New Glenn Beck book "shockingly good"

In a book review over at FrontPageMag.com, David Forsmark writes this about Glenn Beck's new book "Arguing with Idiots":

It’s not just good — much of it is really, really good. Shockingly good. It reminded me of the kind of bestsellers that came out in the early 1980s, when free-market thinking made its big comeback, aided by libertarian Robert Ringer’s Restoring the American Dream on the pop-thinking level, and George Gilder’s Wealth and Poverty for the more philosophical reader.

But what much of the content of Arguing really reminds me of — and don’t throw things at me — is the late, great Milton and Rose Friedman’s classic of capitalism, Free to Choose. Now, before anyone has a stroke or writes my editor in shock and disdain, I’m not saying Arguing with Idiots is in the league with the book that is one of the five most influential of my life.

However, I do think this book would have made Milton Friedman smile with approval.

He goes on:

“Universal Health Care” is one of the book’s most valuable chapters. Unlike some other segments, such as the one about the Second Amendment, Beck (and his team of writers and illustrators) does more than (very effectively) restate familiar arguments, Beck offers witty asides and on-point illustrations (both literally and figuratively) while presenting a wealth of material that will be new to even well-informed readers and veterans of the political commentary wars. Particularly terrific is a section on how innovative companies are meeting the demand for low-cost insurance and changing the paradigm on how health care is delivered. This is something the current debate is sorely lacking from free-market advocates, who too often are merely opponents of socialized medicine.

When it comes to the debate over whether or not Glenn Beck is good for the conservative movement, I am firmly on the side of "he is good for the movement." He does come across as a clown, but the reality is that he has inspired his audience to read serious books on history and political philosophy and economics. He is not a mouthpiece, he does not recite talking points, and he has broken serious news stories neglected by the mainstream media. For Beck, conservatism and the philosophy of limited government is so much more than "cut taxes", which is too often the only argument many "conservatives" are able to come up with when debating some of these issues. He constantly implores his audience to do their own homework and learn the arguments.

The review ends as follows: "This is a book filled with persuasive arguments that lots of people who argue about such things for a living have never heard. And they need to."

After watching Michael Steele get destroyed by Shep Smith on Fox News in a debate over health care reform, I am thinking that maybe someone should send him a copy of "Arguing with Idiots", so that he can avoid sounding like one himself.