‘Superior’ may keep conservatives up late

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By CHARLES STEPHEN / For the Lincoln Journal Star

(“Superior, Nebraska: The Common Sense Values of America’s Heartland” by Denis Boyles, Doubleday,  278 pages, $23.95).

Denis Boyles’ book is a conservative response to Thomas Frank’s book of a couple of years ago, “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” That book was a straightforward argument that Midwest conservatives tend to vote against their own best interests when they vote for Republicans.

Boyles, a columnist for the conservative magazine National Review, argues that Midwest conservatives have solidly based values and that liberal accusations that they are being hoodwinked by repulsive right wing partisans is just nonsense.

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On occasion Boyles gets carried away with his own arguments. He quotes a Washington, D.C., lawyer as telling him that she would vote for a crooked Democrat before voting for an honest Republican. Then he adds: “This is more or less the position taken by the editorial page of The New York Times.”

 That is worse than wrong, it is silly and wrong.

But for the most part Boyles is more reasonable than that. He does tend to blame “the press” a lot, but that just means he takes a party line too literally. Liberals will find much to scoff at in the book and might tend to nod off, while conservatives might stay up past their bedtime reading it.

Charles Stephen is co-host of "All About Books," heard weekly on NET Radio.