By Louis T. March

Now almost two years after his death comes a superb collection of his work. The aptly entitled Shots Fired: Sam Francis on America's Culture War is the most comprehensive collection of his writings to be assembled in a single volume. Included are previously unpublished speeches, regular weekly newspaper columns, rare Francis gems published in a variety of venues over his prolific years as a writer, and selections from "Principalties and Powers," a regular feature he wrote for Chronicles magazine.

Pat Buchanan's forward sets the tone of the book and speaks admiringly of his late friend: "Early on Sam saw that America was in the grip of a culture war where peaceful coexistence was self-delusion. For all the victories of the Republican Party and the Beltway Right, Middle America was being mugged and robbed of its heritage." Regarding the politically powerful detractors of Francis, Buchanan lays bare their vulnerability: "They feared Sam, for they feared the truth, and knew there are many in Middle America who, if they read Sam, would agree with him."

Read him they did. In his too-short career, Francis became one of the American right's most popular authors. Editor Peter B. Gemma has skillfully assembled more than 50 separate works in sixteen chapters spanning nearly 400 pages. The selections are representative and reveal a cross section of a productive literary output. Arranged by issues and ideas, the chapter titles are descriptive, tipping off the reader to what is in store within.

In the chapter entitled "The Grand Old Stupid Party" Francis documents the ascendancy of neoconservatism on the establishment right. True to form, he waxes eloquent while explaining much, then without fanfare distills it down to a single terse statement stunningly summarizing his point. An example is found in "A Conservative Movement that Doesn't Move": "So far from being conservatism of any recognizeable stripe, neo-conservatism merely displaces (and in fact helped muzzle) the real Right and perpetuates the liberal monopoly on political and cultural discourse."

The chapter "Talking About Religion and Politics" is a collection of columns dealing with topics including Billy Graham, the Pope, censorship of religious expression and political manipulation. While much is covered, the thrust is encapsulated in one vintage Francis declaration that chastises those in the West who advocate apologizing for their culture's past: "If the civilization of Western Man-which used to be known as "Christendom"-is going to flourish in the coming millennium, it won't be because a sick old man crawled on his knees for forgiveness... It will be because Western men themselves have rejected the disease the culture of guilt has injected into their veins and learned once more to take pride in the civilization their ancestors created and the blood they shed so it could survive."

One of Francis's more well known Chronicles essays, "National Endowment for the Arts," unloads on the establishment world view with both barrels to debunk politically correct notions about popular culture. "The transference of cultural power and cultural production from the people who consume it to bureaucratized elites that despise and fear their own audiences is of course an aspect of the continuing destruction of republican self-government, no less than the transference of political and economic power to similar bureaucratized elites in the centralized government and economy."

Here is Francis on the government's drug war: "The truth is that American political culture no longer permits the prosecution of any kind of war because the elites that prevail in politics, the economy and the culture rule and think in terms of manipulation, deception, and sheer fraud rather than force."
Perhaps most politically incorrect is the chapter entitled "Equality as a Political Weapon." In a 1991 address to the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, Francis unapologetically treads on the sacred cow of the chattering classes: "…the doctrine of equality never flourishes unless it serves…as a weapon or instrument by which one group challenges and resists the power of other groups and advances its own power."

Whether dealing with the vital role of the Second Amendment in American culture ("Historical Basis for the Second Amendment"), debunking Lincoln and Roosevelt mythology ("Looking Into Lincoln's Legacy" and "The Real Roosevelt Record"), setting the record straight about Joe McCarthy ("McCarthy's Rehabilitation"), discussing immigration ("Smuggling Revolution: The Sanctuary Movement"-must reading for understanding the open borders lobby) or in separate sections commenting on American populism, attacks on Southern symbols or Christmas celebrations, the entire volume is laden with refreshingly cogent and incisive observations important to Middle Americans concerned about the future of their country. Francis's unfailing ability to "cut to the chase" and make his point with rhetorical vigor is something sorely lacking in contemporary social criticism and political analysis.

His untimely death at age 57 cut short a literary career that had established him, in Buchanan's phrase, as the "Clausewitz of the right." By then readers from coast to coast were familiar with his skillful political analysis. He was a latter day Mencken, deftly conveying lofty principles in down-to-earth prose, complete with trenchant and occasionally humorous punch lines leaving no doubt as to his meaning. Francis was a two-time winner of the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award for Editorial Writing.

Little wonder that he has been called "America's foremost critic of our social, political and cultural decline." Shots Fired is not for the faint of heart. To the uninitiated reader it will most likely serve as political shock therapy. His writing is red meat for true believers, a dose of political realism defining the real struggle over what is left of an American culture. The book is an indispensable guide to understanding how the power game really works - lessons that Middle America should wake up and learn.

Louis T. March, J.D., is a former U.S. Senate aide.