The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama [Paperback]

Will Bunch (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 13, 2011

In The Backlash, Liberal columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning political reporter Will Bunch goes behind the scenes of America’s new extreme right-wing minority to explore how their campaign of misinformation, their distortion of President Obama, and their collective fear of the future combine to pose a very real threat to our democratic system. From health care reform to immigration policies, The Backlash is a gripping investigation into the emerging voice of the dangerous American right wing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While it was no secret that Americans on the far right of the political spectrum were unenthusiastic about Obama's victory, the immediacy and intensity of the backlash went well beyond what anyone expected. In this exhaustive investigation of the Tea Party movement and its loudest mouthpieces, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, Bunch seeks to help liberal and moderate America understand the rage of the right, where they see the nation headed, and how legitimate grievances are being manipulated by opportunists hawking fear to make millions off of working class people. While Bunch's own biases are apparent from page one, he is careful to try to present the far right in an honest light and, according to Bunch, without challenging their perspectives. Maturity in political discourse would be refreshing if Bunch were writing political discourse; he's not. This is investigative reporting. Bunch's primary issue seems to be Beck's opportunism, but his targeting of the only person he doesn't interview will likely make conservatives avoid his book, something Bunch clearly expects. But for liberals or moderates seeking to understand current far right events, the book will fascinate, and likely frighten.
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From Booklist

Already fretting over the U.S. Census Bureau prediction that by 2050 whites will no longer be in the majority in the U.S. and worried by the loss of jobs and home equity, a certain element of the white population has been unhinged by the election of the nation’s first black president, argues Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bunch. Thus, the Tea Party, Birthers, Oath Keepers, the 9.12 Project, and other right-wing radicals are on the rise, spurred by television and Internet hustlers, most prominently Glenn Beck. Bunch traveled the circuit from Delaware to Arizona, attending anti-immigration meetings and shooting rallies, to record the astonishing anger, fear, and discontent that has formed into a backlash against President Obama, alleging that he is not a U.S. citizen, that he means to take away guns from private citizens, and that he is directing FEMA to set up internment camps, all of which Bunch debunks. Bunch also profiles the cynical hustlers making money on this visceral fear, comparing Beck to Elmer Gantry as he morphs from evoker of the Founding Fathers and defender of the Constitution to evoker of God the father and defender of Christian morality, all the while hawking gold and survival food packets through Glen Beck, Inc. Despite writing in a sometimes awkward second-person voice, Bunch has rendered an insightful close-up look at the individuals and social forces that promise to churn American politics in the face of huge social and demographic changes. --Vanessa Bush --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; Reprint edition (September 13, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061991724
• ISBN-13: 978-0061991721
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #768,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

120 of 130 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A good first hand look at an opposing opinion September 2, 2010

By M. Kent

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

A great read - the book moves very quickly and shows the members of these organizations as real people, not stereotypes. Given that, it is at times difficult to read as some of the views the subjects hold are well, just illogical. But the author goes to great lengths to show why they hold these views and why they are so taken with Beck, Rush, Fox News...etc. He explains in detail the events of their lives that brought them to have such distrust for the government and specifically President Obama. I did not come away from this book with a higher opinion of any on the far right, but I appreciate the respect the author shows his subjects. They are after all, people too. As for his details on Beck, I think if one cannot see that he is portraying a character on his television and radio shows, the odds of this book changing your mind are unlikely. I am sensible enough to see that and I also know that if Beck were to retire tomorrow, there would be someone to take his place within days.

In the end he speaks about what he feels these people really fear and I think he hits the nail on the head. They fear that their way of life is vanishing and to some degree they are right. I don't agree that this should be frightening, but it is an accurate diagnosis of the source of their anger.

66 of 75 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's A Detective Novel About The Tea Party Movement September 7, 2010

By Susan E. Madrak

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Will Bunch has an agreeable knack for writing about people's beliefs without attacking them personally. His friendly style is a pleasure to read, and the book reminded me favorably of Jess Walters' book about Ruby Ridge, which managed to convey the heartbreaking tragedy of Ruby Ridge -- without canonizing any of the participants.

