Fall of the House of Bush

Craig Unger, contributing editor at Vanity Fair, has written a new book, Fall of the House of Bush: The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, an Still Imperils America's Future.

It shapes up as one of the most important books of 2007, focusing on an unholy alliance between neoconservatives and the Religious Right that helped George W. Bush come to power.

Scott Horton, of Harper's, recently presented an excellent interview with Unger, and it concludes with one of the most compelling quotes I've seen in a long time:

"I see Bush's foreign policy as very much of a piece with his other policies--the unitary executive, his war on science, the politicization of the judiciary, torture, Guantanomo etc.--all of which constitute a brutal assault on America as a constitutional democracy. My central thesis is that the neocons and the religious right constitute an American fundamentalism that is at war with the post-Enlightenment, rational America most of us thought we grew up in. My hope is that a little over a year from now a new administration can start repairing the damage."

An American fundamentalism at war with the rational America most of us thought we grew up in? Powerful stuff, and I think Unger is right on target. I've seen that kind of irrational behavior in my own little court case here in Alabama.

It would be interesting to get the thoughts of people like Don Siegelman and Paul Minor--people who are nothing more than political prisoners in the good ole USA--upon reading that quote from Unger.

More information about Craig Unger's work is available here.