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Right is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe
With her trademark passion, intelligence, and devastating wit, Huffington Post editor in chief Arianna Huffington tackles the issues that are crucial to this year’s presidential election and, even more so, to the fate of the country.
Huffington makes the case that America has been hijacked from within by a radical element—the “lunatic fringe” of the Right that has taken over the Republican Party. Despite holding views at odds with the majority of Americans, these zealots have given us an endless war in Iraq, a sputtering economy, a health care system on life support, a war on science and reason, and an immoral embrace of torture.
But they haven’t done it on their they have been enabled by a compliant media that act as if there is no such thing as truth and are more interested in cozying up to those in power than in holding them accountable, and by feckless Democrats who have allowed themselves to be intimidated into backing down again and again.
Both a withering indictment and a hopeful call to arms, Right Is Wrong is an explosive, boldly incisive work that will help set the national agenda.
Huffington makes the case that America has been hijacked from within by a radical element—the “lunatic fringe” of the Right that has taken over the Republican Party. Despite holding views at odds with the majority of Americans, these zealots have given us an endless war in Iraq, a sputtering economy, a health care system on life support, a war on science and reason, and an immoral embrace of torture.
But they haven’t done it on their they have been enabled by a compliant media that act as if there is no such thing as truth and are more interested in cozying up to those in power than in holding them accountable, and by feckless Democrats who have allowed themselves to be intimidated into backing down again and again.
Both a withering indictment and a hopeful call to arms, Right Is Wrong is an explosive, boldly incisive work that will help set the national agenda.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
5 people are currently reading
227 people want to read
About the author
Arianna Huffington
65 books874 followersArianna Huffington is the chair, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, a nationally syndicated columnist, and author of fourteen books.
In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. In 2012, the site won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.
She has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union.
She serves on several boards, including HuffPost’s partners in Spain, the newspaper EL PAÍS and its parent company PRISA; Onex; The Center for Public Integrity; and The Committee to Protect Journalists.
Her 14th book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder was published by Crown in March 2014 and debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list.
In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. In 2012, the site won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.
She has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union.
She serves on several boards, including HuffPost’s partners in Spain, the newspaper EL PAÍS and its parent company PRISA; Onex; The Center for Public Integrity; and The Committee to Protect Journalists.
Her 14th book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder was published by Crown in March 2014 and debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 4, 2008
In 1994, I became Reuters Chief Political Correspondent and immediately plunged into covering the upcoming congressional elections which produced a Republican sweep. I well remember covering a speech by Newt Gingrich that summer at the Heritage Foundation which was preceded by an impassioned right-wing rant by none other than Arianna Huffington.
Huffington's husband at the time, Michael, heir to a Texas oil fortune, was running for the U.S. Senate in California that year spending millions from his vast personal fortune. He came within a whisker of beating Diane Feinstein. He ran largely on the familiar "family values" platform so beloved of Republicans. Even at the time, Michael was seen as little more than a mouthpiece for his ambitious wife. Later that summer, I was granted a rare interview with Michael (his wife mostly kept him away from reporters) and it was quite evident who supplied the brains and thrusting ambition in that marriage.
Had he won, there's little doubt in my mind his wife would have pushed him to run for president a few years later.
In 1998, now dumped by his wife, Mr. Huffington revealed he was bi-sexual and later co-chaired the "Log Cabin Republicans" -- a group of gay Republicans.
Arianna, her hopes of become a power behind the Republican throne thwarted, meanwhile had a dramatic change of heart and reinvented herself as a rabid liberal and editor of the popular liberal blog, the Huffington Report.
In this book, she gives a brief and inadequate explanation of what prompted this change of heart. She says she was "seduced, fooled, blinded, bamboozled" by Newt Gingrich. She was always a "social liberal," she says, but has since realized the government needs to be involved to fight poverty. At the same time, she argues, the Republican Party has itself moved to the right.
As an explanation, this falls short. It was abundantly clear in 1994 where the Republicans stood on social issues. If anything, the party has become more tolerant of government activity now than it was in those days when it campaigned on a platform of closing down the federal departments of Energy and Education.
Now to the meat of this book. I have no argument with most of its content but there's nothing new here that the attentive reader of any decent daily newspaper would not already know. It starts with a violent rant against the New York Times, Washington Post and other traditional media for failing to do their jobs. There are amusing personal attacks on several prominent reporters -- Bob Woodward, Judith Miller and the posthumously beatified Tim Russert.
