After the Hangover - A Review

I’ve Got A Political Hangover


I just had an epiphany. I am a liberal in the true sense of the word. I hope my daddy doesn’t read this and have a cerebral hemorrhage. What I mean is that I am a liberal in the sense that R. Emmet Tyrrell Jr. describes them in his new book After the Hangover, The Conservatives Road to Recovery, a Thomas Nelson Publication.

In his new book, After the Hangover, Mr. Tyrell takes us through the conservative theory and history by way of explaining how he progressed through his own conservatism roots. He explains that conservatives are what used to be considered liberals and that the New Liberals (his capitalizations not mine) are no where near their namesake's ideology. Mr. Tyrrell takes us through the history of conservatism, neo-conservatism, liberals and Liberals, all the while causing me to run for my Webster’s Dictionary. He throws out hundred dollar words like they were pennies.

He uses antidotes from his years in the conservative movement including wonderful insights into people such as William F. Buckley, Al Regnery and Bill Kristol. He explains the events of the last 4 decades of neo-conservatism’s rise and fall and the Liberals all too soon eulogy of the movement.

I have to reiterate that more than once Mr. Tyrrell sent me scrambling for my well worn dictionary to look up words such as pulchritudinous and zeitgeist. I have to say thank you to him for that. You see I happen to agree with his and Bill O’Reilly’s opinion that America is becoming dumbed-down. They both site that Americans are lazy in their learning. We are no longer interested in discovering and uncovering the truth for ourselves. We instead are content to listen to mainstream media spew out it’s Kultursmog of half-truths and made up political dramas. We as a nation tend to believe whatever the popular celebrity-politician on either side of the line spits out in sound bites.

I would recommend this book to liberals, conservatives, New Liberals and neo-conservatives. It is thought provoking, with a unique perspective on the strength and weaknesses of both movements. Now go out there and practice your egalitarianism and challenge your thoughts and beliefs unraveling the mystery that is our political dogmas.