DO-GOODERS: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help (and the Rest of Us)

From its provocative title, to its headshots of liberals that conservatives love to hate (Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore, Rosie O'Donnell), Charen signals right away that she will make no attempt to bridge a widening divide. She does make an attempt to add some empirical weight to the usual vitriol of liberal bashing, however. This polemic includes over 20 pages of footnotes to back up its various claims and offers a partial bibliography for those wanting to read more written by those who share Charen's political leanings. But even with the citations, Charen's argument (over six chapters) is simple in every sense: everything that has gone bad in American society is the fault of liberal policies and the countercultural movements of the 1960s, and everything that is getting better is the consequence of the leadership of a few (visionary) politicians on the right. Charen makes frequent use of quotes from a range of people in the "do-gooder" camp (although she seems oddly fixated on Moore, Jesse Jackson and the editorial page of the New York Times ), but this is largely a cherry-picking exercise rather than a more thoughtful attempt to evaluate the core assumptions and values that guide liberal policy makers. (Jan.)