Hard Left Hardback - 1996

Tavis Smiley, the left's hard-hitting answer to talk radio conservatives, takes on the political right and thrashes them at their own game. Picked by Time as one of the fifty young leaders of the future, Tavis Smiley has built a national reputation as a political commentator with numerous appearances on Good Morning America, CNBC, BET, CNN and Geraldo--which he recently co-hosted--as well as his own highly popular radio commentary show, The Smiley Report.In Hard Left, he presents an impassioned polemic that will shape the Democratic platform and the political debate at the Summer 1996 Democratic and Republican National Conventions.At last, those on the left have a fast-talking champion with fresh ideas to counter the outrageous barbs of conservatives like Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh, who have cowed Capitol Hill and dominated talk radio. Smiley is particularly harsh on Black conservatives like Ken Hamblin and Armstrong Williams, who he feels have betrayed the Black community. But Smiley isn't afraid to take on traditional politics-as-usual liberals as well. Says Smiley, it was the liberals' determined refusal to acknowledge the flaws of social programs and policies, from affirmative action to welfare, that gave conservatives the opening they needed to rechart the nation's course. Now, Smiley warns, that course has taken America dangerously close to the rocky shoals of the extreme right. Hard Left is a clarion call to liberal politicians and leaders to take their heads out of the sand, tear a page out of the conservative playbook, and counter the conservative offensive by tackling the political and racial issues that goto the core of our society.