Other chapters deal with fiscal policy, energy, Iraq, Afghanistan, science, the environment etc etc. It ends with an assault on John McCain. Most of this stuff could be lifted verbatim from Barack Obama's website.
I don't object to any of this but it's pretty standard stuff and rather tedious. There's no original research or original arguments. It's pretty much a cut and paste job, written in haste and published to take advantage of the current political season. Liberals may buy it. I doubt anyone else will.
Huffington is a talented individual but her main talent seems to be that of constantly reinventing and promoting herself. She is the political chameleon par excellence. Just as she did in 1994, she knows which way the political winds are blowing.
Huffington's husband at the time, Michael, heir to a Texas oil fortune, was running for the U.S. Senate in California that year spending millions from his vast personal fortune. He came within a whisker of beating Diane Feinstein. He ran largely on the familiar "family values" platform so beloved of Republicans. Even at the time, Michael was seen as little more than a mouthpiece for his ambitious wife. Later that summer, I was granted a rare interview with Michael (his wife mostly kept him away from reporters) and it was quite evident who supplied the brains and thrusting ambition in that marriage.
Had he won, there's little doubt in my mind his wife would have pushed him to run for president a few years later.
In 1998, now dumped by his wife, Mr. Huffington revealed he was bi-sexual and later co-chaired the "Log Cabin Republicans" -- a group of gay Republicans.
Arianna, her hopes of become a power behind the Republican throne thwarted, meanwhile had a dramatic change of heart and reinvented herself as a rabid liberal and editor of the popular liberal blog, the Huffington Report.
In this book, she gives a brief and inadequate explanation of what prompted this change of heart. She says she was "seduced, fooled, blinded, bamboozled" by Newt Gingrich. She was always a "social liberal," she says, but has since realized the government needs to be involved to fight poverty. At the same time, she argues, the Republican Party has itself moved to the right.
As an explanation, this falls short. It was abundantly clear in 1994 where the Republicans stood on social issues. If anything, the party has become more tolerant of government activity now than it was in those days when it campaigned on a platform of closing down the federal departments of Energy and Education.
Now to the meat of this book. I have no argument with most of its content but there's nothing new here that the attentive reader of any decent daily newspaper would not already know. It starts with a violent rant against the New York Times, Washington Post and other traditional media for failing to do their jobs. There are amusing personal attacks on several prominent reporters -- Bob Woodward, Judith Miller and the posthumously beatified Tim Russert.
Other chapters deal with fiscal policy, energy, Iraq, Afghanistan, science, the environment etc etc. It ends with an assault on John McCain. Most of this stuff could be lifted verbatim from Barack Obama's website.
I don't object to any of this but it's pretty standard stuff and rather tedious. There's no original research or original arguments. It's pretty much a cut and paste job, written in haste and published to take advantage of the current political season. Liberals may buy it. I doubt anyone else will.
Huffington is a talented individual but her main talent seems to be that of constantly reinventing and promoting herself. She is the political chameleon par excellence. Just as she did in 1994, she knows which way the political winds are blowing.
June 18, 2008
I saw Ms. Huffington interviewed on The Colbert Report and she was wearing an evening gown and speaking in a great Greek accent. I decided I need to read her book.
Synopsis:
For Arianna Huffington, the problem with the Republican Party is not that it is at odds with the views of progressives, but that its lunatic fringe has taken over the party and is at odds with the views of the American people. By significant majorities, Americans believe in the science of evolution, don’t want Roe v. Wade overturned, don’t want to ignore global warming, want good health care for their kids, and want to bring our troops home from Iraq.
And yet, to Huffington, the representatives of the Right seem to be competing over who among them can be the biggest Neanderthal and are having the time of their lives supporting torture, standing by the behavior of the Blackwater thugs, and backing the White House’s delusions on everything from war to stem cell research. Flashing back to the Reagan era is one thing, but flashing back to the Dark Ages is quite another. And this is what Right Is Wrong will expose.
I am a Liberal. I have Liberal ideas. Very few of my morals, ethics, ideas are conservative. However, I almost want to say that this book is the lunatic Liberal. Some of the arguments were well documented and well put. Others seem to be taunts that you hear on playgrounds and were completely unnecessary.
I agree with her about the war, highly unnecessary. She did have a lot of documentation backing up her points on how Bush was planning for a war before he was even President. (The Sources section of the book is massive). For the most part, I disagreed almost entirely with the immigration section and the health section. Yes, we have problems with both, but the Democrat solution isn't the best one either, I don't believe.
Politics is a bloody game and this book shows how much of a game it really is.
