A Reading Oasis

by Mary

I recently finished Bill Scher's new book, Wait! Don't Move to Canada! and I wanted to let you know what a great book it is. As the proprietor of Liberal Oasis, Bill is a great communicator and has tremendous insight into our nation's politics. I've frequently wished that his blog could be read daily by the Democratic leadership so they could talk about the issues of the day in a way that supports and defends our government from the ravages and stupidity of the Republican mafia. Fortunately, now we can provide them a copy of this book and they can have a short, but pithy discussion about what it means to support Democratic values today.

What Bill does with this book is take all the important issues of today -- taxes, federal government, foreign policy, the culture war, expressing faith in the public sphere, the exposing the radical right-wing judges, engaging the corporate media and how to be an effective protester -- and beautifully articulates liberal principles and then frames the messages that come from that core into strong and honest, principled statements. For example, here's his take on how to talk about a sensible Democratic foreign policy.

Discussions about foreign policy often turn on the question, "Under what circumstances would you go to war?" But it's a mistake to base a Democratic foreign policy vision on the answer. A foreign policy should be based on goals. Freedom and security for all, poverty for none -- those are goals. War is a tactic, not a goal.

Read it and see how you too can incorporate his advice to help us rescue our country from the clutches of Bush and his cronies. And if you like it a lot, send it to your favorite Democratic Congressperson.

You can order the book online at Amazon, Powells, Barnes & Noble, Books We Like or thru your local independent bookstore at Booksense. Perhaps you can catch him on his book tour (schedule here) and have him to sign your copy. Or even better, catch up with him if he drops by your local Drinking Liberally.