Pitt, coauthor of War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know, is an angry leftist. He is angry with the president and his administration for dismantling the Bill of Rights, distorting our national purpose and placing environmental policy, tax policy and our military power in the hands of corporate oil interests. He is angry with the media for ineptly reporting on important policy issues while endlessly chasing Gary Condit. He is angry at the Supreme Court for giving Bush the presidency. And he is angry with the American public because they "have not been minding the store." It is unfortunate that many of Pitt's speculations about the Bush administration are too far off-center and inflammatory for the majority of even those who oppose the president. His report of the death of democracy in America ("The American Experiment may well be finished") will strike many as premature; his statement that "[p]atriotic Americans fear to speak out against the government" is patently untrue, given the size of recent antiwar demonstrations. Repeatedly, such flights undercut Pitt's more salient complaints. And his impassioned suggestions to the left (e.g., "end tax giveaways to corporations and the rich") break no new ground. (June)
