From a reader:
Dear Mr. Goldberg,
I just completed your introduction and afterword, and am very
impressed. I thought you concisely and eloquently distilled the
essence of what American conservatism is (or ought to be). I won’t
go overboard and call it Reaganesque, but my reaction was “Damn this
is good!” If you’re ever asked to contribute to a primer on what
conservatism is, all you’ll have to do is rewrite your afterword.
If I still have your attention. I think you should consider, out of
pure mercenary greed, supporting the Huckabee campaign. The longer
he stays in contention, the more material you’ll have to work with
for a revised afterword to the paperback edition (enticing all of us
who’ve already purchased a copy to run out and purchase another). If
he takes it all the way to the general you may get a whole new
chapter. And who knows? If he were to win, you might even get a
whole ‘nother book out of it. I’m not sure what you’d call it (Neo-
Liberal Fascism? Compassionate Fascism: How the Right succumbed to
the Dark Side?). But boy, would the old Mr. Yuck sticker sporting
the Hitler ‘stache look great on the cover. Since you’d be
expounding on your cautionary note about compassionate conservatism,
you’d keep most of your existing audience. And because you’d be
criticizing a Republican, you’d pick up a whole new one. You might
even get to experience Strange New Respect!
Obviously I’m guessing that you’re watching what’s happening on our
side going “this would have been great for my book!” On the other
hand, after four years in your own private spice-mine, maybe you feel
like you dodged a bullet.
Continued success!