cover image The New American Revolution: Using the Power of the Individual to Save Our Nation from Extremists

The New American Revolution: Using the Power of the Individual to Save Our Nation from Extremists

Tammy Bruce. William Morrow & Company, $24.95 (291pp) ISBN 978-0-06-072620-1

Mostly a stage upon which to beat her stridently individualist chest and congratulate herself for melding seemingly contradictory political ideologies, this book opens with Bruce, a pro-death penalty, gun-owning, pro-choice lesbian feminist and former NOW chapter president who lives in San Francisco and is a Fox News contributor, hailing the 2000 election as ""a message from the nation"" that we were ready for someone ""who was, at his core, decent."" Bruce lashes out against liberals, whom she says carry around so much hatred toward the country that it has begun to infect the globe, and explains her unique politics by reasoning ""party loyalty takes a backseat to the safety of your family and this nation,"" and ""there's nothing more radically individual these days than a liberal who doesn't conform."" Given the current bevy of accusations swirling over the Bush administration and its handling of intelligence, Bruce's extended attack on the ""deep depravity of the American Left"" seems like a victim of bad timing. Readers willing to wade through Bruce's frustratingly frequent invocations of ""hate,"" ""savage"" and ""evil"" will hear the call to readers to think for themselves instead of relying on the party line, be it on the left or right. Unfortunately, her thesis is buried beneath mountains of dismissible rhetoric.