Have You Seen My Country Lately?: America's Wake-Up Call Book

I want to start by recognizing that some poor Babylon 5 sap who doesn't even like politics saw Michael Garibaldi's mug and lost their shit buying this book and then realized, 'oh' before peeing in their Narn pajamas. And that's fine. Doyle does actually give some interesting behind the scenes looks at his media career, Babylon 5 included.

But for all those Garibaldi fans, this is a book by Jerry Doyle the political radio show host. I like Jerry. I am a moderate who leans left. On Jerry's radio show he comes off as a moderate who leans right. No big deal. I like Jerry Doyle, the person and radio host, because he doesn't define himself strictly by his politics and does like to attack and congratulate both sides when deserved. He doesn't just rail on Democrats and use shock jock tactics to get his point across. That is why, as a registered independent, I paid subscription fees to Jerry Doyle .com for many years (I recently stopped because it was listen to Jerry or feed my kid!)

But that is all Doyle, the radio host. Jerry the book writer is a different animal and I fear it was less his fault and media pressure that caused him to write the book the way he did. Make no mistakes, the book is heavily, heavily researched and mostly accurate but Doyle dips into attitudes I expected of more extreme right wingers then the Doyle-radio-host I'm used to hearing. It seems like Doyle picks a side in this book (right) and I feel it is because he realized conservatives who lean or fall down right will buy the book more then the more liberal groups (like myself). His points are well made but often scathing and harsh and I see vitriol sometimes. . .not valid opinions. That makes me not like Doyle the author as much as Doyle the radio host/actor.

Granted, at the time of his book's release, the Democrats are in power and are fucking everything up so maybe he has a point. I'm sure if he wrote this book five years ago he'd be railing on Bush and Republicans as much as he does Obama/Democrats in this book. Doyle doesn't pull punches and he still needs to be appreciated for that.

I am not an economics person so many of those chapters blew right past me. I am not ashamed I didn't get it. Doyle's take on the media and Congress were much better. And while he did have many fantastic chapters describing crappy bills and contradictory national policy, he sometimes goes off the deep end (like trying to justify the Rodney King beatings. . .really??????).

He loves his country and subtitles the book 'America's Wake Up Call' but only offers the problems and hardly any solutions. I feel publisher/target audience pressure ruined the book as did a questionable change in personal politics that alienates his main base of listeners. Who knows? I could be wrong.