Pathetic Kludge, Incoherent, Largely a Waste
June 26, 2007
Dick Morris
I can imagine the conversation that led to this “book.”
Dick: I'm broke. Clintons won't help me.
Agent: Throw together a book that slams the liberals, panders to the right, and is full of emotional issues you can kludge together.
Dick: Great. Eileen, have that kid at the local community college google for 12 hot issues, throw something together.
Three months later: “the book.”
Yuck. See my review of Lawrence Goodwyn's The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America (Galaxy Books), and the other books listed below, for more serious thinking.
I read a lot. I think strategically and am in the process of developing a holistic approach to the ten high-level threats to humanity, the twelve policies needed to deal with them, and the eight challengers (all with huge populations). It is in that context that I see this book as a hysterical, incoherent, badly written kludge of hot button issues summarized from Internet searches and Op-Eds. I went through the footnotes and while I may have missed one or two, I could not find a single BOOK–not a single one. This is hyped out of context garbage.
This is incomplete, inauthentic, and incoherent. It does not propose solutions. This author cannot add and is incapable of putting together a balanced sustainable budget. See the list below for more thoughtful books.
On pharmaceuticals, the author rails against the industry's successful lobbying that prevented the US Government from negotiating for reduced prices, but completely misses the larger context: that health care is a four-part solution of lifestyle, environment, alternative or natural cures, and–last and least–medical remediation. He is also evidently unaware that units that sell for $600 in the US and $60 in Canada sell for $6 everywhere else, and we can eliminate the forecasted unfunded future obligations for Medicare overnight.
He lists Cuba as a sponsor for terror. As I reviwed this book I thought to myself, “fired by the left, pandering to the right.” This is not a pretty piece of work, and it is almost pathetic in its ranting.
There is no mention in this book that I could find of the two issues that really matter: restoration of the Constitution, and electoral reform to restore We the People as sovereign.
The author(s) try to end on the cute note that Outrage is better than Cynicism, but I find nothing in this book that contributes to a more measured strategic executable program.
This book is second-hand hype, and largely worthless to any serious discussion. I have put it away, never to be looked at again, and washed my hands after doing so.
See my lists on democracy and on transpartisanship for more serious reading. A few books that are head and shoulders above this one:
Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
The Two Percent Solution: Fixing America's Problems in Ways Liberals and Conservatives Can Love
The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics
Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
Escaping the Matrix: How We the People can change the world
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest
