Spin Cycle Book Review: The Art of Political War

This isn't a new book, it was first published in 2000. But it is an essential book if you want to understand how a small group of radicals can seize control of our government and our culture.

The author David Horowitz, a former leftwing radical himself, explains how the radical left has become so successful in dominating our nation. They do this in the same way all successful enterprises operate: they work harder at it, and they want it more than than their adversaries do.

They are willing to take more risk, and they are willing to bend or break laws to achieve their ends.  Essentially, this is a war in which only one side is doing the actual fighting.

The conservatives play by all the rules, and take their inevitable defeats graciously. The liberals will employ any means or method to win, because for them winning is essential.

Conservatives usually blame their failures on the media or unscrupulous opponents, and fail to see the real culprit is themselves. This book shatters the complacency of establishment conservatives. David Horowitz shows how Bill Clinton's generation, having mastered the art of political war, has spent the last ten years clobbering conservatives in and out of government. The best-selling author of Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes has the strategy to fight back.

Horowitz explains that the radical left has an innate advantage that skews the playing field towards them. They all come from an activist background, so they understand how to manipulate the masses. They all were in the Anti-War Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Rights Movement, the Environmental Movement, or the Gay Liberation Movement. Meanwhile, the conservatives all come from the Rotary Clubs, the Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Boy Scouts.

Eventually, the radical left elected their own President, a man whose only work experience was as a "community organizer" for a radical group.

Anti war protests have stopped. Obama won, and it's his war now.

This book is actually a collection of essays, the first one being the largest and most important.  Horowitz opens his book with the six principles of politics that liberals understand and conservatives do not.

He next warns against the essentially liberal inclination to supervise the lives of a "helpless" citizenry. This "Puritan impulse" promises shipwreck for conservatives who fail to keep liberty as their watchword.

The success of the left is nowhere more evident than in the politics of race.

Revisiting a recent controversy in which Time branded him a "real live bigot," Horowitz probes an ugly strain of left-wing racism and reflects on the prospects for true racial justice.

He concludes with a profile of the radical mentality-hidden but real-of the American left. In 1972, the bomb-throwers took their battle from the streets into the McGovern campaign and became the activist core of the Democratic Party. A genuine ideological left thus entered the heart of America's political culture.

Once a notorious radical himself, David Horowitz understands the mind of the left better than any other conservative. Horowitz was raised by parents who were members of the American Communist Party, and who took him on summer vacations to Moscow!

During the early 1970s, Horowitz developed a close friendship with Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton. In Horowitz's subsequent writings, Newton is depicted as equal parts gangster, terrorist, intellectual, and media celebrity.

As part of their work together, Horowitz helped raised money for Newton and assisted with the running of a school for the children of Party members. He further recommended that Newton hire a bookkeeper, Betty Van Patter, who was then working for Ramparts.

In December 1974, Van Patter's murdered body was found floating in San Francisco Harbor. Horowitz, who was certain that the Panthers were responsible, had his suspicions confirmed by several Party members.

He has cited that experience as the catalyst which led him to reject Marxism completely.

The Art of Political War is an indispensable guide for the battles of the campaign season and beyond. Anyone who wants a better understanding of how the radical left has achieved so much success should read this book.