Greenwald called this image "Tough Guise."

And this has been the republican and conservative strategy since Ronald Reagan who also avoided combat vs. Jimmy Carter who served aboard nuclear submarines. They not only portray themselves as he-men and strong, but their opponents as nerdy, Casper Milquetoasts. This is already in full-swing. A no-nonsense Hillary Clinton is "rumored" to be a lesbian, and Barack Obama is now "Obambi," according to the NY Times' Maureen Dowd.

The republican strategy requires the full support of a compliant right-leaning press that is all too eager to take dictation from right-wing and rumor-mongering blogs such as the Drudge Report, which is checked almost daily by the networks. As a result, rumors and wedge issues become the order of the day and gossip becomes "character issues," lowering the bar on public discourse to the point that there isn't one anymore. April 15th of this year provides a fine example with most of the time being spent on such issues in the Pennsylvania debate between Obama and Clinton. Almost nothing of the economy, the war, our burgeoning debt to China, healthcare, or where candidates stand, made their way to them. This plays into the hands of the republican strategy.

The big question is: whose haircut is next?

Besides manliness and courage, Greenwald notes that family values, and Christian virtue have also been a part of the Great American Hypocrisy. Divorces, second and third marriages, mistresses, extramarital affairs, gay prostitution, and drug addictions have been a hallmark of the conservative orgy of false advertising.

Another defining myth of conservative marketing is that they are pro-individual and anti-government. At least that was their campaign in the 90's where the raid on the Branch Davidians and returning Elian Gonzalez to his father was an example of government interference. With the ascendancy of the Bush regime, all this fear of big government went out the Constitutional window, as did our rights regarding habeas corpus, unlawful detentions, renditions, and eavesdropping. As the author states, "overnight [they went from] liberty-defending warriors to loyal authoritarian followers.

This book establishes its obsolescence talking about McCain as the republican candidate for president whom he describes as the same old conservative wrapped in a maverick's and independent's clothing. He is bound to be embraced by the right wing media machine because he is for staying in Iraq indefinitely, one of our more unpopular wars. The mainstream media has already given him a pass on numerous gaffes and the Keating scandal while focusing endlessly on Obama's former pastor or Hillary's "sniper fire." The author predicts it will be a replay of media bias as it was in the 2000 campaign between Gore and Bush.

Glenn Greenwald knows how to capture a reader's attention. I was only mildly annoyed at the use of bold lettering, large font, and that some paragraphs seemed a bit repetitive. It seems there was a rush to print. (No one told the author that the C.V.A. Ronald Reagan is an aircraft carrier and not a battleship). But more important is the book's credibility. Greenwald writes with impassioned accuracy about what happened, and what is happening right now.

That is why you should consider reading this right now, if for nothing else to learn about truth, justice, and the American way.

It's an in-depth comeback to conservatives lies and conservative damned lies.


Also recommended:

Its identical twin:

Conason, Joe, "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth." (Highly Recommended HR).

About the Press:

Waldman, Paul, "Fraud: The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies and Why the Media Didn't Tell You." Although this is five years old, Waldman does a superb job of showing where the bias really is in our media. (HR)

Boehlert, Eric, "Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush" (HR)

Thomas, Helen, "Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public."

For Contrasts and Giggles:

Jackson, Gregg, "Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies: Issue by Issue Responses to the Most Common Claims of the Left from A to Z." Please compare this parochial work to Conason's and Greenwald's.

For more sleaze and rumors, read the Drudge Report and Michelle Malkin's blog--just once.

Glenn Greenwald's new book is indispensable for anyone who wants to know why America seems to be going so far along the wrong track we've been running along for too long. How can we have a government controlled by a party which claims to be strong on defense, in favor of smaller government and personal liberty instead give us record deficits, a more dangerous world, a weakened military, and government intrusion into every sphere of private life? It's not an accident.

Greenwald lays out in great detail what the problem is. Our political discourse in this country has been thoroughly debased by turning away from substantive debate on real issues to a freak show where myths matter more than truth and the press aids and abets the process.

The practitioners of these myths are the Republican party, which has cloaked itself in an facade of manliness, patriotism, and moral rectitude even as the facts show they are anything but. Greenwald shows how time and time again they project their own sins onto the Democrats and the press mindlessly parrots their talking points. It's not pretty, but it works - and that's why the GOP will keep doing it.

For someone who is a Republican, but wonders why the budget is busted, why fundamentalist preachers are calling the shots, why the party keeps having scandal after scandal, why the country is now on a permanent war footing, this book is a must read.

For someone who is a Democrat, this book is a must read because it explains why the Democrats seem to be always snatching defeat from victory, why they can't catch a break from the press, and why the Republicans are literally able to get away with murder time and time again.

In documenting just a fraction of the GOP hypocrisy rampant today, Greenwald has shown us one reason why the last 7 years of Republican rule has failed so horribly- because they don't believe a word they utter.

They decry an overreaching government- except when they are doing the reaching.

They wring their hands at "amoral liberals"- hoping no mentions their own failed marriages, arrests, scandals and fraud.

They stomp their feet at the "socialist" liberals, while gaming the system for tax cuts, military contracts for superfluous weapons systems, and earmarks out the wazoo.

The GOP is built upon lies- lies about our security, our morality, and the place of government in our lives. They either don't believe a word they spew- making them hypocrites, or they do believe it all- making them fools.

Either way, they had their moment, failed horribly, and now history will judge them. And it won't be pretty, but then again, neither has the last 7 years of GOP rule. Good riddance to bad rubbish. We as a nation can no longer afford your lies, hypocrisy, and warmongering.

Kudos to Gleen Greenwald, a voice of sanity in a world crowded by fools.

