David Sirota

The fact that Chuck Klosterman's book on the 1990s was so well researched and written didn't do the fact that I read this immediately afterwards any favors. I'm as progressive as the next guy, but this book that disguises itself as a retrospective on the 1980s basically goes like this:

1. A chapter introduces a phenomenon or event from the 80s.

2. It then brings up a tangentially related phenomenon or event from the present year of 2008 which involves Republicans doing something the author doesn't approve of.

3. "And therefore, the 1980s caused this thing! Republicans suck!"

It's the kind of reductionist, correlation confused for causation, angry leftist ranting that you can see coming a mile away which we've seen a million times. If you want to rehash Michael Moore-esque propaganda disguised as commentary, then write that book, and don't try to bait people with a cute yellow cover with a Rubix cube on it that wastes an entire chapter claiming that the A team's popularity explains how Bush lied us into Iraq or whatever.

And again, I am mostly sympathetic to the overall political leanings of the author, but this sort of sanctimonious heart bleeding is why people don't like us.
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Reaganesque politics, the cult of Objectivism, institutional racism, and institutional militarism are analyzed and critiqued through colorful 1980’s metaphors and memorabilia. Ronald Reagan’s revenge and “greed is good” memes have been discussed in other works and Sirota provides a decent effort here, but his critiques of monumental militarism is top-notch along with his take on institutional racism—especially the disaffirming labeling of African Americans and Blacks as ‘transcendent’ and describing American society as ‘post-racial’—offers an excellent context to the current crises of a color-blind society, financial Armageddon, Tea Party patriarchs, and the perpetual war on Terra.… (más)