Book Review: A Tragic Legacy

By now, every reasonable man, woman and child beyond the age of reason has concluded that George W. Bush's presidency is an unmitigated disaster - lawlessness, political favors, party over country, stupidity, stubbornness, undercurrents of destroying faith and function of our government, all of that. The evidence plays out every day, and chances are you don't need anyone, even someone as articulate and forthright as Glenn Greenwald to tell you about it.

Then why pick up "Tragic Legacy," his recent book about the Bush administration? There are three big reasons:

1) Greenwald's writing style is straight forward and punchy - when Perry White said Clark Kent had a "quick, punchy prose style," in Superman, that's what he meant. I don't mean to gush, but the reason Greenwald is one of the premier bloggers on the right isn't because of what he covers, but the way he lays out the complexities and the bullshit that accompanies most political stories in a way that seem like a no brainer. He makes issues like FISA a matter of national conscious, the media's complacency and pack mentality borderline treasonous, and he does it not with emotion but with fairly unassailable logic.

The result is a book that covers a ponderous topic that manages to not be ponderous for a second - it reads straight, true and smart, a real writing trick for a book whose subject matter could easily have made you want to jump off the nearest tall building. I'm not saying it's fun, but it's very good.

2) Again, no one needs a book to tell them how to think about the Bush administration, so "A Tragic Legacy" takes a slightly wider view. Instead of focusing on Bush & Co., the scope expands to the media, the punitocracy, the legislators and ultimately, the voters, who all, when faced with the cold facts of their actions, look like villains. The comprehension both helps the reader understand why the last 7 years have been a disaster, and how it happened from the top down.

3) It might turn you on to Glenn Greenwald. The more you read of his Salon.com column, the more the dude seems to make an amazing amount of sense.

Good book. Not for the weak, but good book.