This is about another kind of tragedy: An entire class of American citizens whose fear over a changing country has led them to some irrational, paranoid beliefs. Bunch manages to make these people likable and engaging -- without giving an inch on the glaring factual inaccuracies of their attacks.

I especially enjoyed the chronological structure of the book, because it reads almost like a detective novel. Who are these people? Why do they hate the President? What are they so afraid of? By the time you get done reading "The Backlash," you'll have a much better idea. Highly recommended.

35 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Through investigative reporting, brilliant analysis September 14, 2010

By Charles D. Fink

Format:Hardcover

Everyone knew there would be a right wing backlash against the landslide election of Barak Obama, as there had been for Bill Clinton, only this time tinged by the nation's dark history of race relations. With prodigious skill as an investigative reporter, Bunch drills into the backlash to expose its populist roots, its promoters, and its profiteers. Most importantly, the book explains how the backlash has influenced mainstream politicians and rendered the country ungovernable at a moment when problems threaten to overwhelm us. Remarkably easy to read, written with humor and insight, The Backlash is a must read for anyone seeking to understand our current conditions.

43 of 56 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A much-needed history of a "movement" that's dividing the US September 12, 2010

By Timothy P. Scanlon VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I happened to have been on the National Mall for Obama's inauguration. There were an estimated 1.7 million people there, and a level of excitement I'd never seen on the Mall, despite my living here for nearly a quarter century. Shortly after, I got a first taste of the anti-Obama fervor at, of all places, the Lincoln Memorial: a lady from Indiana raved of the caliber of those who attended the inauguration (which she hadn't attended). She nearly used the "N" word, which I discouraged.

Since then, volumes have flooded the market which all but accuse Obama of having written The Communist Manifesto While many of the volumes may be incomprehensible, they do have an audience. And the AM airwaves flood us with warnings of the coming apocalypse, the socialist takeover, the evils of health care reform, and people screaming to keep the government off our Medicare.

So, when a book such as this one came out, I wondered how long it would take for some of those who despise Obama to write one-star reviews. It didn't take long...

Bunch, who'd already written an eloquent exposé of the Reagan administration, Tear Down This Myth: The Right-Wing Distortion of the Reagan Legacy has several characters in his narrative. Interestingly, the lead one is fear. Second may actually be Glenn Beck. Then there's unemployment. But there are others less noticeable. He starts the book with a description of a few advocates of Glenn Beck's 9/12 movement, and members of the Tea Party. He stayed with some of them in places like Delaware and Pennsylvania.... Importantly, he treated them with respect, and tried to understand where they're coming from ideologically. And that's where the issue of unemployment comes in: most were unemployed and, as he later points out in the book, therefore had time to take part in the anti-administration activities.

Then there's the Oath Keepers, an organization founded by a Yale graduate who's a zealot. The member of that organization whom Bunch spoke with wasn't the founder, but a former police officer who'd been terminated apparently for her zealotry. Their strategy is to take an oath consisting of items they would refuse to transcend the Constitution--which Bunch suggests isn't happening anyway.

A more interesting group whom Bunch spent some time with is a gun fair in Kentucky. I could relate with that for a couple of reasons one of which is a couple of those whom Bunch spent time with were from a portion of the country with which I'm familiar. The other is based on an argument I got into with a nephew who, in 2004, exposed that he's a Republican based on the issue of gun control. When I pointed out that the Democrat and Republican stand on that issue was identical, he didn't rethink the issue.

An important dimension of the gun fanatics fanaticism is based on that: while they rant on their fear of Obama taking our guns from us--to the degree that some law enforcement personnel have lost their lives, something Bunch also tactfully covers--it's all based on false information, i.e., bad propaganda!

