don't say she didn't warn you

The Price of Right

How the Conservative Agenda Has Failed America (and Always Will)

by Alicia Morgan

"In my opinion,  Alicia Morgan has three things going for her. She is passionate. She is engaged. And she is a damn good writer. I was especially impressed with her ability to weave a hard hitting media critique into her political analysis. This is her first book; it won't be her last." - Danny Schechter, Editor, Mediachannel.org


Conservatism has run America into the ground, and it always will. How can it not? It's a governing philosophy based on myth, used to concentrate power in the hands of the few to the detriment of the many- exactly the opposite of what was intended by the founding fathers. The tenets of the Conservative movement and all its variations are not based on facts or evidence, but instead upon myths perpetrated by those who wish to keep others from achieving what is rightfully theirs in a true Democracy. The myth of the ‘free market,’ the myth of Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand,’ the myth that the poor are so because they are lazy, the myth that anyone can succeed in America if only they 'pull themselves up by their bootstraps,' the myth that if everyone looks after their own self-interests, then somehow, magically, everyone will succeed, except those who are not worthy to begin with— the elderly, the sick, the indigent. The ridiculous ‘trickle-down’ theory, or supply-side economics, which George H. W. Bush rightly called ‘voodoo economics,’ the idea that what’s good for corporations is good for America and that ‘a rising tide lifts all boats,’ have all proven to be laughable (if only they weren't so sad) theories put in place by one small group of people to keep others beholden and reliant. And the fact that the chickens keep voting for Colonel Sanders makes these phenomena that much more disturbing.

The Price of Right outlines in graphic detail why Conservatism is inherently anti-democratic and how the 25 year experiment that began with Reagan has done what might be irreparable harm to the country and finally outlines what Americans can do to take back their nation.

"Morgan does a terrific job of fitting the pieces together and painting a picture that has the potential to reach a lot of people. This is a book that might open some eyes. I recommend reading it and then giving it to a Republican." - David Swanson, author Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union

About the Author

New York-born and Florida-raised, Alicia McCracken Morgan taught herself to read at the age of three, when her mother noticed her reading the newspaper. She taught herself to play the piano at age nine, beginning a lifelong addiction to which there seems to be no cure. Following in the footsteps of her father, a painter and art professor, at fifteen Alicia was working at Busch Gardens in Tampa as a portrait artist, and then a cartoonist – one of the first females hired there to draw caricatures, as the prevailing wisdom was that “women weren’t funny enough to be cartoonists.”

But music soon became her primary focus, and she began her professional music career in high school. She briefly attended college, but was offered a road gig and ended her formal 'higher education' after a few months. Alicia is one of the few people who have actually ‘run away with the circus’. After playing in the backup band for a magic show, she ended up joining the show as a performer, working for a man who caught bullets in his teeth and doing illusions. She spent the next few years playing carnivals and circuses, returning to winter quarters in Gibsonton and Sarasota in between show seasons. Like all women in the circus, she learned to perform on the ‘web’, the long white ropes that hang from the ceiling of the tent. Alicia also worked in the side show, where she was a fire-eater, Serpentina the Snake Woman and the India-Rubber Girl.

Returning to music, she found her way to Los Angeles, where she met her husband, and continued to work as a musician while raising her children. Alicia began writing in 2004 when a friend recommended it as a way to deal with the frustration she felt with the outcome of the election. Having heard about ‘blogs’, she decided to start one of her own, and her political blog Last Left Turn Before Hooterville became her daily therapy. Her article about her experience singing on the Neil Young album Living With War garnered her world-wide, if short-lived, attention, and she was interviewed and/or quoted by the LA Times, Editors & Publishers, the London Independent, Rolling Stone and Radio France Internationale.

Last Left Turn Before Hooterville was a finalist in the Weblog Awards in 2006. She also has a companion political Photoshop cartoon blog, Capitol Punishment, which she works on when time permits or inspiration strikes. She teaches voice, keyboards and computer recording at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood.

Alicia lives in Sherman Oaks, CA with her family. She is a wife of one, mother of three, stepmom of one, a concierge of two Burmese cats who think they are dogs and a Dalmatian/Great Dane dervish of a dog.