How to Win a Fight with a Conservative

by Daniel Kurtzman

Partisan warfare has never been so much fun. How to Win a Fight With a Conservative is the ultimate survival guide to arguing politics, filled with all the cunning strategies, damning facts, and merciless ridicule liberals need to give their conservative "friends, neighbors and countrymen" the verbal smackdown of a lifetime. With the presidential election approaching, this irreverent yet practical guide is essential reading for unpracticed neophytes...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1402208804
• ISBN13: 9781402208805
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Hysteria
• Length: 177 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 0.5" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

A Really Humorous Book, Just Don't Take it Too Seriously

A friend gave me this book for Christmas this year because she knew how much I enjoyed ranting about politics. While it is not truly a self-help book, and I doubt anyone will win a fight with a conservative by following its directions, it is an enjoyable little diversion that made me laugh. Daniel Kurtzman is a good satirist and his jabs are hilarious. For instance, he divides the conservative movement into several cleverly named segments: (1) Rapturfarians--Christian fundamentalists. (2) Enron-omists--über capitalists. (3) Big Brethren--militant authoritarians. (4) Gunfederates--people with confederate flags and gun racks in their pickup trucks. (5) Spongebob-ophobes--militant anti-gay activists. (6) Crusadomasochists--imperialistic neoconservatives. Clever names to be sure, but the descriptions are just as humorous. The rest of the book is just as much fun. I should mention that Daniel Kurtzman is an equal opportunity satirist; he also published in 2007 another guide, "How to Win a Fight with a Liberal," that takes aim at those on the left. It is just as humorous.

Entertaining and surprisingly insightful

I picked up a copy of this book before taking a flight home for Thanksgiving. I come from an ultra-conservative family, and figured I could use a little ammunition just in case things turned ugly at the dinner table, like they usually do. I found some surprisingly useful tips, especially the chapter on how to detect logical fallacies. But most of all, the book made me laugh. My favorite parts were the dueling Liberal and Conservative Manifestos ("Conservatives believe in beautiful Hummers befouling spacious skies, amber waves of abstinent teens, and crowning thy good with estate tax cuts"). I'm planning to give out copies to a few friends whose families are even crazier than mine.

Right on the Mark

Witty and incisive, this book is filled with all those fun facts you wish you could recite when talking politics with a mouth-breathing conservative. Kurtzman has done a nice job in exposing all the frauds in the Republican party in his "Hall of Shame" (unfortunately, a list that grows longer by the day--maybe a revised edition will be needed?). My favorite line from the book comes from the Day in the Life of a Conservative: "Gas up Hummer, reposition Confederate flag on window, clean homeless person off grille." Funny stuff!

A welcome relief from rage

I needed a laugh after spending so much energy feeling either helpless or enraged or both whenever I considered the state of our present administration. Both books are very funny, and I learned a few things, too. I wondered whether I could enjoy the companion book about winning fights with liberals, but I found it felt good to laugh at those guys too. My 10-year-old niece was fascinated by the Conservative Hall of Shame and eager to get the dirt on all the famous people she always heard adults in her life complaining about.

Pure Fabulosity.

I came across this book (and its partner) by accident and bought them as a gift for someone who spends most evenings yelling at Fox News. Since his yelling doesn't seem to make any difference to the TV, I thought maybe if he had some practical advice for handling a political debate things might improve... These books (Of course I bought both. How can you not?) are so clever and funny that I ended up reading them both myself before turning them over to the gift recipient. They are chock-full of "funny-because-it's-true" moments, great quotes, and my personal favorite, a schedule for a typical day in the life of liberals and conservatives. Hysterical. Oh yeah, and the gift recipient loved them, too.