I had seen an ad for this book and couldn’t wait to read it, and my hopes were met: It was a fun read. The book is written for kids and describes a dream two young boys have about liberals who tax, regulate and finally take control of their lemonade stand.
The caricatures of the liberals were exaggerated. They taxed the boys at 50%, bought dustpans for the shoeless children instead of shoes, forced the boys to give broccoli with their lemonade, put up a picture of a big toe instead of Jesus, and reduce the sugar in the lemonade to protect children’s teeth.
The conservative boys' actions were also exaggerated. They prayed every night, saved money for shoeless children, hung up a picture of Jesus, and were earning the money themselves for what they wanted.
This book gives you an opportunity to discuss several issues that are important and are very different for liberals and conservatives. Each difference is highlighted making it easy to discuss these topics with your kids.
| Conservatives | Liberals | |
|---|---|---|
| Public Faith | You should be able to freely express your faith in public. | Faith is private and you should not display it overtly in public. |
| Taxation | Low taxes to encourage entrepreneurship | Tax everyone including small businesses. |
| Charity/Helping Disadvantaged | The individual has the responsibility to help others. | The government should take care of everyone. |
| Self Reliance | Work hard and earn money for what you want. | Don’t work hard, the government will provide for you. |
| Personal Responsibility | Make your own choices. You are responsible for the consequences. | The government should regulate businesses to protect people from themselves. |
Everyone should debate the topics and decide which is right. I am sure the debate about this will be different as well depending where you fall in the political spectrum. There are no absolutes in politics. There are absolutes in life however.
Both of my kids read the book and thought it was very funny. We have had several discussions about what being liberal and conservative means. It was a good discussion. It will be a good lesson for your kids as well.
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Article comments
1 - Christopher Rose
Lennie,
I don't subscribe to the Conservative-Liberal analysis of Politics as it lacks insight or nuance but even if I was to use such limited language, I would still be uncomfortable with this book's philosophy and your clearly prejudiced interpretation.
Here's the dubious "data" in your table re-written to remove some dogmatic distortion:-
1. Public Faith
Faithists think the whole planet is or should be interested in their views, despite the fact there is no evidence of the existence of the god(s) on which their faith is based.
Other people think it's okay for you to believe whatever you want, just knock it off with the trying to shove it down everybody's throat bit.
2. Taxation
Low taxes to encourage entrepreneurship and the idea that everybody ought to pay taxes are NOT mutually incompatible ideas, so the division you make is completely arbitrary and, well, quite dumb frankly.
3. Charity/Helping Disadvantaged
The individual has the right to help others if they can or want to. However, government absolutely should help those who can not help themselves. You may have come across this quality whilst researching your peculiar dogma laden site, it's called compassion.
4. Self Reliance
Frankly, this so reeks of either prejudice or some other even more ugly quality it appalls me. The level of cruel caricature and determined misrepresentation of reality is frankly quite disturbing in someone who clearly thinks they are so much superior to most of us. HEADS-UP: Wrong!
5. Personal Responsibility
This is frankly your worst point of all in that again you create a false dichotomy in that personal choice and government regulation of business are two completely separate issues.
I assume from your perspective it would be perfectly acceptable for companies to manufacture defective guns that blew up in the user's face when fired, as imposing a minimum standard for user safety would be unacceptable to you?
If so, I can only shudder at the prospect of you being in any kind of position of responsibility over anybody with regard to anything.
2 - Catana
I assume that this review is satire?
3 - TheRedDuke
This is a rightwing Conservative's parody of Liberal views. It's little more than propaganda and would be recognized as reprehensible if any other group were inserted instead of Liberal.
4 - Mary K. Williams
assuming the book was an unbiased work, with differences clearing and objectively laid out - what does this really matter in childrearing?
Kids shouldn't have to worry about these kinds of 'differences' - their biggest worries should be whether they have Frosted Flakes or oatmeal for breakfast, or SpongeBob or RoadRunner on the tube.
5 - Mary K. Williams
oops..that should have been 'clearly', not clearing. They do say you should preview your comments before publishing. Doh!
6 - Sterfish
I saw this book at my local Borders recently and it was shelved in the humor section. I guess they figured it was a pseudo-kids book like how The Daily Show's America is a pseudo-textbook.
7 - Dave Nalle
This is a rightwing Conservative's parody of Liberal views. It's little more than propaganda and would be recognized as reprehensible if any other group were inserted instead of Liberal.
Odd, from the description it sounds like the book makes fun of both liberals and conservatives, but maybe that's just my lack of paranoia speaking.
Dave