Mike Lofgren
4.0 out of 5 stars 6 on Republicans, 3 on Democrats, 0 on the Other 50% of America's Voters,August 12, 2012
I read this book is in original incarnation, “Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult,” (truthout, 3 Sep 2011), and have to give the author high marks for fleshing out his original litany of Republican felonies against the public. For that he gets a 6 — beyond five stars and long overdue. He is especially strong on showing how hypocritical, unintelligent, and generally unethical my former party has become. He barely earns a 3 on the Democrats, and this is a pity because his success on the Republicans really calls for a similar indictment for the Democrats by an insider.
Where I was most dismayed by the book is in the author's complete failure to grasp that the REASON the Republican and Democratic parties are so corrupt is precisely because they have excluded the Independents, Constitutionals, Greens, Libertarians, and Reforms from ballot access, while also disenfranchising them through gerrymandering–our corrupt Congress chooses its voters, not the other way around, which is why Peggy Noonan was able to supply Ronald Reagan with the killer saying, “there is less turnover in the US Congress than in the Soviet politburo.”
I've read the other reviews and decided the best thing I can do to encourage the general direction of this book (corrupt parties, corrupt government, time to flush) is list other books I have reviewed that strongly support this one but with more coherence in their chosen area of focus.
I begin with the two party tyranny. My own book I cannot link to but Amazon allows me to list it under my signature.
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny
On the corruption of Congress:
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders
On the corruption of the White House:
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
Obama: The Postmodern Coup – Making of a Manchurian Candidate
On the military-industrial complex that broke the bank over the long term:
War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier
Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex
On the financial terrorism cabal led by Goldman Sachs that broke the global bank over the short term:
Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism
What this all boils down to is the complete loss of integrity across all sectors of the no-longer-a-Republic. I have reviewed many books, almost all non-fiction, that bear on the current state of the world and the union dismembered by the two-party tyranny and all it has made possible against the public interest, my two lists, one negative (an assessment of the situation) and one positive (what we could do if I–who ran for President as a Reform Party candidate long enough to understand the corruption in person–could get one patron to sponsor an Electoral Reform Summit in September of this year.
Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Positive)
Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Negative)
There is absolutely no question in my mind but that if we could get 50 million US voters to understand the specific policies of We the People Reform Coalition and demand the Electoral Reform Act of 2012 IN TIME FOR NOVEMBER 2012, that we could execute a non-violent legal abolishment of the corrupt two-party system and the restoration of a government Of, By, and For We the People.
Mike Lofgren's book may be the ultimate insider look at the naked Emperor, but it is not a precipitant for revolution. For that we need at least one soccer mom torching herself on the steps of Capitol Hill after giving an exclusive interview to CNN. It has come to that.
Robert David Steele
ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig
