Category: Politics

A WRITER'S WIT: MARGARET C. NUSSBAUM

5/6/2025

Courses in the humanities, in particular, often seem impractical, but they are vital, because they stretch your imagination and challenge your mind to become more responsive, more critical, bigger.
Martha C. Nussbaum
Author of Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility
Born May 6, 1947

M. C. Nussbaum

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Edward Gibbon
FRI: My Book World | Julia Alvarez, Afterlife: A Novel

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SPYING, SERIOUS BUSINESS

3/7/2025

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A WRITER'S WIT
I am the daughter of Black writers who are descended from Freedom Fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.
Amanda Gorman, Poet
Author of Call Us What We Carry
Born March 7, 1998

A. Gorman

MY BOOK WORLD

Haseltine, Eric. The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy’s Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat. With a foreword by General Michael V. Hayden. New York: St. Martin’s, 2019.

I’ve never seen so many abbreviations for governmental organizations in one book, the easiest to remember of which may be NATO or NSA. Memorize these and more—OPS2, DARPA, IARPA, NSAAB, DS&T, SIGINT, TOPS, RSO, HUMINT—and the book is a joy to read. Seriously, the story, once the author gets to the heart of it, is quite titillating—especially if you’re into reading spy craft literature.

In the late 1970s, Charles Gandy is an NSA operative sent to Moscow to investigate the US embassy there. He discovers a “chimney” in the embassy building which is adjacent to a Russian government structure, which is not a chimney at all but a tall empty chamber aiming what looks like an antenna directly at the ambassador’s apartment in the embassy. For six years, Gandy fights others in his own organization, not to mention the CIA and the State department, to bring what seems may be a breach to the attention of muckety-mucks in the US government. Many interesting pages unravel that story, the gist of which is: A certain underling working for Gandy uncovers in about half of the thirty IBM Selectric typewriters a bar in which is embedded a transmitter that “reads” each typewriter key and thus translates important memos for the Russians. Since most everything is typed before being sent officially, this is a boon to the Russians.

For some reason, during that period CIA and State leadership underestimated Russian intelligence, mainly because they didn’t think Russia had the money to conduct this kind of research and experimentation. The US looked at the primitive products (including automobiles) that Russian produced and extrapolated the wrong conclusion. The thesis of this book may be that this was a strategic mistake for which our country is still paying quite a price (i.e. Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election which most probably helped to elect Trump). Enough said. And as far as we know, our government is still underestimating the damage the Russians continue to do to our well-being each day.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Deborah Copaken Kogan
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Dave Eggers
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Margaret Craven
FRI: My Book World | Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep: A Novel

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MOYERS ON MOYERS ON MOYERS

7/26/2024

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A WRITER'S WIT
A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day.
André Maurois
Author of September Roses
Born July 26, 1885

A Maurois

MY BOOK WORLD

Moyers, Bill. Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Time. Edited by Julie Leininger Pycior. New York: New Press, 2004.

I wish I’d read this book twenty years ago when it first came out. The author’s prescient views might have informed my future a bit. We may think that there is a lot wrong with our country now, but Moyers has us take a look at it in 1892. The People’s Party “meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin . . . . Corruption dominates the ballot box, the [state] legislatures and the Congress and touches even the bench . . . . The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced . . . . The fruits of toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few” (7). Seems as if we’re reading about certain groups today. The only difference is that because of social media, “public opinion” is far from being silenced. People can say whatever they want without a shred of evidence, making “truth” even more elusive than ever.

Tom Johnson, mayor of Cleveland in the early 1900s asserts about public ownership of local transportation: “‘If you don’t own them, they will own you.’ It’s why advocates of clean elections today argue that if anybody’s going to buy Congress, it should be the people. When advised that businessman [sic] got their way in Washington because they had lobbies and consumers had none, Tom Johnson responded: ‘If Congress were true to the principles of democracy it would be the people’s lobby.’ What a radical contrast to the House of Representatives today!” (14). Yes, if today every Democrat contributed only $5 a month as “dues” to the DNC, what the party couldn’t accomplish on their behalf! Fall down on the job, and you can withhold your $5!

Consider this jewel: “Money has robbed the middle class and the working poor of representation—and as they become weaker politically, they are even more insecure in their jobs, their savings, and their future” (61). What money? you ask. Money from corporate special interests, deep-pocketed lobbyists, that’s what.

Or this one: In 2004 “fewer than half” of our population votes in presidential elections, and about a third “vote in our congressional elections—compared to 80 percent a century ago” (62). Still, only 66% turned out to vote for president in 2020, and 45% turned out in 2022 for mid-terms. Why would citizens now care less than those of a hundred years ago? Why be complacent?

Moyers ends the book with an essay on aging, which seems more pertinent than ever to Boomers, because we now make up the larger part of that demographic. His suggestion: Avoid disease and disability, maintain mental and physical function, and continue to engage with life. Amen.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ann Brashares
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Whitney M. Young
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Herman Melville
FRI: My Book World | Mary Robison, Why Did I Ever: A Novel

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STILL CURIOUS ABOUT JFK

7/12/2024

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A WRITER'S WIT
Tony Awards boost Broadway attendance and sell the shows on the road. They're the sugar to swat the fly. If you needed more explanation for the yearly ballyhoo, in the metropolitan areas where a Broadway show plays, the local economy is boosted by three and a half times the gross ticket sales. So when we're talking Tonys, we're talking moolah.
John Lahr
Author of Prick up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton
Born July 12, 1941

J. Lahr

MY BOOK WORLD

Kenney, Charles. With an introduction by Michael Beschloss. John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio. History as Told through the Collection of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. New York: PublicAffairs, 2000. [Includes CD with speeches, dictated letters, and phone calls recorded by JFK.]

This book, no matter how much one may have read about John F. Kennedy, provides details that might be surprising—with regard to his upbringing and family line. Both of his parents are Irish immigrants who then become millionaires in the United States. There are details of his education, his military career, and his time in politics. Many pages feature original documents that JFK himself writes, speeches and the like.

The CD is comprised of a series of dictations Kennedy is making to his secretary by way of a Dictaphone, as well as commentary by historian, Michael Beschloss. A chapter near the end summarizes the day in 1963 that he is assassinated. JFK’s wife, Jackie, cries out: “He’s dead—they’ve killed him—Oh Jack, oh Jack, I love you” (223). I was fifteen when this momentous day in history took place, but I never recall hearing of this intimacy uttered in her last minutes with her husband as they are about to roll him away. The book is full of these small surprises, and I can see myself returning to its pages to review them, lest I forget, lest I forget.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Tony Kushner
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Phyllis Diller
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Nelson Mandela
FRI: My Book World | Nell Freudenberger, The Limits

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A WRITER'S WIT: JOHN F. KENNEDY

5/29/2024

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When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Author of Profiles in Courage
Born May 29, 1917

J. F. Kennedy

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Ken Dixon
FRI: My Book World | Daniel Fitzgerald, Faded Dreams: More Ghost Towns of Kansas

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A WRITER'S WIT: JOE CONASON

1/25/2024

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The problem isn't that conservatives are wrong about the efficiency of markets or the creativity of enterprise. It's that they have made false idols of both, usually without acknowledging that markets work best when well regulated, that private enterprise cannot meet every human need, that government has always played a critical role in our economy, and that the profit motive can be socially and environmentally destructive as well as dynamic.
Joe Conason
Author of The Longest Con
Born January 25, 1954

J. Conason

FRI: My Book World | Barbra Streisand, My Name Is Barbra
TUES: A Writer's Wit | John Dufresne
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Laura Lippman
THURS: A Writer's Wit | S. J. Perelman

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PAST IS PREQUEL FOR MADDOW

1/12/2024

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A WRITER'S WIT
Every day I go to my study and sit at my desk and put the computer on. At that moment, I have to open the door. It's a big, heavy door. You have to go into the Other Room. Metaphorically, of course. And you have to come back to this side of the room. And you have to shut the door.
Haruki Murakami
Author of Killing Commendation
Born January 12, 1949

H. Murakami

MY BOOK WORLD

Maddow, Rachel. Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism. New York: Crown, 2023.

This cautionary tale should be read by every adult in America. It should be taught in every college America history class. It should be available to all public libraries. Why? Essentially because Maddow painstakingly tells the story of German Nazis who, in the 1930s and 1940s, make plans to sweep America up into its fascist web. And the main players happen to be American citizens who in various ways enable the Germans: congresspeople and other public figures. Maddow provides lists of the good guys and the bad (some are even women). She carefully lays out for readers how all this takes place. The most important message, however, is, for the most part, unwritten. She, by the title she uses, would like for us to see that it could happen again. There are people in congress, just as eighty years ago, who would like to enable a fascist-leaning leader to become president. And we must stop them.

Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Susan Sontag
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Newton Minow
THURS: A Writer's Wit | A. A. Milne
FRI: My Book World | Patricia Highsmith, Edith's Diary

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A WRITER'S WIT: HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

10/26/2023

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Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Author of The Book of Gutsy Women | Co-Author, Chelsea Clinton
Born October 26, 1947

H. Clinton

Coming Next:
FRI: My Book World | Alexander Chee, The Queen of the Night
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Katherine Patterson
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Stephen Crane
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lois McMaster Bujold

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Gun Carnage: Uniquely American

6/9/2023

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A WRITER'S WIT
Even if you are a best-seller you feel insecure because it is all so unpredictable.
Patricia Cornwell
Author of Body of Evidence
Born June 9, 1956

P. Cornwell

My Book World

Gabor, Thomas, and Fred Guttenberg. With a foreword by Steve Kerr. American Carnage: Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence. Coral Gables: Mango, 2023.

This succinct book is a must-read for every person in America. Gabor, a professor in criminology and sociology, and Guttenberg, father of downed Parkland Shooting victim, Jaime, have teamed up to appeal to our better senses about gun violence and gun safety.

First, the authors set the historical record straight. For much of our 247-year history, this country has regulated guns. It has only been during the last two or three decades that organizational leadership (not necessarily their members) of the National Rifle Associate (NRA) have sold Americans a phony bill of goods. Instead of concentrating on the formation of state militias only, certain NRA members have glommed onto the Second Amendment to push their gun-toting agenda.

Second, the NRA has failed to take the historical context into consideration (what so-called originalists claim to love to do when speaking of the Constitution), that the amendment was designed to help communities protect themselves collectively, not to promote individual gun ownership.

Third, the authors tackle, by way of eleven chapters, thirty-seven myths that the NRA et. al. have dreamed up through the years. Just a few of them. Myth 3: America Has and All-Encompassing Gun Culture. Nope. Only three in ten Americans personally own a gun. Myth 6: The Only Consequences of Gun Violence Are Murders.Nope. “Sadly, some victims experience life-altering injuries that have a profound impact on the quality of life. For example, when a person is shot and paralyzed in his twenties, his quality of life will be diminished significantly . . . [w]hen all the above financial costs are taken into account, it has been estimated that the annual cost of gun violence in the US is over $280 billion” (51). Myth 16: The Training Required of Concealed Weapons Permit Holders Prepares Them for Effective Defensive Gun Use. Nope, once again. The authors prove that the carrying of guns can lead to escalation of disputes. Gabor, in an earlier book finds “that ongoing or spontaneous disputes were the most common motives underlying mass shootings” (91). Moreover, “since May 2007, concealed carry permit holders have killed more than two thousand people and committed thirty-seven mass shootings, as well as many other crimes” (91).

Authors Gabor and Guttenberg conclude their book with suggestions for what Americans can do, for we all know it will take an upswelling of such citizenry to join the rest of what the civilized world has already accomplished, and that is to reduce and limit the amount of gun violence. From requiring gun owners to secure guns in their homes to leveraging the corporate world to cease doing business with the gun industry to voting, the eighty to ninety percent of citizens who want change can achieve it.

Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Fanny Burney
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Jerzy Kosinski
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Amy Clampitt
FRI: My Book World | Colm Tóibín, The Magician

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A Writer's Wit: Katie Porter

1/3/2023

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Congress wasn't built for members like me. For those of us who have young children, which is a minority, there's definitely the built-in assumption of a two-parent model . . . . There is no template for how to do this in my situation as a single mom.
Katie Porter
U.S. Representative from California's 45th Congressional District
Born January 3, 1974

K. Porter

Coming Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Natalie Goldberg
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Brian Tracy
FRI: My Book World | Elizabeth Strout's Amy and Isabelle

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A Writer's Wit: Noam Chomsky

12/7/2022

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There's a tremendous gap between public opinion and public policy.
Noam Chomsky
Author of The Precipice: Neoliberalism, the Pandemic and the Urgent Need for Social Change
Born December 7, 1928

N. Chomsky

Coming Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | John Banville
FRI: My Book World | Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country

