About this item
Highlights
- 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.
- Author(s): Will Bunch
- 384 Pages
- Political Science, Political Ideologies
Description
About the Book
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.
Book Synopsis
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.
From the Back Cover
They think Obama Isn't an American citizen.
They think Obama wants to put Americans in Concentration Camps.
They think Obama is the Anti-Christ.
This isn't just the Tea Party--Welcome to the Backlash.
The election of Barack Obama provoked unparalleled anger on the far right that eventually twisted important national discussions and pushed ideas from the conservative fringe into the mainstream media. In this gripping exposé, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Will Bunch reveals the secrets behind the crusade against the president, exploring how forces like radical militia groups, the Tea Party, pro-gun zealots, and Glenn Beck have combined old-fashioned populist outrage with digital-age phobias to produce a wave of resentment that many have ridden straight to the bank. Pulling back the curtain on the paranoid politics of a new generation, Bunch exposes the opportunists who have embraced apocalyptic fearmongering, and shows how events such as the election of America's first African-American president, the economic recession, and the rise of social networking have created a dangerous political moment that poses legitimate risks to democracy in America.
Review Quotes
"Persuasive...compelling." -- Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
"The Backlash is not an attack on the movement. It's a plea for the people inside the movement to realize they're being taken advantage of...it identifies the "pyramid of hucksters" and "needless anxieties" that distort economic angst into a crisis of faith in government and the press. -- Slate
"An exquisitely written expose of a frightening political force that is shaping our elections, our society and our world." -- David Sirota, New York Times bestselling author and nationally syndicated columnist
"Chart(s) the darker fringes of the populist extreme that have acquired a new energy since the election of Barack Obama...a sobering account." -- Los Angeles Times
"Always compelling, but often disturbing, The Backlash is an essential contribution to our understanding of what's happening right now on the political scene and what we might expect in the years to come." -- David Brock, author of the best-selling Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of An Ex-Conservative
"A read on the wild side...[The Backlash is] an often revealing and scarily sobering midterm report that provokes a prime question: If political extremism and paranoia become more pronounced, will the ideological and partisan pendulum continue to swing - and never stop to solve the nation's problems?" -- Philadelphia Inquirer
"...For liberals or moderates seeking to understand current far right events, the book will fascinate, and likely frighten." -- Publishers Weekly
"An eye-opening, journalistic account of the activities and political views of the backlash...entertaining and engaging" -- Library Journal
"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. " -- Booklist
"Extraordinarily readable, vividly real-to-life and broad-in-scope view of the Tea Party movement - this book could have been a movie." -- Truthout.org