Reflecting on the last half of "The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics"

The last half of "The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics" covered the misconceptions surrounding voting donations, a balance budget, social security, medicare, tax cuts, education, the environment, Republicans' governmental beliefs and Democrats' compassion. The authors of "The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics" covered these issues primarily in a more critical light than previous chapters, as opposed to listing the pros and cons to the opposing side, such as the first third of the book regarding cases such as abortion and gun control. However, I am not as inclined to make as many judgements about certain issues described in this half of the book due to my limited knowledge on more than half of said topics. Instead I shall issue a summary of the topics covered in the chapters which I have more of a basic understanding of. The chapters I shall summarize are the ones that discuss education, the environment, and the Democrat's compassion.

The issue of education in America is covered with incredible criticism. The authors describe the American educational system as one of extreme inferiority to the one that was present thirty years before publication. The authors describe this generation as individuals who come out of high school barely knowing much about the American Revolution, how a bill becomes a law in Washington D.C., or how to identify their own state's politicians. The public school is also described as in general, an atmosphere of fear, with students and children fearing hostility from other more violent students. Major Garrett and Timothy Penny outline this by displaying statistics of an increasing number of parents seeking alternatives to public education such as private schools and/or home schooling due to the poor education and the lack of safety in public schools. Both authors point out the pointless nature of having to pay taxes for public schools due to the increasing number of students seeking alternate schools.

The issue of the environment is covered in a rather gray fashion. On the one hand, the authors outline circumstances where larger industry has been hazardous to the lives of citizens, such as the case in Niagara Falls, New York in 1977 when leaked chemicals poisoned residents and in Elizabeth, New Jersey also in 1977 when forty thousand drums of dangerous chemicals exploded and caught fire. However, it is also stressed the amount of environmental paranoia the EPA can stir up, such as seizing land from farmers and ranchers under the Endangered Species Act. Both authors encourage the reader to care for the environment but to also hold the Environmental Protection Agency to a higher standard than they currently are.

The myth of the compassion of Democrats is deconstructed in the final chapter of the book. The stereotype is deconstructed as one fueled by pure nostalgia. The authors deconstruct said stereotype by pointing out that while Democrats have started programs in favor of supporting the weak, they have also over the course of time abandoned sustaining such programs in favor of increasing government size and factoring in too many citizens into their programs to properly run said programs.  The authors point out that this is not compassion, it is merely cowardice.

My prediction about the book was proven right for the most part. I did observe a more critical view of both sides of an argument, such as in the case of the chapter discussing the Environmental Protection Agency. I cannot make a judgement on bias in most of the other chapters due to my lack of knowledge involving issues such as the economy.