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re: Followup
[Frederica Mathewes-Green 03/20 03:08 PM]Reader Tom makes a point re my Friday morning post titled "Followup":
On the Crunch Con blog, you wrote, "So, Rod, would you say that you were trying to start a conversation, rather than hand down prescriptions?"
I'm sorry, but a fellow simply can't write a book whose title claims that he and the likeminded "plan to save America," then claim he's just trying to start a conversation.
Bingo.
Maybe I'm the only person interested in this question — I've been taken aback by the rancor on this blog and wondering what set it off. As I was putt-putting along on the tiny plane to Shreveport Friday afternoon, it hit me: it's gotta be the subtitle.
Rod wrote a book that was fresh, genial, thought-provoking, and then came up with a playful subtitle. But just about everybody is going to encounter them in the opposite order: they'll read the subtitle first, then open the book.
And they're likely to have the impression that the book will present a "plan to save America;" that a parade of lifestyle heroes are going to set the Republican Party straight, if not the entire country. Well, yeah, if you take that at face value, it sure looks like throwing down the gauntlet. And how would people know not to take it literally? Yup, there's your problem.
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