I would be a liar if I didn't mention the primary role Glenn Beck plays among these other "characters." It's almost as if the book is another volume exposing Beck as the charlatan he is. But that exposure is appropriate to the subject matter of the book! Indeed, a couple of chapters cover those dubious companies who sponsor Beck and his post-apocalyptic sales pitches--and even whole CPAC gatherings which are based on the same nonsense!

As I go over what I've written on this fine volume, I regret that I can say so little; I've already reduced it by a few paragraphs! It's one of those books in which I almost used up a highlighter. (Actually, I read it on my kindle so I have to use the highlighter more as a metaphor). There's so much material in the book, and it's so important pertinent to what's going on in our country today: charlatan shock jocks seen as political gurus; complete nonsense making up much of what should be an honest dialogue if we really are a democracy. Even racism. As a veteran of civil rights law, I get tired of that word being thrown around too easily. But Mr. Bunch asks in a few places, what else could be the basis for the degree of hate, based on false information? I've asked the same, since my encounter with that Indiana lady in the historical portion of the National Mall.

Incidentally, Mr. Bunch does appeal to the reader in the last chapter to attempt to understand those with whom he talks. I try to do that, but, as you can see here, first, many who would never read a book such as this are the first ones to review" it. And, as I've argued on many a blog, it's pretty hard to argue with the comically irrational. But I will try to abide by Bunch's advice thereby, one hopes, getting some to rethink their stance.

I don't know that any on the right will be willing to read this text. It'll unfortunately probably be the material found on the shelves of those with political leanings like those of Mr. Bunch who is, incidentally, a real journalist (not a shock jock or tabloid presentor). And it will be among the books assigned by academics. I do, however recommend it. I guarantee it will be on the reading lists of historians two centuries from now who're trying to understand the divisions of the Americans in the early 21st century. Read more ›

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Portrait of Reactionism September 22, 2010

By Kelly Cooper VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Will Bunch has written a decent piece of investigative journalism that covers large swaths of terrain already familiar to most political junkies. Even so, to read his book is instructive. Much of his effort is expended in trying to answer the question of why so many Americans have become acolytes of Glenn Beck and his hokey brand of libertarian politics. It turns out to be a more difficult task than one might expect. To begin with, many of those who self-identify with the "Tea Party" say that they are motivated by existential threats that are impossible to substantiate. Wading through the clutches of conspiracy theorists and profiteers of the apocalypse that populate the right-wing fringe, Bunch ultimately reaches some predictably pedestrian conclusions: people are motivated by fear and uncertainty, and their prophets are driven by profit.

Even though Bunch is an avowed progressive, he does a fairly decent job of presenting his case in a relatively objective and straightforward manner. Oddly, as someone who is more sympathetic to liberal ideology generally, by the time I finished the book I found myself less alarmed by the rise of Tea Party activism than I had been previously. Perhaps I'm naturally sympathetic to those who find themselves on the political fringe; which, incidentally, is an impulse manipulated to great advantage by those tasked with bringing fresh recruits into anti-government, anti-elitist, and anti-establishment movements. Mine is, to be sure, a sympathy for the underdog. Even as Bunch desperately tries to convey a sense of import in all this Tea Partying, the unmistakable and lasting impression is that this is a party of outliers and disgruntled misfits who mainly serve the purposes of those who are in the business of selling fear....

The almost inevitable obsolescence of the backlash against the Obama administration assumes a kind of omnipresence throughout the book, as Bunch relentlessly references the demographics involved: senior citizens, the unemployed, old school social conservatives, white people, more senior citizens, etc. The available polling data indicates that, over the long term, traditional liberal values and classic freethinking are shaping the country's political future (i.e., increasingly open-minded attitudes towards homosexuality, non-theism, anti-xenophobic immigration policy, health-care reform, environmental law, the rights of women and children, etc.); meanwhile, the expanding Latino population and the social values of younger generations of Americans are threatening to swamp the old political worldview of which "The Backlash" appears to be but a vestigial polyp. Viewed in this light, its hard not to feel some sympathy for the those who insist on haplessly protesting modernity. Read more ›