Obama '08!
Synopsis:
For Arianna Huffington, the problem with the Republican Party is not that it is at odds with the views of progressives, but that its lunatic fringe has taken over the party and is at odds with the views of the American people. By significant majorities, Americans believe in the science of evolution, don’t want Roe v. Wade overturned, don’t want to ignore global warming, want good health care for their kids, and want to bring our troops home from Iraq.
And yet, to Huffington, the representatives of the Right seem to be competing over who among them can be the biggest Neanderthal and are having the time of their lives supporting torture, standing by the behavior of the Blackwater thugs, and backing the White House’s delusions on everything from war to stem cell research. Flashing back to the Reagan era is one thing, but flashing back to the Dark Ages is quite another. And this is what Right Is Wrong will expose.
I am a Liberal. I have Liberal ideas. Very few of my morals, ethics, ideas are conservative. However, I almost want to say that this book is the lunatic Liberal. Some of the arguments were well documented and well put. Others seem to be taunts that you hear on playgrounds and were completely unnecessary.
I agree with her about the war, highly unnecessary. She did have a lot of documentation backing up her points on how Bush was planning for a war before he was even President. (The Sources section of the book is massive). For the most part, I disagreed almost entirely with the immigration section and the health section. Yes, we have problems with both, but the Democrat solution isn't the best one either, I don't believe.
Politics is a bloody game and this book shows how much of a game it really is.
Obama '08!
August 16, 2008
Ms. Huffington has written a veritable compendium of right wing sins committed over the years of the Bush Administration that have literally ruined our country militarily, economically, diplomatically and culturally. I did not truly appreciate the breadth of the evilness nor the depth of the ineptitude of the right in general and the Republican party in particular until I read this book.
Not only does this self-confessed former Republican cogently describe the damage far right wing politicos have caused our country, she also exposes how the hapless news media conscioulsy and unconsciously contributed. Reading this book will also make it apparent that Republican presidential candidate, John McCain is nothing more than an old fashioned politics-as-usual demagogue who not only flip flops on issues but, a la Bush and his ilk, are not above lying and saying what it thinks the voters want to hear to get elected.
Please, please PLEASE read this book before you vote in November.
Not only does this self-confessed former Republican cogently describe the damage far right wing politicos have caused our country, she also exposes how the hapless news media conscioulsy and unconsciously contributed. Reading this book will also make it apparent that Republican presidential candidate, John McCain is nothing more than an old fashioned politics-as-usual demagogue who not only flip flops on issues but, a la Bush and his ilk, are not above lying and saying what it thinks the voters want to hear to get elected.
Please, please PLEASE read this book before you vote in November.
October 29, 2008
This book basically reminded me of how much the Bush Administration has F#%ked up, and argues how evil the Far Right truly is. Basically it shows how the fanatics on the Far Right have taken over the Republican Party, and they need to be stopped and or kicked out. While she throws a few jabs at the Democrats, that is (obviously) not the topic at hand. Our rights and lives have been altered for the worse, and we need to change that.
Also, John McCain used to be a good man. To become President he has sold his beliefs down the road, to cater to the Right/Republican base. It would be sad if it were not so sickening at the same time.
Also, John McCain used to be a good man. To become President he has sold his beliefs down the road, to cater to the Right/Republican base. It would be sad if it were not so sickening at the same time.
July 29, 2024
Generally speaking, however you feel about their ideas, the Left are generally known as pretty good writers, whether they be semantic geniuses like Chomsky or humorists like Hightower. Being Comparative Lit geeks, rather than Economics or Business Majors, they can usually turn a phrase. As cloying as Michael Moore can be, even he can spin a pretty good yarn. I don't know if it's because Huffington is a reformed Conservative or if it's because English is her second language, but she honestly comes off sounding like the Liberal Ann Coulter. I mean, what's with all the superfluous question marks and explanation points???!!!!! Still, for all the "Oh, really?"s and "No shit, Sherlock!"s, she makes a few good points. Bush and his cronies really did lead us into a war based completely on lies and wrecked the economy in the process. Also, while she doesn't shirk from insulting the Right, she doesn't go in for the sort of "let's-fry-them-all-in-hot-oil" type of baiting that Coulter and Co. tend to favor. All-in-all, it's best said that she should leave the writing to her writers at HuffPost, but this was still mildly interesting.
