Read a newspaper or catch the news on television, and you might get the impression that America's current leadership is "mainstream": perhaps a bit more conservative and in its foreign policy more belligerent than its predecessors, but still a federal authority that functions within America's political traditions. But as Mark Crispin Miller argues here with great clarity and effect, we are in fact living in a state that would appall the Founding Fathers: a state that is neither democratic nor republican, and no more "conservative" than it is liberal.

He exposes the Bush Republicans' contempt for democratic practice, their bullying religiosity, their reckless militarism, their apocalyptic views of the economy and the planet, and — above all — their emotional dependence on sheer hatefulness. Abraham Lincoln once observed that, if the United States should ever be subverted, "it will be conquered from within." And that is exactly what has happened.

"In delivering this blunt jeremiad — Bush is 'fascistic,' 'theocratic,' a 'crook,' etc. — Miller (The Bush Dyslexicon) argues that the Bush-era press isn't simply biased, it has been lulled into an Orwellian false consciousness. One of the major examples Miller, a professor of media studies at NYU, offers is the case of Scott Ritter, the former U.N. weapons inspector who insisted before the war that Iraq probably had no unconventional weapons and was treated by TV interviewers like Paula Zahn as a near-stooge for Saddam. For Miller, further elements of the current order include electronic voting machines that he says were used to tilt the 2002 congressional elections and a cabal of Christian Reconstructionists that wants to impose theocracy on America. Miller, sometimes overheatedly, links the 'extremist propaganda' of the Christian right to Bush assertions and policies, traces it to groups like the highly secretive Council for National Policy, and presents what he sees as a final agenda: 'To such apocalyptic types, the prospect of a ruined earth is no big deal, as long as God can be alleged to go for it.' While such arguments are familiar, as is the indignant tone, Miller's thoroughness and clarity in tracking down the sources of the policies he decries, and the ways in which they are disseminated, set the book apart. Agent, Emma Parry for Fletcher & Parry. 12-city author tour; 20-city radio satellite tour." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Miller (media studies, New York U.) believes the Bush/Cheney administration is dangerous, not only to itself, but to world peace through diplomacy, the survival of democratic republicanism in America, and the civil rights of everyone within earshot. Working primarily from transcripts, newspaper accounts and web sites, Miller examines the off-the-script comments and on-the-script actions of administration officials, particularly the president, and finds they indicate a basic misunderstanding of the constitution, its systems of checks and balances, and the nature and scope of executive authority. This volume does not include an index.
Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

"Lively, entertaining, and hard-hitting, this book is a searing indictment of the Bush administration. However, the case made does not always lead to the conclusions drawn, and this work may be too polemical for mainstream tastes." Library Journal

"[Cruel and Unusual] adds up to a nicely juicy rant — but not much more — some of the details of which may come as news to some readers." Kirkus Reviews

In Cruel and Unusual, Mark Crispin Miller exposes what he calls the Bush RepublicansU contempt for democratic practice, their bullying religiosity, their reckless militarism, and their apocalyptic views of the economy and the planet.

Mark Crispin Miller is a professor of media studies at New York University and the author of The Bush Dyslexicon. He lives in New York City.