I think I mistakenly downloaded this title. It was not my sort of book at all. Perhaps it was the reference to a beloved fairy tale or to witches, but all I can say is the author did no favors to the original tale. Or to magic!
He sure does have strong opinions. I wish he had a more constructive approach.

Im of two minds on how to write a review regarding this book. On one hand it is written in humor. So If I take it as just that without any underlying meaning, it is a book that causes laughter and smiles. It is also one that has other meanings. Satire is a hard thing to judge it is individual for the most part of the person reading and how they would enjoy it. So for me...

I enjoyed this book. In a world where all is so serious , anything that is innocent and gives laughs , is one I appreciate. Written tongue in cheek this is a little gem of a book to enjoy if you like satire as I do. Regards, Anna Swedenmom

I had no idea what to expect from this book, other than knowing it was political satire, but it was an interesting read. There's no doubt what side of the fence the author falls on, and the satire is little more than thinly veiled jabs at the other side. There are many truths pointed out in this book, but they're done in such a way that it's almost offensive. "Many a truth was spoken in jest" doesn't mean that the jokes tick anyone off any less. I had hoped this would be a book I could read with my kids, to help them understand our country's political crisis, but it is too caustic, and inappropriate for children.

Oh. My. God.

Conservative propaganda is not subtle.

Not subtle at all.

When I saw the author wrote “Do All Liberals Need to Go to Heaven”, I couldn’t pass this up!

What we learn from this book is that all Liberals hate the Constitution and are greedy sociopaths who steal and murder children (all of these things characterize the liberals in the book). And all Conservatives are Constitution-loving patriots.

Hansel and Gretel go around killing the evil Liberal Witches after they learn that what defines these evil liberal witches is that they vote the opposite of Republicans on all the bills and acts that have gone through the legislature in the last 10 years. (Of course, the Republican bills are identified as those that will “make America Great, Safe, Secure and Prosperous again.” But reading the bills, you could re-write this to say that they are the ones that will “make rich white men Great, Safe, Secure and Prosperous again”. They are a litany of bills disenfranchising people of color, attacking undocumented immigrants, and allowing the rich to keep as much money as possible while raising taxes on the middle class, )

Of course, we find out that the Liberal Witch of the South lives in a town where the crime rate is 138.67% higher than the national violent crime rate. We don’t know why, exactly, but we do find out that the town is mostly African American (76.3%). What a (racist) coincidence!

And what he accuses liberals of is stupid. Liberals don’t believe in high taxes and wealth redistribution. But they do believe that shouldn’t be a burden to those that don’t have enough, and that if you make more money you should pay more taxes. And what’s a vote-buying welfare system? Is he trying to say that liberals buy people’s votes by giving them welfare? And bad foreign trade policies? He’s actually publishing this in a year where the “conservative” President is destroying all of our foreign relations!

I really love the fact that he succinctly describes conservatives:

<i>“The Snowflake generation is the generation of young people that are characterized by being more prone to taking offense and less resilient to criticism than previous generations. They are often emotionally vulnerable to views that challenge their own and quickly digress to uncontrollable hysteria, like a snowflake melting in the sunlight. Sometimes they even resort to violence in-order to silence people with a different view or opinion.</i>

Wait - he’s talking about liberals? What I don’t understand is how conservatives try to say this is about liberals. I mean - this whole book is about conservative outrage about liberal ideology.

And I love this:

<i>What has happened to the good old Conservative virtue of hearing everyone's opinion and respecting their right under our Constitution to express it, but not melt down like a Snowflake if you disagree?</i>

Since when is that a conservative virtue? This book is all about painting liberals as evil without caring what their opinion truly is.

This is a complete fabrication:

<i>Liberals think our Constitution is an outdated, flawed, antiquated document that needs to be repealed and replaced with something they call “Progressive Laws”. Progressive laws are fluid like “Quick-Sand” and constantly change with the times and are always subject to the prevailing whims of the political climate. Bad idea, if you want a stable, safe and prosperous country.”</i>

What parts of the constitution do liberals hate? Basically, since liberals don’t agree in this author’s interpretation of the Constitution, they hate it? If liberals don’t think that the 2nd amendment should allow assault weapons to be sold to children they are evil. What if liberals don’t agree that non-white people are 3/5 of a person? Does that make them evil, too? The fact that liberals support the first amendment and don’t think you should force your Christianity on people makes them bad?

And conservatives keep pushing this insidious liberal indoctrination and conspiracy. What? You do know it’s the conservatives who do this, right? The Americans for Tax Reform is all about this! And you do know that it’s people like the (conservative) <a href=“https://www.thenation.com/article/how-charles-koch-is-helping-neo-confederates-teach-college-students/“>Koch Brothers that are indoctrinating in schools</a>?

Of course, it’s just the next step to directly compare liberals to Nazis. (One of the kids gets sick when he realizes that what is happening in “Liberal colleges in America” is the same thing that happened in Nazi Germany.)

The really ironic and funny part of this is that the authors note says that he:

<i>…hopes the readers of his stories will do the same by challenging their own thinking and that of others and not being the “minions” of group think.</i>

Hew wants people to examine the facts - but to paint everyone who disagrees with you as an evil murderer who should be killed is an odd way to do that. I find it difficult that the way you destroy group think is by propagating group think, and making caricatures of your enemies.

I guess if I was going to write a political satire fairy tale, and I made a certain group of people evil, I would explain why I thought they were evil - and why I thought that the stuff the supported was evil. Not just make up stuff, like they are all greedy and hate the constitution. That’s not a way to get people to critically think. That’s a way to get people to do the opposite.

If you, too, are a white conservative snowflake that hates liberals, is scared of minorities, and thinks that the taxes that pay for your roads and infrastructure and schools and firefighters should be abolished, you might love this fairy tale.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for a copy in return for an honest review.</i>