In “Rules for Radical Conservatives: Beating the Left at Its Own Game To Take Back America,” the reader is treated to a humorous, irreverent look at a strategy for triumphing over the corrosive worldview known as liberalism.
Right off the bat, the new book by a media “only the shadow knows” is entertaining, in that the author goes by the pseudonym, David Kahane.
That “Kahane” is described in press materials as “an insufferable Hollywood liberal who provides priceless insights for conservatives on the inner workings of the left-wing political machine” makes this book all the more delicious.
Writing under his assumed name for National Review online since 2007, the author seems well-placed to deliver up a strategy to turn the left’s own methodologies on itself, and his tips provide conservatives with real ammunition in this ongoing culture war.
Upfront, the author acknowledges the all-important point that liberals are relentless and never take a day off. His all-encompassing insight into leftwing thinking is quite fascinating, as we learn that the left pounces on ideological weaknesses and “pin them on” conservatives and that the left loathes fighting facts (relying instead on raging emotion).
From the first word, “Rules for Radical Conservatives” is both chilling and hilarious. The author relates that a great, second Civil War is now being fought – a clannish fight between Baby Boomers, so many of whom have competing interests. Early on, we learn that shadowy conditions like Attention Deficit Disorder have basically been invented (“any kid claiming ADD would have been laughed at and, in Catholic school, probably slapped upside the head by the nuns”).
The book is set up almost as a conversation, with liberals explaining themselves to us misguided conservatives. It is quite interesting that the author has his “liberal voice” compare liberals to conservatives as “Cain to your Abel,” a tip-off that in some way, he thinks of liberalism as “evil” contrasted with the conservative “good.”
“Kahane” also displays a firm grasp of history, but not only history, he also understands how forces have shaped our society. Referencing FDR’s “Economic Bill of Rights,” as the nation was midway through an existential world war, Kahane explores the social engineering that Roosevelt had time for, at the same time he managed two theatres of war, including the soon-to-be-launched invasion of Europe.
“All of these rights spell security,” Roosevelt said, and he made it clear that the U.S. government would wrap us all in swaddling clothes and take care of us until our miserable existence here on earth drew its last breath.
While all this engineering went on, we slept, of course, content with the belief that all was basically right with our world.
Interestingly, Kahane realizes that because of change agents like Barack Obama, conservatives must also get into the mindset that conservatives must also think in terms of a “new kind of America” and a “new kind of American.” It is in this section of the book that he offers real solutions for making sure our country is not finished-off by the Hanoi-Jane crowd.
Again, Kahane references seismic historical changes that most of us slept through, such as the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Ted Kennedy assured us then that “This bill will not flood our cities with immigrants” and that it wouldn’t take jobs from Americans. Of course all that was false, and only now are we reaping that whirlwind.
Kahane does us a service by illuminating these facts, so that we can get to the meat of the matter: emergence from liberalism.
In this instance, Kahane encourages us to embrace this new demographic in America; although the left encouraged illegal immigration in order to reap a harvest of new, pliable voters, conservatives can engage with them and welcome them to America … although the key is insisting that our country remain distinctly American.
As Kahane’s conversational, liberal friend “voices” his revealing insights into the liberal mind, we begin to see a grand strategy unfolding, and the author develops this strategy masterfully. He insists that “this country is strong enough to resist the importation of smug, and yet somehow victimized, Central European socialism.”
“Rules for Radical Conservatives” takes the strategies of the Alinskys of our world and turns them on their heads, so that conservatives have a singular blueprint for keeping America American.
