Everywhere you look, these days, Conservatives are winning elections. No matter where you look, the story is the same: white, angry men on the Right are winning power. The Left, meanwhile, is divided and dispirited, and rapidly losing ground. Fight the Right is a handbook on how to survive the nasty, brutish and short-sighted era in which we find ourselves and is designed to help progressives better understand their conservative adversary, and ultimately defeat conservatives wherever the battle is taking shape. It's a manual on how conservatives have appropriated language and values, and how progressives can take both back. Written in a fun, accessible, style, Fight the Right will appeal to those about to launch an advocacy effort, as well as those who are simply curious about how (and if) the Right thinks. It is chock full of war stories and not-so-tall tales about winning progressive campaigns, from everyone from Jean Chretien to Bobby Kennedy, Jr., and it will argue--forcefully--that a United Right can't be defeated until a United Left emerges. Wherever conservative power-brokers are hurting average citizens and hard-working families, Fight the Right will provide a tested road map on how to beat the bullies.
Fight the Right
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Review
"Kinsella is a modern-day Machiavelli.... He's the ultimate political insider."
—The Toronto Sun
"Kinsella writes in a quick-paced, animated, highly accessible style."
—The Globe and Mail
“Kinsella doesn’t pull any punches…. Fight the Right…provide[s] readers with a glimpse into the kinds of strategies that have made Conservatives successful and lay out a credible roadmap for progressive forces to regain power.”
—iPolitics
“First, he deserves credit for writing this book, period…. We need to air ideas and strategies, to nominate, debate, discard and to choose. And, we’ll not get there without more public efforts like Kinsella’s…. Second, he is absolutely on the money regarding the need for the Liberals and the NDP to embrace math and to realize that as long as they divide the progressive vote, the Conservatives will build a dynasty…. Finally, Kinsella’s book is at its best when it does what he does best—giving specific election advice…. Progressive politicians should take Kinsella’s advice about authenticity, simplicity and speaking to the heart.”
—The Huffington Post Canada
—The Toronto Sun
"Kinsella writes in a quick-paced, animated, highly accessible style."
—The Globe and Mail
“Kinsella doesn’t pull any punches…. Fight the Right…provide[s] readers with a glimpse into the kinds of strategies that have made Conservatives successful and lay out a credible roadmap for progressive forces to regain power.”
—iPolitics
“First, he deserves credit for writing this book, period…. We need to air ideas and strategies, to nominate, debate, discard and to choose. And, we’ll not get there without more public efforts like Kinsella’s…. Second, he is absolutely on the money regarding the need for the Liberals and the NDP to embrace math and to realize that as long as they divide the progressive vote, the Conservatives will build a dynasty…. Finally, Kinsella’s book is at its best when it does what he does best—giving specific election advice…. Progressive politicians should take Kinsella’s advice about authenticity, simplicity and speaking to the heart.”
—The Huffington Post Canada
About the Author
WARREN KINSELLA is a lawyer, pundit, political consultant, and a newspaper and magazine columnist. He is the author of The War Room and the bestselling Web of Hate. He lives in Toronto, is a dad to four amazing kids, still plays in a punk band and is the president and founder of the Daisy Group, a political consulting group.
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Most helpful customer reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
This wandering and confusing book says little about fighting the right
Oct 28 2012
By Stewart Kiff
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was looking forward to reading Warren Kinsella's new book "Fight the Right." Kinsella is an "all in" kind of guy, meaning when he has an opinion, he goes all in on supporting it. The theme of "Fight the Right" while cliched and doctrinaire, was nonetheless intriguing. And when Kinsella is good, he can be very interesting.
The marketing and the outside of the book is excellent - clear, provocative, passionate - just what I was expecting from the book itself.
The book, itself, is a real disappointment.
Kinsella is a great practitioner of political strategy. As a political philosopher, however, he sucks.
Unfortunately, this book is about Kinsella's political philosophy. It is a total failure.
There is no guide or practical part to this book. So it is very misleading to think that by reading this book you will get any sort of "manual" especially to the unexplained "Coming Conservative Apocalypse". That subtitle is misleading.
The book is a series of meandering riffs.