I am a registered Republican. I voted for George W. Bush in 2004 and voted Republican in the Virginia primary. Since 2004, I have slowly, painfully, come to the realizations that Greenwald so eloquently articulates.

For an exhaustive analysis, the review "Exposes the Freak Show" expertly details what is so wonderful about this book; instead I would just like to encourage fellow Republicans to read this book, so you may better understand who is currently leading our party. Despite allegations to the alternative, the book is highly evidenced with simple facts about candidates lives. Nothing more complex is necessary. Please read this book.

Great American Hypocrites is the best book I've read on how the media works since Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. In some ways, I think it's an even more important read for conservatives than it is for liberals -- at least for conservatives, like yours truly, who put principle before party. If you want to understand how politics and the media work today, how the Republican party has betrayed the principles it purports to defend, and how opinion is manipulated by appeals to fear, prejudice, and other irrational emotions, Great American Hypocrites is indispensable. Give it a try -- you won't be able to put it down, and you'll never read the paper or watch the news the same way after.

Anyone who plans on watching or participating in the 2008 badly needs to read this book. Glenn Greenwald's insightful take on the current electoral arena is a powerful follow-up to his previous work and refreshing perspective on the current mudslinging that has come to define American politics.

I would also like to recommend this book for true Republicans who are tired of watching their ideology of small government and rich civil liberties being hijacked by the loony wing of their party that cuts taxes for the rich and sends the less fortunate to die in their hopeless foreign quagmires for oil.

Read this book.

I have read all three of Glenn Greenwald's books and he continues to build on the indictment of the GOP generally and this administration particularly. He takes what I have felt, in my gut, was true and gives me the information I need to KNOW it is true. He exposes the fact that the Emperor, in fact, has no clothes. He proves the charge of hypocracy with exquisite detail and skill. I'd be willing to bet he was VERY effective in the court room. The research and documentation are evident and convincing.
I have watched the decline of journalistic integrity over the past three decades. Through out the media mergers and growth of right-wing tabloid media "news" programming, I have marveled at the dumbing down of what passes as journalism. I have often speculated as to what the media spin would be if Watergate had happened in 2000 instead of 1972.
The GOP is so sordid and sleazy and these people are the ones with power in our country. Surely, if it didn't hurt so much, I would laugh. Even Monty Python could not have invented anything this preposterous.

What I love best about Glenn Greenwald's pieces in Salon is his meticulous research and detailing of the full story behind his assertions. It's awfully easy to forget what politicians have stated over the course of months and years, but Greenwald sets the record straight by setting the record down.

What I hate the most about "Great American Hypocrites" is that Greenwald has abandoned this approach and given us what amounts to a thinly-supported diatribe about right-wing politicians he does not like. Not that I disagree with him. Not at all. But a book-length space should give GG the chance to sit back in his lawn chair and shoot the barracudas in the barrel at his (and our) leisure. But this he does not do.

Greenwald starts his attacks by honing in on the grand daddy of phony macho militarism, the Duke himself. Greenwald tells of John Wayne's attempts (all successful) to stay out of the line of fire during WWII. This while many of his fellow actors (Cooper, Stewart, Fonda) volunteered to serve in combat zones. Wayne's lack of actual military vigor stands in sharp contract to the roles he played, to his bellicose posturing about the war and to his constant commentary about his own toughness. Greenwald also sketches the gap between Wayne's moralizing about social issues and his personal life. Wayne's adulteries and multiple marriages (with hints of spousal abuse) hardly square with conservative values. Neither do Wayne's hard drinking (not surprising for a man of his era) and his "abuse" of uppers and downers. But that's about all the detail we get about this bad, bad man.

Greenwald gives similar treatment to Matt Drudge, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. While I would certainly welcome information on how well these mens' personal lives fail to match up with their public personae, I was disappointed that Greenwald was unable to deliver the goods. I found myself skipping whole paragraphs (something I almost religiously avoid) to get to the data. I was also turned off by the obvious electioneering involved in devoting an entire chapter on attacking John McCain.

Greenwald is strongest (often vasery strong, in his analyses of the failings of the America media. Words like "lazy" and "slothful" are flung at them, with good reason, as Greenwald describves the process by which right-wing smears (Drudge gets a drubbing here) are elevated by media into "news" and then into the public consciencenous. This is a bad thing, of course, and Greenwald gives examples of how many stories of national import are buried under the avalanche of coverage given to trivial items like $400 haaircurts given to presidential candidates. But interesting as they are, these are stories of stupid news gathering -- not hypocrisy.

"Great American Hypocrites" may help you identify the loose threads of some of America's loudest and most obnoxious pseudo-warriors. It may help readers give wider berth to their bellicose lies. It will give you insights into the way their mendactities reach the public. But the book will not give you the info needed to counter their influence properly, and perhaps to persuade their fans of their perfidy.

Greenwald writes an online column for Salon, which if you haven't read, you must. He consistently provides razor sharp insight simply not available in traditional media, such as astute criticism of said media. This book is an unflinching dressing-down of the ridiculous myths that exist out there about "conservatives," from John Wayne to John McCain. No need to list them here--if you're even looking at picking up this book, you already know what they are, and are outraged by them. My only criticism of Greenwald is that he can from time to time be repetitive in his observations and points, taking, for example, 15 pages to say what could be said in 12. That's all that keeps me from giving this 5 stars. But don't let that stop you. Buy this book. And start reading him on Salon.

Glenn Greenwald is the writer for our time. I think historians will use Glenn's writings as a milestone beginning the end of the corporate propaganda era. Glenn has few sacred cows except the truth, which we all know has a liberal bias. This book is another in his impressive catalog exposing the Hypocrites in the corporate media and corporate bought government. Conservative apologists and the gasbags in the media will hate it as it is filled with bonafide facts.