And Rightly So

October 30, 2009

Conservative publishing is a very small world. I've often at least met the authors of our Main Selections before they're selected. If I were overscrupulous about full disclosure, too many of these columns would be clogged with name-dropping accounts of the circumstances under which I'd encountered the authors: "Michael Medved had me on the radio to publicize my book . . . Ann Coulter stopped by our office, and she's even thinner and blonder in person than on TV . . . I helped Tony Esolen get The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization published . . Robert Spencer introduced me to David Horowitz at CPAC . . . . I was in a meeting with Carrie Prejean, and she seems just as unspoiled and genuinely charming as you wish all beauty pageant winners were . . ."

But sometimes the relationship is close enough that it does seem like I ought to mention it -- for example, in the case of Robert Spencer, a very old friend who was already debating Muslims when we were in college together at the University of North Carolina.

Tim Carney, the author of Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses, is also a real friend. One who has opened my eyes to important truths that I hadn't seen before, about the reasons our government continues to grow and grow -- to the point where it's now swallowing up ever-larger swathes of the private economy, ruining our national credit, and, if we don't somehow get it under control, breaking America beyond repair. I met Tim Carney when he was working for Eagle Publishing -- the Conservative Book Clubs parent company -- toward the end of the Bush administration, when so many conservatives were bitterly disappointed about the Republicans' record on financial responsibility (and this was even before the bailouts). One key insight that Tim Carney helped me to attain is that for politicians, even Republicans, being "pro-business" unfortunately doesn't always mean actually being pro-free market, pro-entrepreneurship, pro- capitalism, or pro-a sound economy -- or even genuinely good for business.

Real conservatism on economic issues means protecting property rights, a truly free market, and real economic liberty. Those things create a level playing field for all businesses, allow the whole economy to prosper, and ensure the maximum liberty for individual citizens. Faux conservatism on the economy means using government’s crushing powers of taxation, regulation, and coercion to protect existing businesses and property owners from the competition of the free market. Too often, Republican politicians in the Bush years fetishized some one particular feature of a capitalist economy and used subsidies and regulation to inflate it all out of proportion to its real value, twisting that one good thing so out of its natural context in the market as to actually undermine the economy. The most obvious example is President Bush's well-intentioned but disastrous push for an "ownership economy." Home ownership is a good thing. But recklessly promoting "home ownership" with intrusive government regulation and massive subsidies that push people into houses they can never really afford has nothing to do with a truly free economy. Nor does saddling our grandchildren with crushing debt to bail out high-rolling Wall Street gamblers, a.ka. "abandon[ing] free market principles to save the free market system."

These days, we have much worse things to worry about than faux conservative economics. Now, Tim Carney turns his remarkable economic insight and finely honed reporter's skills on the economic shenanigans of the Obama administration. What Carney discovers is that Obama is more beholden to big business (particularly corrupt big business that wants a permanent place on the government gravy train) than any Republican -- and that he’s more ready to subsidize it, crush its competition, and guarantee its profits at the expense of ordinary citizens.

Not because our President loves business -- far from it. But because an alliance with corrupt, rent-seeking businesses is the quickest path to what he wants: more government control of us. Like any Leftist, our President is sure that he and his hand-picked elites can run our lives better than we can. If he has to make a deal with "evil" insurance companies, Big Pharma, or Big Oil (all the while posing as the public's champion against big business) in order to get the power to tell us where to set our thermostats or what medical treatments we can and can't have, he'll do the deal. In Obamanomics, Tim Carney has provided an invaluable service, laying out exactly how President Obama will beggar America, enrich his fat cat cronies, and take our liberty -- if we don’t see the threat in time to fight back.

--Elizabeth Kantor

andrightlyso@ConservativeBookClub.com

And Rightly So

October 9, 2009

Okay, I have to admit up front that it drives me crazy when stores put up their Christmas displays in October -- before Halloween, let alone Thanksgiving (and before anyone's thinking about Advent). But it's also true that I start buying Christmas presents in -- well, long before October, in fact, pretty much right after the previous Christmas. Especially books. Partly because books can be bought, wrapped, and stored at the back of the closet in the spare bedroom quite conveniently throughout the year. But also because with books it's even harder than with other kinds of presents -- gadgets and toys, clothes and jewelry -- to find just the right one at the last minute. And of course, planning for Christmas ahead of time is part of a thrifty and generally well-ordered life. If you don't shop in advance, you end up paying full price. But, even worse, you can end up letting frantic last-minute present shopping take over Christmas. Desperate hours in the mall looking for something, anything is no way to spend your Christmas Eve.

All of which is the lead-in to my pitch for our Christmas clearance flyer, enclosed in the envelope with this Bulletin. Every single book in it -- and we're leading with Glenn Beck's Common Sense -- is priced at $9.95 or less. And there are more than 150 books in the flyer. In the nature of the book club business, we sometimes end up with more copies of a book than we need. The clearance flyer is the place we offer you our overstocks at prices that help us control our inventory -- and help you find reasonably priced Christmas presents in good time.

There's plenty of red meat in the flyer for the conservatives on your list: Ann Coulter's Godless and If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans; Michael Medved's The 10 Big Lies about America; Pat Buchanan's Day of Reckoning; John Stossel's Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity; and much more.

There are also history books you can really sink your teeth into: George Washington and Benedict Arnold: A Tale of Two Patriots; The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire; Conservatism in America since 1930; and The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan's First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics.

And books to make you think: George Weigel's Faith, Reason, and the War against Jihaism; Michael Behe's The Edge of Evolution; Richard Brookhiser's What Would the Founders Do?

And my personal favorite, written by my favorite conservative hero: My Grandfather's Son by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. This book is one of the most informative and enlightening memoirs I've ever read. It changed the way I think about child-rearing, about race and being a Southerner, about the Civil Rights movement, about men and boys.

But as you shop the clearance flyer for your Christmas list, don't miss the newly released titles in this Bulletin. Dinesh D'Souza investigates Life after Death. Peter Schweizer exposes the Architects of Ruin (How Big Government Liberals Wrecked the Economy and How They Will Do It Again If No One Stops Them). Craig Shirley remembers the Rendezvous with Destiny (Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America). Johan Norberg delves into the causes of our Financial Fiasco. Brett and Kate McKay attempt to revive the old-fashioned Art of Manliness. Glenn Beck adapts his bestselling Christmas story for children in the new Christmas Sweater: A Picture Book. David Horowitz mourns his liberal daughter in A Cracking of the Heart. And Seth Lipsky, the founding editor of the New York Sun, explicates The Citizen's Constitution. Enjoy your shopping!

--Elizabeth Kantor

andrightlyso@ConservativeBookClub.com