Kinsella seems completely unaware of his own pride and intellectual incoherence. The book tries (and fails) to give the reader what is best described as a marvel comics view of politics. To sum it up, the left - "progressives" - good and moral, the right, racist and greedy, immoral and bad.
Anyone on the right, it turns out, has some sort of moral failing. On the left, they are generous saintly martyrs for the common good.
Worse, half of the book is written on American politics, and although it is clear that Kinsella has no particular insight into the field, that is no impediment to his subsequent maligning of Conservative American politicians and in particular one prolific Conservative consultant - Fred Luntz (who should be read in the original).
An example of this kind of unfair attack is on page 43 where Kinsella quotes former Republican Presidential challenger Rick Perry as being against Social Security because he described it as a "Ponzi Scheme". A fair interpretation of the quote would have said that Perry was criticizing the unfunded nature of future social security benefits. But there is no quote or footnote for this quote from Rick Perry for the reader to independently check.
Kinsella has not used footnotes or any sort of scholarly techniques to support the interpretations that fill this book. So instead of building a rational, coherent argument - verified and supported by footnoted facts, Kinsella breezily drifts, untethered, from one cherry picked group of assertions to the next. The effect is off-putting, and ultimately, does harm to the valid parts of his argument.
For example, Kinsella is an advocate of the "progressive" parties of Canada - the Liberals and the NDP - uniting into one solid opposition party in Canada. Together, Kinsella argues, these two parties would be strong enough to defeat the Conservatives and Stephen Harper. So much so good. And if the book had stuck to this theme, it could have been interesting.
Kinsella, instead, wanders all the way over to indict the right by including in four full pages (86-90)on linking the mentally disturbed Norwegian Mass Murderer, Anders Brevik, to be as much a part of the Christian Conservative world as Stephen Harper and George Bush. So, we can safely say that civility and proportionality are not Kinsella's strong point.
One of the solutions it seems, says Kinsella, is to follow the strategies of the "peaceful" (Pg. 168) Occupy Movement. A movement Kinsella describes as "Christ-like." (Imagine what Kinsella would say if Prime Minister Stephen Harper described people who agreed with him politically as "Christ-like"?)
There are some good sections. When Kinsella writes about Canadian political strategy and tactics, as he does at the beginning of Chapter 4 it can be very interesting.
I remain gobsmacked by Kinsella's absolutely lack of self awareness. His hypocrisy, and the simple poor quality of the thought in this book. I found little to recommend it.I hope he returns to writing about things he knows about.
The marketing and the outside of the book is excellent - clear, provocative, passionate - just what I was expecting from the book itself.
The book, itself, is a real disappointment.
Kinsella is a great practitioner of political strategy. As a political philosopher, however, he sucks.
Unfortunately, this book is about Kinsella's political philosophy. It is a total failure.
There is no guide or practical part to this book. So it is very misleading to think that by reading this book you will get any sort of "manual" especially to the unexplained "Coming Conservative Apocalypse". That subtitle is misleading.
The book is a series of meandering riffs.
Kinsella seems completely unaware of his own pride and intellectual incoherence. The book tries (and fails) to give the reader what is best described as a marvel comics view of politics. To sum it up, the left - "progressives" - good and moral, the right, racist and greedy, immoral and bad.
Anyone on the right, it turns out, has some sort of moral failing. On the left, they are generous saintly martyrs for the common good.
Worse, half of the book is written on American politics, and although it is clear that Kinsella has no particular insight into the field, that is no impediment to his subsequent maligning of Conservative American politicians and in particular one prolific Conservative consultant - Fred Luntz (who should be read in the original).
An example of this kind of unfair attack is on page 43 where Kinsella quotes former Republican Presidential challenger Rick Perry as being against Social Security because he described it as a "Ponzi Scheme". A fair interpretation of the quote would have said that Perry was criticizing the unfunded nature of future social security benefits. But there is no quote or footnote for this quote from Rick Perry for the reader to independently check.
Kinsella has not used footnotes or any sort of scholarly techniques to support the interpretations that fill this book. So instead of building a rational, coherent argument - verified and supported by footnoted facts, Kinsella breezily drifts, untethered, from one cherry picked group of assertions to the next. The effect is off-putting, and ultimately, does harm to the valid parts of his argument.
