Responding to the Right by Nathan J. Robinson

In RESPONDING TO THE RIGHT Nathan J. Robinson offers “Brief Replies to 25 Conservative Arguments.” First, though, he devotes several chapters to a section titled “How Conservative Arguments Work and Why They Seem More Powerful than They Really Are.” Robinson, editor of the bimonthly progressive magazine called Current Affairs, acknowledges the power and persuasiveness of Conservative arguments as he says, “we have to consider the other side’s position and be able to articulate our reasons for rejecting it.” Despite his own strong views, this section works relatively well in that he speaks in more general terms about the need to open communication. Robinson’s subsequent twenty-five chapters cover a range of economic (minimum wage, taxation, capitalism); racial (white privilege, immigration, inequality); political (founding fathers, democracy); social (free speech, cops and crime); and religious (war on Christianity, abortion) contentious issues. Each of those chapters begins with quotes from Conservative media, politicians, and other spokespersons and then summarizes the Right’s argument in a paragraph or so. Next, Robinson crafts a response (often including footnotes) and provides some suggestions for further reading. Getting into the specifics presents more difficulties at times. For example, when he discusses academia in chapter 15, Robinson chastises the Right, saying, “it’s very easy to paint a distorted picture of what an average university looks like by cherry-picking examples,” BUT he then supports his own position by referencing “when I was at Brandeis University” or “during my time at Harvard…” Nevertheless, Robinson is attempting to raise important questions and to educate his readers about tactics like “paltering” which he says is “lying with facts” since the speaker is selectively presenting true information without providing a balance or context, resulting in a “wholly misleading picture of reality.” Overall, Robinson takes a reasonable position and advocates for showing respect and empathy while debunking arguments.