The Crusading Spirit in Modern America
George W. Bush and the Radical Conservative Elite
By Richard J. Bazillion
ISBN: 9781439229446
If you want to have a better idea of what is going on in American politics, Crusading Spirit is an informative book. The author fills pages with passionate opinions and provides evidence to support what he says. There's a reason why America's two major political parties are polarized. Crusading Spirit provides another piece to the puzzle for people with open minds that want to unravel the misinformation the radical right uses to mislead voters.
It happens that Bazillion's specialty is the history of modern Germany, and we learn from Crusading Spirit that Neoconservatism, like Nazism also supports and pushes dangerous ideas.
Two men are mentioned often in the book, Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss. Schmitt joined the Nazi party in May 1933, and is sometimes referred to as "the crown jurist of the Third Reich." His ideas have had a powerful influence over neoconservatives. Crusading Spirit links these dangerous Straussian ideas to the George W. Bush Whitehouse and many of the president's influential advisors (including Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Abram Shulsky, Stephen Cambone, Elliott Abrams, Stephen Hadley, and Douglas Feith—page 65). The book explains in detail why America went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan and how those wars were botched and why.
It's a tragedy this book will not reach a wider audience. Like most books written by PhDs spending decades lecturing to university students, Crusading Spirit bogs down with a reading level far above the average American. I kept reading because I know someone that matches Bazillion's description of the average far-right radical neoconservative/evangelical. That description matches a friend of mine, who, like George W. Bush, was born again.
To find a larger audience, Bazillion should slim down his book by cutting about a hundred pages (due to repetition), and simplify the language. However, the odds are that even if Bazillion rewrote his book so someone with a sixth grade (about average for most Americans) reading level could read it, they wouldn't be able to understand the importance of the information.
That's why a neoconservative voice like Rush Limbaugh with the number one radio talk show in America influences thirty million listeners. He talks to them like they can't think. Pundits like Limbaugh know how to reach people with their message. This explains why America ended up with George W. Bush in the White House for eight years. Authors like Richard Bazillion should learn from right-wing pundits how to get his message out.
The unabridged review may be found at:
