The Truth (with jokes)

The Truth (with jokes) Al Franken Date: 25 October, 2005   —   $15.57   —   Book product page Rating:

Al Franken's humor is hit or miss for me. Sometimes he's rolling-on-the-floor funny, but much of the time he falls flat. Luckily, his latest book is heavy on the truth and wickedly dry on the humor. This one's a hit.

Franken dissects the "fear, smears and queers" strategy that gave President Bush 50.73% of the vote in 2004. I'd never heard of Terror Management Theory before, but the Bush campaign really has the fear mongering down.

Here's aTMT study Franken cites: Deliver Us From Evil: The Effects of Mortality Salience and Reminders of 9/11 on Support for President George W. Bush. Basically, the more President Bush graphically describes terrorists "beheading bound captives" (as in his State of the Union address), the more Americans are willing to give up their civil liberties (and their votes) for the illusion of safety.

The "queers" part of the strategy is merely playing to the sexist, racist and homophobic Republican base -- we expect that -- but the smears are what lock in the swing voters. Even before John Kerry was nominated, we saw the Bush campaign and then the right-wing echo chamber repeat the totally bogus charge that he was a "flip-flopper" (just as Bill Clinton was unjustifiably painted as a "waffler" and Al Gore as a "serial exaggerator" ). Now, of course, Republicans are starting the 2008 smears early by tagging Senator Clinton as "angry". It's dishonest, despicable -- and effective slander.

The "fears, smears and queers" strategy worked for Republicans last time, and you can bet they'll play it again, Sam.

Franken's dark humor sometimes made me laugh at the most horrible things. For example, he points out that if President Bush really did lose the 2000 election, then he's eligible to run again in 2008. Haha...ha...oh, shit...

Franken also clearly explains the Jack Abramoff scandals, the GOP's Social Security "reform" scam, and how President Bush mislead us into Iraq and bungled the occupation.

The book is a page-turner and very well researched and documented. If you want The Truth (with jokes), it doesn't get any better than this. Read it.