THE ASSAULT ON REASON by Al Gore

I just realized that I format my reviews a lot the same as I used to write book reports in grade school. At least I don't conclude with "The End" anymore. I'll take my progress wherever I find it.

Oh, ladies, the first 50 pages of this book had me so psyched, I couldn't wait to tell you about it. Gore asserts, in a way I'd not understood before, how crucial a well-educated and informed citizenry is to to health of a democracy. "Free and open debate" isn't just a handy political catch phrase, but the means by which the Founding Guys meant for this newly-invented system of government to operate. They expected the citizens to read about, discuss and debate the issues of the day. There would be disagreements, naturally, but they assumed that by applying reason, it was always possible to find common ground.

Fast-forward a couple of centuries, and most of us wouldn't know a free and open debate if it fell on us, complete with moderators. Our news comes to us, not in a format that encourages an exchange of ideas, but through the one-way input of TV and radio. The news outlets are owned by corporations and, particularly post 9/11, their content is, um, somewhat constrained by the dictates of those who count the advertising dollars. We sit in our cars or on our couches and glean whatever information we can from what is fed to us without any opportunity to respond or ask questions. This topic is so important, I wish I could tell you that the whole book is about how we can become a more engaged democracy. But then you, like I, would be disappointed.

Instead, the bulk of the book focuses on the ways that the American people have been manipulated and deceived by the future former administration. Gore is thorough in his research, supporting each of his assertions with documentation, but the more I read, the sloggier it became. First of all, how much more infuriated do I need to be about the past 7 years? The sheer volume of evidence that we have been screwed over and over (and not in that fun way) is more than I could take. I got it, I got it already! The other problem is that Gore writes the book the way I learned to write a 5-paragraph essay: topic sentence, followed by several paragraphs supporting the premise, and ending with a conclusion that reiterates what you've just read. It's dense, it's factual, it's a written reminder of Gore's "wooden" affect during the ill-fated presidential run.

That said, it's still worth reading if you go at it in small chunks or have a little something on hand to help you cope with the outrage that is bound to result.

~Michelle