The
Republican Playbook
Andy
Borowitz
Reviewed by Jim
Melcher, October 2006
One of the most popular political
humor books in recent memory was America
(The Book) : A Citizen’s Guide to Democratic Inaction,
put out by Jon Stewart and others at Comedy Central’s The
Daily Show. America was a political parody disguised
as a civics
textbook. Now comes another political parody in disguise, this time as
a
Republican strategy manual called The
Republican Playbook. The book passes itself off as a top-secret
manual
misplaced by President George W. Bush (complete with “his” doodlings
and
commentaries within) on how to win elections and political points.
The
trick in a book like this is to
be over the top enough to be funny, yet just realistic enough to make
it look
and feel like what is being parodied. America
succeeded in this, and so does The
Republican Playbook. No opportunity to pick on Republicans is
missed,
particularly ones from the current administration–but the book offers
“forewords”
to “previous editions” from other Republican presidents that are
equally
entertaining. However, the book is seldom so overtaken with anger at
the
current administration that it loses its sense of humor, and maintains
just the
hint of plausibility needed to make a book like this work. The book is
organized into five “lessons”that concern current political issues such
as
Iraq. Within these lessons. among the more entertaining sections are
“Official
Republican Supreme Court Litmus Test”,”How To Drain All Spontaneity
From Your
Town Meetings”, and “Dr. Frist’s Long-Distance Diagnosis of Leading
Democrats”.
As he does in the last of these three, Borowitz is able to take plenty
of digs
at the Democrats, too. The Republican
Playbook is a fun, relatively quick read that is clearly targeted
to
liberals, but many conservatives should be able to see the humor in it,
too.
This is one of the more entertaining American political parodies of the
past
several years. I repeatedly laughed out loud reading it, and other fans
of
current American politics will, too.