Pattern recognition
At one point in The Enemy At Home, Dinesh D’Souza notes that civility has "virtually disappeared from American politics." In what reads like the standard lament, the "vital center" is largely gone, he notes, with only "the angry left and the angry right" remaining. He cites the titles of three books that convey this anger: Treason, by Ann Coulter, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, by Al Franken, and The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, by Byron York.
The passage is both telling and sloppy. York’s title is obviously humorous and his book does not belong on the list in any sense. In place of the title of York's book D’Souza might profitably have substituted the title of the book by right-wing talk show host Michael Savage -- The Enemy Within -- except that it would suggest that a book with the title The Enemy At Home also belongs on the list. Can it be that D’Souza fails to notice?
In fact, I think that D'Souza not only notices, he is aiming for the same kind of success with The Enemy At Home that Ann Coulter had with Treason. For the reasons I set forth in "D'Souza goes native," forthcoming in the March issue of The New Criterion, I think the book deserves to fail. But the passage seems to me unintentionally revealing of the company D'Souza aspires to keep.
