…it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, and they cling to guns, or religion, or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
-Barack Obama, 2008

If you pick any new book to read this year, it should be Todd Starnes’ Dispatches from Bitter America: A Gun Toting, Chicken Eating Son of a Baptist’s Culture War Stories.

This book is filled with a refreshing collection of stories about the havoc liberals are wreaking on American culture – especially Christianity, conservatism, and the family. Some chapters are delightfully satirical – one even features the Chick-fil-A cow as a guest star. Some are interviews with key conservative figures like Mike Huckabee and Sean Hannity. Others are sobering and even painful to read. But read them we must, or else get lost in the mire of culture wars.

Starnes proves he’s not some high muckity-muck commentator or DC insider with no clue what’s really going on in this country. Todd is, well, just an average Joe like the rest of us – and that’s a good thing. We need more people like Starnes in the media who are in touch with the American people. It’s so refreshing to see the kind of patriotism and concern I feel reflected in Dispatches. Starnes’ uniquely compelling, down-to-earth commentary on social issues is a must-read for conservatives.

Unfortunately, Starnes’ book tour didn’t include a stop in Austin, so I don’t have a nifty picture with him to share – but I do have a picture of me with Dispatches. Which is just about as cool, because this is one darn good book. And I’m proud to be one of those “bitter” Americans.

Follow Todd Starnes on Twitter and like his Facebook page - oh, and buy the book!