September 6, 2008
Ach! Huffington is SO smart! She is forthright in explanations, thorough with research and references, eloquent and clever with words. Each chapter focuses on an different aspect of current events to show how the public has been manipulated and even lied to. She also faults the media for not doing a thorough job of investigation and questioning. It's powerful stuff, and I'm enjoying the read while the information is bad for my blood pressure.
To hear more from Arianna, look for the podcast of "Left Right and Center" from NPR. The people on that show are sane and knowledgeable, the focus is on facts not name-calling, and various points of view are clearly explained.
To hear more from Arianna, look for the podcast of "Left Right and Center" from NPR. The people on that show are sane and knowledgeable, the focus is on facts not name-calling, and various points of view are clearly explained.
July 28, 2011
Did not finish, as it started sounding more like a tirade (especially with the audio version narrated by the author herself), and made me feel more depressed than more informed. Despite this, most of it actually made sense. In particular, it pointed out the very real decay of the mainstream media which now believes there are always two sides to everything, when in truth there may be no sides at all (or, if there are sides, there are more than two). The press used to be our "factcheck". No wonder a separate factcheck entity now exists.
July 31, 2008
What a waste of time. This is just a rehash of the headlines from the last few years. Were any of you aware that there are no WMD's in Iraq, that the US allowed water boarding, that the Katrina response was a debacle? If you're still unaware of any of these issues, then I suggest you read this pile of worthlessness, but if you've glanced at a TV or newspaper over that last few years, the there's really no need.
August 3, 2008
Very interesting read so far. I would say however, if you're not up on current political affairs, this would be a rather boring book for you. Almost like a prosecutor Arianna is taking you through the Bush years from the beginning when the Republican party seemed to have a monopoly on religion through to current times where she articulates her position that the GOP has controlled the masses using fear tactics. Not done yet...[To be continued!]
August 23, 2011
This is a book well suited for any true democrat. Reading this after the election and the departure of #43 is kind of redundant, since I feel the need to debunk Bush's incompetence is kind of a moot point. But Huffington is great at proving the right wrong on every issue. It's like a 'Democratic Ideology for Dummies"". But if you need a good way to celebrate kicking Bush out the door, read this book! You won't regret it!
September 17, 2011
A handy treatise on all of the problems America faces brought on by the Republican Party and Conservative America. Nothing particularly new is revealed, but having everything in one place is useful- as opposed to picking up each and every one of the various news articles and books on the various topics that are out there that are used in her bibliography. My only criticism is that she does not offer enough realistic, viable solutions to fix the problems she covers.
July 19, 2014
I picked this up at a used book store a few months ago, and you'd think a political book that was published six years ago would be completely outdated and has no value. Sadly, this is not the case. The topics discussed in it are still relevant today, whether it is the Republican mishandling of the middle east, healthcare, women's rights, violence due to firearms, global warming, hypocritical politicians, you name it.
September 13, 2009
One of the first to call out the Dems for being welcome mats for the GOP from 2000-2006.
Also the only person to scoff at Meet the Press and Russert for never following up a question with Cheney.
If she puts out a book I buy it..good fodder for arguments on those rare occasions you find a GOPer willing to listen to facts.
Also the only person to scoff at Meet the Press and Russert for never following up a question with Cheney.
If she puts out a book I buy it..good fodder for arguments on those rare occasions you find a GOPer willing to listen to facts.
May 28, 2008
As much as I like and agree with Ms. Huffington, this book didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. And she really should have let someone else narrate the audiobook...as charming as her Greek accent can be, it was so distracting in this regard.
October 6, 2010
I want to throw this book against the wall so much. I started reading this to find out why exactly liberals feel the conservative view point is wrong. But I found myself becoming overwhelmingly angry at the "solutions" that were being presented in the book.
April 17, 2008
This is THE book you need to read to understand what's happened over the past 7 years, and to be best informed about the issues facing us in the upcoming election. Don't miss it!
July 11, 2008
Very well written, nice style. Enjoyed the book.
December 1, 2008
Fairly predictable and well-known rehash of the sins of the lunatic Right and epic fail known as the Bush Administration.
August 20, 2008
Arriana has a good way of summarizing what's been going on and what's wrong with it. A worthwhile read
June 18, 2009
GREAT read. An immigrant (now citizen), a successful business person, and originally a Republican, she talks about what changed her mind and why she is now a fairly progressive Democrat.
April 20, 2009
love how Huffington skewers Buch & co., but no earth-shattering revelations I haven't read in op-ed pieces.
Read
September 3, 2008even propaganda you agree with is still propaganda.
July 28, 2008
In the typical style of Ariana, but none the less, a good read :-)
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews