Wingnuts

How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America

By: John P. Avlon, Tina Brown - foreword

Narrated by: John P. Avlon, Tina Brown (foreword)

A bad craziness is snaking through America in the first years of the Obama administration: the wingnuts are on the attack!

Whats a wingnut? A wingnut is someone on the far-right or far-left wing of the political spectrum - professional partisans, unhinged activists, and paranoid conspiracy theorists. Barack Obama campaigned as an antidote to the politics of polarization, promising to transcend the old divides of left and right, black and white, red states and blue. But in the first year of his presidency, he is presiding over an eruption of hate and hyper-partisanship that threatens to mock the promise upon which he was elected.

Wingnuts is a reported exploration of the outer reaches of American politics, told from the perspectives of a radical centrist who believes that the far right and the far left are equally insane.

On the way, we'll meet the Queen of the Birthers, Orly Taitz, and the Orange County pastor who is openly praying for Obama's death. We'll get a look into the life of Obama senate opponent Alan Keyes and the draft-Palin movement, as well as the liberal anti-war Obama protestor Cindy Sheehan and her allies in Code Pink. Wingnuts also looks at people trying to bridge the political divide, like the Afghan war vet who founded Republicans for Obama.

Foreword written and read by Tina Brown.

©2010 John Avlon (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Everyone needs to see that BOTH sides have Wingnut

Would you consider the audio edition of Wingnuts to be better than the print version?

Never read the Print version

What was one of the most memorable moments of Wingnuts?

The author showing that both the right and the left have what he terms "Wingnuts."

Have you listened to any of John P. Avlon and Tina Brown (foreword) ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but I would be interested in reading others because this was very good.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Right, Left, take your pick - they're all crazy!

Any additional comments?

Wingnuts gives a great look at the fringe elements in both the Right-Wing and Left-Wing of the country. Both sides will cringe or puff up in defense of their people. It gives a good smack-down of those considered extreme.

Extremely current information

Rather hurridly written, or so it seems from some reading errors by the narrator. Interesting and worth reading, but much more like a news report than a novel.

Long Overdue ....Great Listen!

First of all, download it; it's a great book. The thing that keeps popping up to me was how isolated the "rational" majority feels in this overtly partisan political and media landscape. It's good to know that there are a lot of other people out there that are clear minded and agree with both sides while also hating them. If I hear Keith Olberman say "Sir" one more time to Dick Cheney, I'm going to barf and this book really taps into how moronic both parties can be sometimes. It also spotlights how the lack of campaign finance reform (curbed even further by the Supreme court) now makes it even harder to get clear thinking people into government positions. Avlon really is balanced in his approach and I think he's pretty good on CNN as an analyst. There's plenty of material from both parties to get mad about. Good read overall and now I can come proudly out of the closet and say that I truly am a Centrist...

I expected more analysis, less summarizing

I was hoping this book would be a good analysis of the extreme rhetoric afflicting our political system. While there were some elements of that in the book, overall, it was simply a regurgitation of anecdotes about extremists and what they've said. It offers no insight into political solutions, and basically is part of its own self-described "finger pointing" problem. It simply aims to convince the reader that we are in a terrible situation and it's extremists' fault. No solution. No explanation why. Just finger pointing. Furthermore, I was hoping for a balances view of both liberal and conservative extremism, but the book skews more towards criticizing conservative extremism. Some part of the book were good and insightful, but overall I found myself just waiting for it to add something of value or just end.

A little out of date but entertaining

This book was written during the Obama era. it's unbelievable how people think. I found some of the Facebook dialogue to be somewhat redundant. However, it was really amazing to understand some of the psychology involved in what's going on. The book just reinforced more less what I knew but it was nice to hear in an organized way.