The woman from whom we're subletting clearly leans to the left when it comes to politics. The other day I started reading her copy of Al Franken's LIES and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Believe it or not, Franken is a remarkably well-informed and clever writer. Not only did he surprise me with his analysis, but he's even funnier than I had concluded from watching his antics on Saturday Night Live. (I never cared for the Stuart Smalley stuff, but I will never forget his skit with the endlessly repeated "...with me, Al Franken" catchline.)
Below I'll mention the book's best gotcha! moment (regarding a Wall Street Journal editorial), but then I'll show two places where Al is just as contradictory and unfair (in that order) as his right-wing opponents. First the good stuff. In a chapter called, "Paul Gigot is Unable to Defend an Incredibly Stupid Wall Street Journal Editorial," Franken (I'm assuming this is all true) busts PG. PG had been decrying the gun-banning Clinton era versus the get-tough-on-crime-by-enforcing-existing-gun-laws Ashcroft approach. To prove that Ashcroft got results, PG wrote:
"In reality, gun violence has declined from 12% of violent crime in 1993 to 9% in the most recent Justice statistics [which would be 2001--RPM relying on Al Franken]. Any gun control advocates out there care to apologize?"
When I first read this I didn't see what the big deal was. But Franken reminded me: Clinton took office in 1993 and left in 2001. So if you wanted to argue that gun bans led to the reduction in their use in violent crimes, you might point to the statistic cited by PG.
(Naturally I oppose gun bans--I'm a pacifist and thus don't think the federal government should use armed men to achieve desirable goals, such as a world free of automatic weapons. It's the same idea behind my opposition to George Bush trying to use bombers to disarm bad dictators.)
Anyway, Franken goes on to make an analogy with Ford making a commercial for SUVs, showing a video clip of an Explorer turning over while the announcer says, "The new Ford Explorer. LIke all SUVs, impossible to tip over!"
Ha ha, funny stuff. (I'm being serious. Franken exposes ridiculous whoppers from Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and so on, and then goes the extra mile to show just how stupid and deceitful some are their statements are.)
OK now the criticism. I think I've caught Franken making an argument just about as dumb as PG's attempt to impugn Clinton. When discussing free trade (which Franken opposes), Franken says:
Tariffs on imports go down, and along with them go prices on products that [consumers] buy, like those fedoras you always see in the movies. That's the upside. The downside of free trade is that low-skilled fedora-making jobs get exported overseas. So lower prices for consumers, but job insecurity for those with low skills. (pp. 54–55)
OK fair enough...The guy's a comedian for heaven's sake. We don't expect him to have read Bastiat. But the problem is that, exactly one page later, Franken seeks to showcase the cruelty of the right winger supporters of free trade by featuring a fictitious account from a Kharab Junta. (The purpose of this is to show that Al Franken has a comparative advantage in book writing, so he doesn't fear low-wage competition from Junta. It's pretty clever, except for the fact that it directly contradicts Al's intended point.) So again, the below is Al Franken's sample writing from the fictitious Kharab:
My job in the factory is very hard. I am made to stitch shoes for many hours. It is hard for me to stitch, but the men do not care. Yesterday, I punctured my finger on the machine. I tried to squeeze it, but the bleeding would not stop...My twelve-year old sister Choto began to yell at the men. I told her to be quiet and return to her work. The men told me that if she causes trouble again, they will fire her, and she will have to become a prostitute. (p. 56)
OK so does everyone see the contradiction (that Franken classifies as "sh*t-for-brains" when used by Paul Gigot)? Franken says that free trade helps US consumers but exports low-skill jobs overseas. Then to drive home the point about how bad free trade is, Franken discusses the plight of low-skilled foreign workers who must work in a bad factory or become prostitutes. Does everyone see how dumb that is??!
Last thing: On page 255 Al has this sober, sympathetic and politically savvy statement:
You know who were the worst traitors in the history of our country? The Confederates. They took up arms against soldiers wearing the uniform of the United States of America. But they were much, much worse than John Walker Lindh. Because they killed hundreds of thousands of American troops. And for what cause? So they could whip and torture black people. Why would anyone want to put up a flag honoring that?
Nice, Al. Glad to see you're above the ridiculous tactics of Rush Limbaugh.
However, this particular quotation is not representative of the book. Franken seems like a genuinely nice guy whose only major flaw is that his hatred of the Right has blinded him to the faults of the Left. If you are in a bookstore you should read a few pages to see if you just might want to purchase the book, becuase (like me) you might be surprised by how good it generally is.
