⇒ Download Gratis Conservatize Me How I Tried to Become a Righty with the Help of Richard Nixon Sean Hannity Toby Keith and Beef Jerky John Moe 9780060854010 Books

Conservatize Me How I Tried to Become a Righty with the Help of Richard Nixon Sean Hannity Toby Keith and Beef Jerky John Moe 9780060854010 Books

Download As PDF : Conservatize Me How I Tried to Become a Righty with the Help of Richard Nixon Sean Hannity Toby Keith and Beef Jerky John Moe 9780060854010 Books

Conservatize Me How I Tried to Become a Righty with the Help of Richard Nixon Sean Hannity Toby Keith and Beef Jerky John Moe 9780060854010 Books

John Moe is a public radio commentator from very liberal Seattle, who tells the story in this 2006 book of "The Experiment": how (inspired by Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me) he immersed himself in conservative culture for 30 days, visited various organizations and met with leading spokespeople for conservatism, to see "is it possible to change your own mind? Could I pull off artificial conversion?"

He changed his hairstyle; bought a suit; read and listened to only conservative magazines, TV, and other media (including only watching movies such as Red Dawn ('84)); even listened only to music by artists such as Toby Keith and Christian artist Michael W. Smith. He visited conservative think tanks such as the Family Research Council, talked with people like William Kristol (who said that neoconservatism "is much friendlier to bold government action than traditional neoconservatism"; pg. 65), stayed in Idaho for a week or so, and ate lots of beef jerky.

Along the way he makes some incisive observations (e.g., that both Nancy Reagan and her son support stem cell research, pg. 81; and that Michael Medved listens "every day" to NPR's "All Things Considered," pg. 198), and even admits that "There was a lot of the world of conservatism that I had become fond of" (Pg. 185).

His "Experiment" might have been more convincing if he had engaged in a more sustained (e.g., 1-2 years, rather than 30 days) study, and if he had interacted INTELLECTUALLY with conservative arguments more vigorously (he admitted toward the end of the 30 days that "I might as well shove a few more books into my head... as the shot clock wound down," pg. 298). Still, the book is a very interesting excusion into "enemy territory," and as he concludes, "I had proved that you can blast yourself out of your comfort zone and get, if not a smarter brain, at least a wider one." (Pg. 307)


Tags : Conservatize Me: How I Tried to Become a Righty with the Help of Richard Nixon, Sean Hannity, Toby Keith, and Beef Jerky [John Moe] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. We always hear how everyone in America is firmly planted in red or blue. They're permanently conservative or irreversibly liberal. But are we all really that locked in to the left or the right? Is America still a place where it's possible to change someone's mind and get them to cross over to the other side of the ideological fence? Is it possible to do that to yourself? For John Moe,John Moe,Conservatize Me: How I Tried to Become a Righty with the Help of Richard Nixon, Sean Hannity, Toby Keith, and Beef Jerky,William Morrow,0060854014,Topic - Political,Conservatism;United States;Humor.,Conservatives;Social life and customs;21st century;Humor.,United States;Politics and government;2001-2009;Humor.,21st century,Conservatism,Conservatives,HUMOR Topic Politics,Humor,POLITICAL SCIENCE General,POLITICAL SCIENCE Political Ideologies Conservatism & Liberalism,Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism,Political culture,Politics Current Events,SOCIAL SCIENCE Popular Culture,Satire And Humor,Social life and customs,U.S. - Contemporary Politics,United States

Conservatize Me How I Tried to Become a Righty with the Help of Richard Nixon Sean Hannity Toby Keith and Beef Jerky John Moe 9780060854010 Books Reviews

`Conservatize Me' asks a question that has plagued me for years. What is the allure of Conservativism and why does it completely bypass some people like myself? But more importantly, is it possible to transform yourself into a Conservative true believer by immersing yourself in Conservativism? Does Conservativism bloom from nature or nurture? In the spirit of `Super Size Me' John Moe decides to become a Conservative for 30 days to see the effects.

The author's quest to become a Conservative is consistently entertaining, generally engaging, often thought provoking and occasionally poignant. For the most part, the book remains dignified in its approach to Conservativism. Sure he turns himself into a walking stereotype with a mix of stuffy business suits and cheap, patriotic t-shirts, surviving on beef jerky and Coors beer while listening to Charlie Daniels. But the author shows a fair amount respect for the views of the high profile Conservatives he meets including Rich Lowry, Bill Kristol, Jonah Goldberg and Michael Medved. Jeff Gannon on the other hand... not so much. Of course he missed meeting the even more popular and truly toxic Conservative voices like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. One thing I noticed was how dramatically different the Conservative message is when explained to `liberal' John Moe than when spoken to an audience of true believers. At one point the author turns off Limbaugh's program because he finds it more repellant than alluring as a siren for Conservativism. On the other hand his visit to Rexberg, Idaho, a city that had the highest percentage (92) of voters voting for Bush in 2004 was an extremely pleasant experience and the author was left wondering why the residence of his hometown of Seattle couldn't be so nice.

A few things stuck with me after I read the book. Most striking was Conservative blogger Jonah Goldberg's insistence that the left obsesses too much over hypocrisy. Goldberg stated that, "[to become a Conservative] you're going to have to give up this weird mainline addiction to pointing out hypocrisy. It's funny because hypocrisy is perhaps the most distasteful aspects of high moral, pro-family Republicans and fundamentalist Christians and here was Goldberg shamelessly embracing it. Goldberg was also quoted as saying, "I have no great pride in being a Republican". Understandable.

Being a shameless Conservative comes in handy, for instance, when the author visited the College Republican's National Convention. Despite being filled with military age males who support the `defining conflict of our generation' there seemed to be little talk of the Iraqi conflict and certainly no interest in joining it. The Convention was meeting in order to elect a new chairman. For John Moe the race pitted a charismatic, well spoken young Republican against a much less dynamic but more Karl Rovish candidate. In the end Karl Rove jr. won. "He was tainted with scandal but his loyalists disregarded that history". Why wait for Washington cynicism to corrupt you when you can be unscrupulous right out of the box?

In the end the author seems to reach a state of détente with Conservativism describing himself as a "mishmash of neo-Nixonian-quasi-Libertarianism". The funny thing is that it's very much a quality of Liberalism that permits the author to try and understand both sides of the political spectrum. John Moe says to his young son, "I don't think I love him [George W. Bush]. But I don't think I hate him either. He's just doing what he thinks he should do" There is a certain amount of naivety in his statement. By that standard Hitler and Stalin could be defended. Still, I found `Conservatize Me' to be one of the most readable books I've picked up in quite some time and I recommend it without reservation.
I loved this book. The concept was excellent, the writing was clever, and I was pleased that he came to a conclusion at the end which was unexpected, made a lot of sense, and is an authentic solution to our political deadlock. Liberals (who I consider to be more thoughtful readers) will most likely agree. If someone wrote a book called Liberalize Me, I doubt if it would have the same effect on conservative readers.
John Moe is a public radio commentator from very liberal Seattle, who tells the story in this 2006 book of "The Experiment" how (inspired by Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me) he immersed himself in conservative culture for 30 days, visited various organizations and met with leading spokespeople for conservatism, to see "is it possible to change your own mind? Could I pull off artificial conversion?"

He changed his hairstyle; bought a suit; read and listened to only conservative magazines, TV, and other media (including only watching movies such as Red Dawn ('84)); even listened only to music by artists such as Toby Keith and Christian artist Michael W. Smith. He visited conservative think tanks such as the Family Research Council, talked with people like William Kristol (who said that neoconservatism "is much friendlier to bold government action than traditional neoconservatism"; pg. 65), stayed in Idaho for a week or so, and ate lots of beef jerky.

Along the way he makes some incisive observations (e.g., that both Nancy Reagan and her son support stem cell research, pg. 81; and that Michael Medved listens "every day" to NPR's "All Things Considered," pg. 198), and even admits that "There was a lot of the world of conservatism that I had become fond of" (Pg. 185).

His "Experiment" might have been more convincing if he had engaged in a more sustained (e.g., 1-2 years, rather than 30 days) study, and if he had interacted INTELLECTUALLY with conservative arguments more vigorously (he admitted toward the end of the 30 days that "I might as well shove a few more books into my head... as the shot clock wound down," pg. 298). Still, the book is a very interesting excusion into "enemy territory," and as he concludes, "I had proved that you can blast yourself out of your comfort zone and get, if not a smarter brain, at least a wider one." (Pg. 307)