Running Press, $15.00, ISBN 978-0-7624-5351-1
Political Commentary, 2014
When it comes to politics, I like to follow both sides of the fence. This is because I inherently mistrust media, especially mainstream media. I watch and read both sides, and usually I find that the truth is somewhere in the middle after I piece both sides together. This is especially relevant as both mainstream and independent media these days become increasingly partisan, and apparently I can’t even look at the other side without being cancelled by my own side.
So, on the far left, or progressive, side of US politics, I like Jimmy Dore, and I don’t say that because he has this rather hot grumpy older man thing going on for him, especially when he puts on those glasses… ahem. One appeal of Mr Dore is that he is a “self-taught” political commentator, as he explains in Your Country Is Just Not That into You – he’s a stand-up comedian who becomes disenchanted with US politics after the Gulf War, and he’s been going on a rampage ever since. This means that he’s not very funny these days, but this also means that he’s the perfect stand-in for the audience.
Ben Shapiro lectures me while reminding me constantly that he is very smart and his wife is a doctor. The Young Turks scowl and shriek at me, because I will always be morally inferior in their judgmental eyes. Steven Crowder and Joe Rogan feel more like class clowns and jokers sometimes, it’s hard to take them seriously. Dave Rubin has no opinion of his own other than free speech is important. Jimmy Dore, though, he’s relatable. He’s that endearing family member who will read something in the newspapers or on social media, and then he will start pointing out all that is wrong about whatever it is that he has read. He will invite guests onto his show to share his grouses with them, while at the same admitting that he’s not book smart enough, so he’d just let those guests speak and he’ll just chime in now and then.
The downside to this is that, because Mr Dore seems more like an everyday bloke rather than someone who has an “in” with political circles, he sometimes comes off more like someone parroting the talking points of other progressives instead of making convincing points of his own.
Fortunately, this book sees him using anecdotes and personal reflections as much as comedy to illustrate his points, so unlike him on his The Jimmy Dore Show, he manages to mix comedy with political commentary more successfully. The points that he raises here will be familiar to those who follow his shows – the current two party system isn’t working to the benefit of the everyday person, the worker class, although it sure works wonders for politicians who want to enrich themselves off the system. He also skewers the workings of both the Republicans and the Democrats, as well as the media who is basically the propaganda wing to whichever faction they pledge themselves to. He also has things to say about God, spies, and everything else.
Unfortunately, this book also sees him writing at times like he’s talking out loud in a studio or a club, and the result is often a rather chaotic, often difficult-to-read wall of text. There are sections where he conducts imaginary conversations with the people he is skewering, and I can’t help thinking that kind of thing works so much better on his show rather than in a book. Visual and written media work differently, and often this one tries to do things that are better off done in a visual medium.
Do I agree with Mr Dore? Well, he’s a progressive to whom Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are too far on the right. Don’t boo at him: I can see where he is coming from, as it makes sense that self-ordained progressive politicians who end up playing the same game as other politicians in the system will earn his ire. Were I thirty years younger, I would be all over the socialist agenda of universal healthcare, universal basic income, universal everything. Today, though, I’m far more pragmatic. I can only wonder where the money to pay for all the universal programs will come from. It is also, to me, a kind of contradiction in which you call the system corrupt, but you want the government to have more control over education, health, and the economy. Shouldn’t we be calling for the supposedly corrupt government to have less control? I can also say for certainty, using my country as evidence, that giving the government full reign to dictate universal whatever for the people can also invite abuse from the government itself. Any system can be gamed to enrich the politicians, and I am very skeptical of a system that calls for increasingly centralized power for the government.
Also, like many progressives, Mr Dore often offers more insight on what is wrong than how to improve the wrongs in a workable manner. He’s calling for a revolution, but he’s not thinking further beyond guillotining the assholes abusing the system. I don’t know whether I can blame him exclusively for this, as I’ve yet to meet an US progressive activist that can lay down realistic solutions to repair the system.
However, as I’ve mentioned, I can see and understand why he feels and believes the way he does, and that’s perhaps the greatest triumph of this book. I don’t have to agree with him to respect why he thinks the way he does, and frankly, despite his admitted lack of book smart when it comes to politics, he sounds far more intelligent as well as sincere than a certain bug-eyed idiot in the US progressive politics scene at the moment.
Perhaps the biggest reason not to read this thing, though, is the date it is published: 2014. That’s right, this one misses out all the fun parts: Orange Man Bad, Creepy Joe, Crooked Hillary, Crazy Bernie, Cocaine Mitch, Fake News, Build the Wall, Russia Bad, China Bad… everything about the biggest political side show the US has ever seen in the twenty-first century, not touched here. Instead, Mr Dore makes fun of folks who, by now, are no longer of much relevance.
If this one had been updated and revised, then yes, maybe Your Country Is Just Not That into You will be worth a look. As it is, it’s just something in Mr Dore’s list of things he has done, and I’d suggest just sticking to his shows on YouTube. Still, this one will likely be a better read than anything that a certain bug-eyed fake, backstabbing, socialist idiot will ever put out in the future.
