All Liberal Activists need to READ THIS BOOK!

[tom_paine]

It's called "Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War" by Joe Bageant

http://www.amazon.com/Deer-Hunting-Jesus-Dispatches-Americas/dp/030733936X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198185595&sr=1-1

Bageant describes himself as a "redneck socialist" but his politics are beside the point as opposed to his ability to relate to us what he sees by someone who has bridged both worlds.

I have always said that one of the Bushies more pernicious talents in constructing their Web of Propaganda and Deceit is the ability to take a grain of truth and wrap about it the most absurd tissue of lies. The grain of truth makes the lies easier to swallow, from the point of view of the "disinterested observer".

Further, there are other reasons for why the very "FDR liberalism" that uplifted the quality of life for millions upon millions of Americans is now rejected by the descendants of those same Americans, even as they are being taken apart at the joints, economically-speaking, by the Royal and Loyal Bushies of the world.

It is a complex issue, one which defies the simple platitudes such as "The American Sheeple are stupid."

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am not perfect, just the opposite. I have probably said this and other simple platitudes a hundred or a thousand times on DU.

Bageant bridges two worlds that desperately need to be bridged if we are to have any hope of reaching our fellow Americans and save this country from authoritarian totalitarian Bushies.

Liberal Activists, when reading this book, will have to have an open mind and recall our "FDR Roots". Otherwise, they/we will not gain anything from this book but a fresh contempt for "yokels", and that is one luxury we cannot afford at this late date.

Liberals, most of them/us, excoriated Howard Dean when he spoke of the need to get "people with Confederate Flags on their trucks" in our camp, but there is more than a little truth to that.

This book enlightens, illuminates, and shows us the way as to the whys and even some of the hows of doing this. As the book will illuminate also, the desperate need for doing this, and it is going to involve getting our hands dirty and doing things which seem pointless and unpleasant.

Anyway, the more Liberal a person is, the more they need to read this book, to read it with and open mind and to sit down and read it to the very end.

"Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War" by Joe Bageant.

http://www.amazon.com/Deer-Hunting-Jesus-Dispatches-Americas/dp/030733936X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198185595&sr=1-1

Read It. You will not regret it.

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Thanks for the recommendation

I've read Joe Bageant's essays for a couple of years now, courtesy of The Smirking Chimp. Like Bageant, I've lived and worked among the people like those he chronicles my entire life. It's unfortunate that some liberals dismiss this mass of humanity as unreachable. It works out quite well for the BFEE and other power structures dedicated to keeping the rest of humanity under their thumb.

[stellanoir]

2. Yikes

With the continual demonization of the word "liberal" and the shattering of classically based "conservative" principles by the rabid "looting and wasting" of the Neocons, many have abandoned the label of "liberal" and adopted the label of "progressive."

It's just crazy that all the Holier-than-thou rollers so often selfishly eschew liberalism when the premise of helping those less fortunate is so key to premise of Christ's alleged teachings.

These labels are antiquated and just no longer even remotely representative of what they were intended. I've been bothered by the discrepancy for a long while. . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2637905

It sounds as though this book may indeed help.

Thanks for sharing it.

[uberblonde]

3. This book ROCKS.

I don't even know where my copy is, because every time I lend it to someone, they call me and say, "Do you mind if I lend it to a friend?"

[applegrove]

4. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look for it.