REVIEW: Mary Katherine Ham and Guy Benson Show The Intolerance Of The Left In Their New Book

Image Credits: Amazon

After almost a year of being in my possession, I finally got down to reading End of Discussion, the bright-yellow covered first book from the dynamic duo of Guy Benson and Mary-Katherine Ham. When you’re an English major, it is hard to fit in books for pleasure, but End of Discussion has been sitting in my pile for a while, and I decided, since my copy was now signed thanks to an awesome event at CPAC in March, I needed to read it.

Let me tell you, I was not disappointed. Guy and Mary-Katherine had already won my heart with their adorable antics on social media, and after Mary-Katherine’s husband passed away last year, I was in actual tears over Guy’s outpouring of love and support and the way he has risen to the occasion to be so present in those little girls’ lives. But that’s beside the point of the book, right? Not exactly. Liking the authors is half the battle of liking a book, and I certainly loved Guy and Mary-Katherine before I even cracked open the front cover.

As a conservative millennial, you could say that I’m always looking for ways to keep the Republican Party, and the Right, entertaining and appealing to young conservatives. There was a time, and it still persists today, when Republicans were seen solely as old stuffy white people. I think here at FFL, we are living proof that that isn’t true, but I was so pleased to see that End of Discussion was the kind of book that took issues that appeal to all conservatives and made them fun and amusing to read. There are great anecdotes about college dis-invitations and personal relationships between the authors and their subjects that provide insight into major issues and a little laugh.

One of my favorite stories presented in the book is a college DJ in North Carolina who was fired from his gig, DJing, because he played the #1 song in the nation at the time. What was that song? Blurred Lines. Isn’t playing what the audience wants to hear his LITERAL job? No, not when the campus social justice warriors get involved. A club-goer approached the management of the club and told them that the #1 song in the nation, Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke, could potentially make people uncomfortable and it shouldn’t be played. Did it make her uncomfortable? No. Did anyone else come forward that night and say something? No. Did she contact Robin Thicke or his producers? No. She seized upon her moment of social justice and got this poor DJ fired for doing his job.

What I truly loved about this story, besides how ridiculous it is, was the commentary from Mary-Katherine and Guy. Yes, we can all acknowledge that there are some lines in that song that I probably wouldn’t have written. But, does that mean that it isn’t a song that people like to dance to? Does that mean it isn’t a popular song? Guy and Mary-Katherine handled this situation so well, chastising the not-too-clever song (What rhymes with hug me? Really?) but they also address how silly the entire situation is. If you don’t want a DJ to play the #1 song in the nation, what do you want him to play? Blame the song, the singer, the producer, but the DJ who did his job by playing it? Guy and Mary-Katherine take this issue down to size real quick.

The story of the poor college DJ is just one of my anecdotes in this nearly 300-page book that allows young, millennial conservatives and liberty-minded individuals to delve into the issues that are happening around us in which the Left keeps stifling free speech, trying to end the discussion before it even begins.

One of my favorite quotes begins the book. William F Buckley Jr said, “Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.” This epigraph describes our society better than I ever could, in only one sentence. The Left is waging a war on speech and discussion, and it is up to the Right to counter that by sticking strong to the principles of free speech, and advocating them even when they allow the Left to say obnoxious things, which is most of what the Left says.

If you’re a young millennial looking for a conservative book that will make you laugh, smile, nod along, and leave you hopeful for the future of the party, look no further than End of Discussion. Buy it today, and prepare to be absolutely fed up with liberal intolerance by the end of it.

Future Female Leaders is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.