Rating: 
Summary: A Suitable Penance
Review: David Brock's Blinded by the Right is part autobiography, part expose. Brock's description of his early life and his first political interests (liberal Democratic) is a lead up to a major epiphany: While a student at Berkeley in the early 1980s he saw Jean Kirkpatrick being shouted down by a group of left wing thugs. Justifiably outraged, Brock began to attack political correctness and other foolishnesses in a series of articles for the campus newspaper. Through this exposure he came to the attention of the national right wing, which adopted him and assisted his ideological move from liberalism through conservatism into the arms of the extreme right's lunatic fringe. Brock joined this fringe just at the time it reached its loudest and most hysterical pitch during the early Clinton years, a period when the traditional four horsemen of the Radical Right, greed, sexism, racism, and bigotry were joined by a fifth, prurience. The story Brock paints of those years when the Far Right launched an unprecedented assault on the legitimately elected government is shocking, especially when he details the campaign of rumor, innuendo, and lies these self-proclaimed guardians of the nation created. For all the weaknesses and frailties of President and Mrs. Clinton (and I make no excuses for either of them), Anita Hill, Vincent Foster, and the other victims of the Right Wing in those years, surely no human beings ever deserved such hatred and vituperation. Blinded by the Right is an important book for four reasons: 1. It confirms (as if we needed confirmation) the existence of the "vast right wing conspiracy." Brock gives names, dates, places of documented contacts and collusions between individuals and groups who sought to unseat the President and force their extremist agenda on the nation.
2. It clearly delineates the differences between today's right wing and the honorable, decent conservatism of the past. While reading this book one is often moved to mourn the passing of the Goldwaters and Tafts and to muse over the probable reaction of Edmund Burke to today's so called conservatives: would he not rush to scrape them off his shoes?
3. It reveals the hypocrisy of those right wing spokesmen and women who condemned President Clinton's moral failures while maintaining their own cozy little ménages and other dubious liaisons.
4. It depicts in detail the petty meanness and nastiness of the so-called humor of the right wing, which came to dominate the airwaves during the 1990s. Stories and jokes which would be too vulgar for a boys junior high school locker room are banded about freely amongst these self-described ladies and gentlemen. I would use the term "sophomoric" but I teach high school sophomores and few of them would stoop to repeat some of that stuff. To his credit, Brock details his own part in these savageries without excuses beyond pecuniary ones (he evidently did quite well financially out of it all). And he points out with regret the damage that was done to our nation's political process and to the public's perception of that process. This is indeed damage that will take a long time to mend. I trust that eventually Brock's former associates will join him in regretting what they have done.
Rating:
Summary: Re-institute The Standard
Review: David Brock did a great job in writing "Blinded by the Right". It's a very professional book, and worth reading. I could not agree with much of what it said, however. I have to wonder, when did Mr. Brock change and decide to look at things from a different point of view? The substance of the book, though well presented, seems to loose sight of "the standard". I think it is good sincere journalism, but maybe all of us, liberal and conservative alike, need to periodically "re-institute the standard" regarding morals, ethics, and character. Some of us, maybe, should be humble enough to admit we really don't understand how those things "fit" in the first place. For an easy way to find out, I recommend reading "West Point:...Thomas Jefferson" by Norman Thomas Remick.
Rating:
Summary: Talk About Bias..................
Review: A must read for everyone who wants to know how/why we spent 73m persecuting our last ELECTED president to find out he did nothing wrong except cheat on his wife.
Rating:
Summary: He's correcting the historical record he helped create.
Review: David Brock's book is basically a long-winded attempt to get certain facts into the record. He tells, in narrative form, the story of how he came to be involved with "neocon" political intrigues, how he enriched himself by acting as a "publicist" for the viewpoints his financiers wanted spread around, how he came to see that his pose as an investigative journalist was based on wishful thinking, and how he painfully gave up that posture and decided to tell the actual story of the early-to-mid-90's as he experienced it. Want dirt on Clarence Thomas, Ted Olson, Ann Coulter, Spencer Abraham, Laura Ingraham, and many others? It's there. This book will make you angry, no matter what you think of the Clintons or their detractors. Its real importance is that it documents how wretchedly the mainstream media failed the public interest in allowing people interested only in fame and money (like Brock) to do the bidding of people interested in power, and get away with it. It gets five stars from me because people everywhere should read it. My main criticism? No index!
Rating: 
Summary: Test review.. just testing
Review: This is a test review.. just testing stuff..
Rating:
Summary: Revealing and disturbing
Review: In this memoir, Brock reveals his coming of age from conservative 20-something hit man to a man disillusioned with the venom and bigotry of destructive, personal politics. It's impossible to understand US politics in the 90s without the insights this book provides. Brock describes a virtual Mafia of angry, dysfunctional and often downright vile people whose agenda was to personally destroy, without regard for truth, Anita Hill, the Clintons, and anyone else who got in their way. It's a disturbing tale, but Brock provides interesting psychological insight into an ugly saga in our history.
Rating:
Summary: Alarming and Important
Review: David Brock's confessional is alarming as hell. It reads like a twisted drama with characters such as the Reverend Moon (who knew he founded the Washington Times and bailed out Liberty College for Jerry Falwell?) to Richard Mellon Scaife (the godfather of all right wing media) to Ann Coulter(Aryan nation beauty queen)....this book should be required reading for all Young Republicans, who think kneeling at the altar of St. Ronnie of the Reagan is cool.
Rating: 
Summary: Hu?
Review: The left is the only one blinding anyone, and this is an example.
Rating:
Summary: the truth shall set you free
Review: I cannot say enough good things about this book. Anyone who is not 'blinded by the right' is in for a real wake-up call. This is a first-hand account of life inside the belly of the far right-wing conspiracy beast. While Mr. Brock's integrity is certainly suspect considering his opportunistic flip-flops from rebellious liberal to rebellious self-hating gay archconservative to reformed un-conservative, the book definitely has the ring of truth. Mr. Brock may well have axes to grind but I get the feeling that if he's getting back at others, he's using the truth to do it and there is nothing wrong with telling the truth, regardless of the motivation. What I found most stunning of all the things I read in this book, is to be hit in the face with the depth and breadth of the organized right-wing conspiracy as well as their deep hatred of 'the other side' and the extent which they are willing to go to rationalize greed, selfishness and hatred as just, 'righteous' Christian/American virtues. Thank you thank you thank you David Brock for telling the truth about the dangerous right-wing. I hope someday to see you at a book signing or lecture. You are doing an immensely valuable public service by 'outing' these evil right-wingers. I would also recommend to readers of this book, that they do some research on the Federalist Society, which is a kind of Illuminati of scary right-wing lawyers bent on taking over the US judiciary.
Rating:
Summary: Brock has convinced me to leave the Republican Party
Review: As a lifelong diehard Republican, I was shocked at the outrageous behavior of members of my own party that was documented in his book. The facts are the facts and David Brock has told the truth about the Republican Party and it's conservative members in such a way that I must leave it. This is a powerful book that must be read by anyone interested in politics. I never thought I'd become a Democrat but there is no choice after reading this great book.
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