The enemy of reason is fear, Al Gore argues in his latest book. Blinded by fear, the American people forgo hard-won democratic process. But who's to blame for this fear? Terrorists? Gore doesn't accept the claim that his countrymen have more to dread now than their ancestors did during the country's bloody founding, or during the world wars, or first facing down nuclear missiles. "It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf," he writes, "to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they did." So why do these feel like the End Times? "Clearly, the current administration has misused fear to manipulate the political process," he begins. "But I think a far more important question is: How could our nation have become so uncharacteristically vulnerable to such an effective use of fear?"

The Assault on Reason purports to examine America's dramatic skid off the road of reason since 9/11. And its beginning makes a fascinating argument about the self-perpetuation of fear, just as its ending calls persuasively for a better, two-way national conversation to reattach citizens to the body politic.

But really, it's the middle 200 pages of intense holding to account that make for especially stirring reading. Gore leaves no punch pulled as he excoriates his White House successors. On Iraq: "The administration's arrogant control of information and the massive deception perpetrated on the American people in order to gain approval for a dishonest policy led to the worst strategic mistake in the history of the United States." On the USA PATRIOT Act and other burning Bush shenanigans: "This administration has attempted to compromise the most precious rights that America has stood for all over the world for more than two hundred years: due process, equal treatment under the law, the dignity of the individual, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, freedom from promiscuous government surveillance." On foreign policy: "It has caused America to be seen by the other nations of the world as holding contempt and disdain for the international community."

Martin Luther, himself disdainful of the ruling elite, nailed his protests to the doors of his local church. Gore has chosen a different distribution method for a set no less damning. Gore in '08!