BOOK REVIEW: MoveOn's 50 Way to Love Your Country

Sometimes, it's a shame that MoveOn.org's name is so instantly polarizing that it renders most non-partisan discussion of its relative merits impossible. Idealogies aside, there are a great many things that MoveOn advocates that are healthy for politics regardless of party affiliation. Chief among these agendas is MoveOn's support of bottom-up, people-centric political action. In the book MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country, contributors from across the country offer stories that read like two parts instruction manual, one part Chicken Soup for the Political Soul.

Most of the advice offered by the MoveOn members responsible for the book runs the gamut, ranging from common sense reminders to tactical strategies on a host of grassroots activities. Ever wanted to know the most effective way to get your letter to the editor published? They've got that covered. How about strategies for voter registration drives? They're in your corner. Most forms of grassroots action are covered in short, simple, easy to reference chapters, making field use possible and profitable.

When I started reading this book, I figured that, with some of the names changed and a few different case studies here and there, this book could easily be adapted to serve politically-minded individuals from both ends of the spectrum. However, the more I think about it, the more I feel that the problem of adaptation might go deeper than some surface changes. I often get the sense that the political makeup of the right might discourage the kind of grassroots, can-do activism that you see so often on the left.

I know there are lots of angry conservatives out there, but I don't see that anger poured into citizen-centered activity. Rather, conservative outcry is often funneled through institutions, such as the National Rifle Association or Focus on the Family. This trust in the establishment brought me back to George Lakoff's concept of the right's reliance on the stern father motif when it comes to political action. Does that sort of framework prevent the same kind of community action that we see from the left? Or, are conservatives just not yet frustrated enough to take action? Remember, it took an impeachment of a president and an illegal war to stir the Democrats into high-profile action. The unfortunate reality is that we may only see conservative organization as a response to the goals that progressives are currently working to achieve. I guess Hinduism has that part right: it's all just one big circle.