For example, Kinsella is an advocate of the "progressive" parties of Canada - the Liberals and the NDP - uniting into one solid opposition party in Canada. Together, Kinsella argues, these two parties would be strong enough to defeat the Conservatives and Stephen Harper. So much so good. And if the book had stuck to this theme, it could have been interesting.
Kinsella, instead, wanders all the way over to indict the right by including in four full pages (86-90)on linking the mentally disturbed Norwegian Mass Murderer, Anders Brevik, to be as much a part of the Christian Conservative world as Stephen Harper and George Bush. So, we can safely say that civility and proportionality are not Kinsella's strong point.
One of the solutions it seems, says Kinsella, is to follow the strategies of the "peaceful" (Pg. 168) Occupy Movement. A movement Kinsella describes as "Christ-like." (Imagine what Kinsella would say if Prime Minister Stephen Harper described people who agreed with him politically as "Christ-like"?)
There are some good sections. When Kinsella writes about Canadian political strategy and tactics, as he does at the beginning of Chapter 4 it can be very interesting.
I remain gobsmacked by Kinsella's absolutely lack of self awareness. His hypocrisy, and the simple poor quality of the thought in this book. I found little to recommend it.I hope he returns to writing about things he knows about.
2 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By colheita
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Sometimes the truth hurts .
You may dissagree with his interpretation of the Conservative politician , but I don't .
You may dissagree with his interpretation of the Conservative politician , but I don't .
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.2 out of 5 stars
4 reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
I'll borrow it from the library instead.
Mar 18 2013
By Allen Paley
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I've rated it 2 stars as a neutral review, since I have not read it yet, and on general principle.
I'll borrow it from the library so as not to put money into the hands of a Liberal Strategist. My desire to read this book is simply to peek at a playbook of the opposing side.
Before I conclude this, I'll leave you with a quote from the author's blog which was directed at firearms enthusiasts, for the sake of characterizing him:
"Don't try and post here. I won't approve your comments.
I'm sick of you. I detest you. I don't want to hear from you. No sane person wants to hear from you.
You're a variant on al-Qaeda, and you're too deranged to realize it.
Go to Hell, where the likes of you belong."
The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness
The Ominous Parallels: The End of Freedom in America
Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans
I'll borrow it from the library so as not to put money into the hands of a Liberal Strategist. My desire to read this book is simply to peek at a playbook of the opposing side.
Before I conclude this, I'll leave you with a quote from the author's blog which was directed at firearms enthusiasts, for the sake of characterizing him:
"Don't try and post here. I won't approve your comments.
I'm sick of you. I detest you. I don't want to hear from you. No sane person wants to hear from you.
You're a variant on al-Qaeda, and you're too deranged to realize it.
Go to Hell, where the likes of you belong."
The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness
The Ominous Parallels: The End of Freedom in America
Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
How the Liberals Will Lose the Next Election
Oct 21 2012
By Victor Wong
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
One of Warren Kinsella's biggest problems is that he is a hyper-partisan Liberal, an acolyte of Jean Chrétien who either "takes no prisoners" or likes to throw stink bombs on general principles, depending on your viewpoint. This means he's incapable of describing Canada's conservative movement in anything resembling neutral terms, unless (and this is critical) he talks about their tactics in winning elections. He argues that conservatives have captured the ability to speak to the values of mainstream Canadians, something Liberals and progressives have somehow lost; *how* the Left lost that ability, he's somehow not able to address, which is a definite weakness. The result is a good (if obvious) diagnosis of the Left's problems, but with no real prescription for their malaise other than "we must do something instead of nothing."
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent tool
Mar 19 2013
By Libby Tardalo
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This book was perfect for me.
I didn't read it of course; I stopped needing pedants to spoon-feed me what I should think and do when I learned that words are sometimes just sounds filling an otherwise welcome silence.
But, if you're looking for a good firestarter, this book is for you!
I didn't read it of course; I stopped needing pedants to spoon-feed me what I should think and do when I learned that words are sometimes just sounds filling an otherwise welcome silence.
But, if you're looking for a good firestarter, this book is for you!
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 4 reviews
3.2 out of 5 stars
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