Esther Kaplan
Autor(a) de With God on Their Side: George W. Bush and the Christian Right
About the Author
Esther Kaplan is a Brooklyn-based radio and print journalist
Obras por Esther Kaplan
With God on Their Side 1 exemplar
Associated Works
Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2003) — Contribuidor — 71 exemplares
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Sexo
- female
- Ocupações
- editor
- Organizações
- Nation Institute
Membros
Críticas
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Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 2
- Also by
- 1
- Membros
- 136
- Popularidade
- #149,926
- Avaliação
- 3.5
- Críticas
- 3
- ISBN
- 2
Once DefCon (The Campaign to Defend the Constitution) announced that they'd kick off their new book club in March 2006 with Esther Kaplan's WITH GOD ON THEIR SIDE: HOW CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISTS TRAMPLED SCIENCE, POLICY AND DEMOCRACY IN GEORGE W. BUSH'S WHITE HOUSE, I checked out a copy from my local library, post-haste. Unfortunately, I never did finish it in time for the online chat with author Kaplan, but not because it was a boring, tedious read; in fact, just the opposite. I was so shocked, outraged, and just plain pissed off about what I learned in WITH GOD ON THEIR SIDE that I found myself throwing the book down every third page so I could rant to anyone within earshot about GW and his Bible-beating cronies. I mean, I knew that the current administration let their evangelical faith guide their policies; I guess I just didn't realize how far their zealousness had taken them.
Kaplan focuses on several areas in which GW shapes government policy and programs to fit his conservative Christian worldview to an egregious extent: foreign policy (specifically, the "War on Terror" and the conflict in Iraq), science (including stem cell research and any science surrounding sexual matters, such as AIDS and condom effectiveness), faith-based initiatives, gay marriage, and reproductive rights (with an emphasis on contraception, abstinence-only programs, and abortion). Kaplan discusses the impact of Bush's policies both in the United States and abroad (for example, the Global Gag Rule has had a deleterious effect on women in developing nations). The issues are complex, the violations many, yet Kaplan does an excellent job of nailing down the significance of each and showing how they are all interrelated.
Perhaps more interesting than George W. Bush's faith-based politics is his stubbornness, his dogged determination to "stay the course," his unrelenting single-mindedness and his intolerance for inconvenient "facts" (like Stephen Colbert, I believe GW prefers "truthiness" to "book learning"). He is "the decider," and as such, his words are gospel. Should any of his staff or government employees (or any recipients of government largesse) disagree with him, they had better shape up or be prepared to ship out. Kaplan serves up example after example of GW's disdain for dissent. Scientists who pursue controversial research or publish data at odds with the Bush admin's ideology are selectively audited, driven out of office, or have their grant money yanked out from under them. Staffers and cabinet members who dare disagree with Bush in public must renounce their blasphemous ways or risk being thrown overboard to satisfy the conservative sharks that make up GW's base. More so than any president before him, George W. has consistently stifled science, censored his critics, and generally abused his position of power.
WITH GOD ON THEIR SIDE was first published in early 2004, prior to the 2004 Presidential Elections. Although Kaplan is clearly disgusted with the "trampling" of "science, policy, and democracy" that she so eloquently describes, she still manages to maintain a somewhat optimistic tone - perhaps because she hopes that the good citizens of the US will vote this schmoe out of office when given the chance. Unfortunately, we all know what happened in 2004. I can't help but wonder if GW would have been defeated if more voters (and potential voters) had read WITH GOD ON THEIR SIDE before making their dates with the Diebold machines. Like his evangelical base, Bush is a master at concealing his true goals, as well as the unconstitutional activities he uses to pursue them.
I should also note that Kaplan documents her sources exhaustively. Nothing annoys me more than an investigative piece of nonfiction with a sloppy reference list tacked on as an afterthought (or, heavens forbid, such a book that's completely devoid of any references at all!). Kaplan's "Notes" section weighs in at a healthy 35 pages, making it easy for skeptics to track down her resources and verify her claims. (Yes, it's all true, and it's every bit as scary as it seems!) And, while Kaplan may take issue with Bush's flouting of the wall of separation between church and state, she is herself religious - Jewish, to be exact. She's not anti-religion or an atheist (like moi), but rather opposes Bush's evangelical antics because they're an affront to the First Amendment and are more often than not counter-productive in terms of science, foreign policy, human rights, and democracy.
In the words of one reviewer, WITH GOD ON THEIR SIDE is "a truly shocking dossier of recent religious fundamentalist incursions into the soul of American democracy." Every American must read this book - and keep Kaplan's lessons in mind as they head to the polls this fall.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2006/05/17/book-review-esther-kaplans-with-god-on-thei...… (mais)