Product Description

Prominent liberals support a whole litany of policies and principles: progressive taxes, affirmative action, greater regulation of corporations, raising the inheritance tax, strict environmental regulations, children’s rights, consumer rights, and more. But do they actually live by these beliefs? Peter Schweizer decided to investigate the private lives of politicians like the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, the Kennedys, and Ralph Nader; commentators Michael Moore, Al Franken, Noam Chomsky, and Cornel West; entertainers or philanthropists Barbra Streisand and George Soros. Using publicly-available real estate records, IRS returns, court depositions, and their own published statements, he sought to examine whether they lived by the principles they so forcefully advocate.

What he found was a long list of contradictions. Many of these proponents of organized labor had developed various methods to sidestep paying union wages or avoid employing unions altogether. They were also adept at avoiding taxes; invested heavily in corporations they had denounced; took advantage of foreign tax credits to use non-American labor overseas; espoused environmental causes while opposing those that might affect their own property rights; hid their investments in trusts to avoid paying estate tax; denounced oil companies but quietly owned them.

Schweizer’s conclusion is simple: liberalism in the end forces its adherents to become hypocrites. They adopt one pose in public, but when it comes to what matters most in their own lives–their property, their privacy, and their children--they jettison their liberal principles and adopt conservative ones. If these ideas don’t work for the very individuals who promote them, Schweizer asks, how can they work for the country?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #320494 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-25
• Released on: 2005-10-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Working with a broadly inclusive pantheon of "the Left" that places Ralph Nader and Barbra Streisand on equal footing with Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, Schweizer (The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty) suggests that liberalism's heroes conduct their lives in ways that prove their philosophy to be "ultimately self-defeating, self-destructive, and unworkable." While acknowledging that conservatives can be high-profile hypocrites as well, Schweizer employs a double standard, arguing that "when conservatives betray their publicly stated principles, they harm only themselves and their families," but when liberals misbehave, they harm their principles first and foremost. Sometimes his research uncovers significant contradictions, as when Schweizer points out that Noam Chomsky, who tends to demonize the military establishment, wrote his first book, Syntactic Structures, with grants from the U.S. Army, the Air Force and the Office of Naval Research. But many of his charges are egregiously hyperbolic, as when he suggests that Cornel West is a "segregationist" because he bought a home in a largely Caucasian suburb. Schweizer clearly knows the limitations of his argument, since he backpedals from many of his most damning statements in his closing remarks. For all its revelations, in the end, this volume reads less like a critique of liberal philosophy than a catalogue of ammunition for ad hominem bloggers. (Oct. 25)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
The Weekly Standard
"Peter Schweizer's Do As I Say (Not As I Do) is an entertaining exposure of the hypocrisy among some prominent liberals. In a series of 11 profiles on leftist icons from Noam Chomsky and Al Franken to Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy, Schweizer reveals that the most vocal liberals do not practice what they preach."


From the Hardcover edition.

Review
The Weekly Standard
"Peter Schweizer's Do As I Say (Not As I Do) is an entertaining exposure of the hypocrisy among some prominent liberals. In a series of 11 profiles on leftist icons from Noam Chomsky and Al Franken to Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy, Schweizer reveals that the most vocal liberals do not practice what they preach."

Customer Reviews

Incredible!
I was skeptical at first, thinking this was just far-right, fiction trash. I just finished reading it. I could not put this book down. This is a very well researched book. I recommend it to anyone needing a good dose of reality therapy. Unfortunately, liberals who are allergic to logic and are emotionally-driven in their decision making will bash this book, whether they read it or not. Take it from me, a liberal who refuses to jump on the Bush-hating bandwagon just because I'm a democrat...all liberals need to read this book!

Exposing Liberal Hypocrisy
This book gives countless examples of liberals who do not practice what they preach. All sorts of people on the left are included, such as politicians like Nancy Pelosi, radical professors like Noam Chomsky, and entertainers like Michael Moore. The claims in this book are all fact-based, and cannot by dismissed by any liberal who will stand by their principals. For instance, the fact that Michael Moore owns Halliburton stock shows that he is profitting from the war in the same way as liberals accuse the Bush admistration of doing.

Of course conservatives are hypocritical too. However, this isn't supposed to be a non-partisan book; it's blatantly partisan, and I love every page of it. Definitely read it if you want to know the truth about these supposed compassionate liberals.

I thought this was for book reviews
If you read the pinheads below, you will see such gems as "Even Jesus was a hypocrite" and "Oh also, letting government secrets out is a federal felony crime. Tell that to "scooter" Libby and Karl Rove." What that has to do with this excellent book is...NOTHING! If you ask Steve Phelps to come up with an example of his rant, you will hear the same lame polemic that has been disproven and refuted over and over again. And as for SystemStructure, I would like to clarify that Libby was charged with obstruction of justice, not letting out state secrets. And Rove probably won't be charged with anything. Now if you want to talk about state secrets, look at Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J, and John Kerry, BOTH of whom revealed CIA agents' identities and got away with it. THAT is a great example of what this book is all about - LIBERAL HYPOCRISY.