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A Writer's Wit: Helen Thomas

8/4/2022

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Everyone with a cell phone thinks they're a photographer. Everyone with a laptop thinks they're a journalist. But they have no training, and they have no idea of what we keep to in terms of standards, as in what's far out and what's reality. And they have no dedication to truth.
Helen Thomas
Author of Listen Up, Mr. President
Born August 4, 1920

H. Thomas

Coming Next:
TOMORROW: My Book World | R. Price's The Promise of Rest
TUES: AWW | Philip Larken
WEDS: AWW | Suzanne Collins
THURS: AWW | Alex Haley

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A Writer's Wit: NATIONAL GUN VIOLENCE AWARENESS

6/8/2022

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NATIONAL GUN VIOLENCE AWARENESS June 3-5 (I'm late, yet is it ever too late to talk about this?)
But tyranny is the gun. Guns are the monetizable form of the white male Christianist myth of America. Guns are the lie that violence begets peace: imperialist violence, manly violence, religious violence. Guns are the lie that the daily count of the dead matters less than the fantasies of dupes who give their paychecks and children to gun manufacturers. Guns are the tools of the otherwise untooled, and when the only tool you have is a gun, every answer to every problem is to shoot it.
Amanda Gailey
Author of Proofs of Genius

A. Gailey

FRIDAY: My Book World | Mark Doty's What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life

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A Writer's Wit: Malcolm X

5/19/2022

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We are not fighting for integration, nor are we fighting for separation. We are fighting for recognition as human beings. We are fighting for . . . human rights.
Malcolm X
Author of By Any Means Necessary: Speeches, Interviews, and a Letter
Born May 19, 1925

Malcolm X

TOMORROW: My Book World | Hermann Hesse's Rosshalde

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Is 'Midnight' Too Late?

12/10/2021

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A WRITER'S WIT
The intricacies, the problems, the trials and tribulations in relationships inspire me to give words to people's journeys.
Umera Ahmed
Author of Aabe Hayat
Born December 10, 1976

U. Ahmed

My Book World

Schiff, Adam. Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could. New York: Random, 2021.

If one followed the two impeachment hearings of ex-president Trump, one became quite well acquainted with the rhetorical skills of Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), who led that trial. And one will recognize much of the material he includes in this book but also much, much more. One gets an inside view of what he experienced to reach that point where Trump needed to be impeached. He recreates important scenes on the floor in public; he recreates scenes out of view as he confers with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders. Reading his account fills out one’s view if you only watched it on TV, especially if your viewing was spotty. Most important, however, is the revelation of Adam Schiff’s character. Into his narrative are woven personal anecdotes about family members, congressional staff members, and other personalities. These reveal a wholly human and humane person who would make a great speaker of the house or president, should he desire to run.

NEXT FRIDAY: My Book World | James Clear's Atomic Habits

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A Writer's Wit: J. R. Moehringer

12/7/2021

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Write every day; never give up; it's supposed to be difficult; try to find some pleasure and reward in the act of writing, because you can't look for praise from editors, readers, or critics. In other words, tips that are much easier to give than to take.
J. R. Moehringer
Author of The Tender Bar
Born December 7, 1964

J. R. Moehringer

FRIDAY: My Book World | Adam Schiff's Midnight in Washington

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Rise and Fall of an Institution

9/10/2021

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A WRITER'S WIT
AIDS and malaria and TB are national security issues. A worldwide program to get a start on dealing with these issues would cost about $25 billion . . . . It's, what, a few months in Iraq.
Jared Diamond
Author of Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change
Born September 10, 1937

J. Diamond

My Book World

Leonnig, Carol. Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service. New York: Random, 2021.

This book is one of the most fascinating contemporary reads to emerge in a long time. Leonnig, a distinguished Washington Post reporter, delves into the 155-year history of the United States Secret Service—the agency designed primarily to keep the president and family safe. She brings to light its early history: Within a period of thirty-six years, the U.S. experiences three presidential assassinations. Lincoln. Garfield. McKinley. Following Lincoln’s death, the Service is established with minimal or feeble funding. After the third assassination, the congress still refuses to provide additional protection, not wanting the president to be treated like royalty. When Kennedy is assassinated, the congress ultimately realizes it must provide more resources for the Secret Service. And presidents must adjust their thinking. Kennedy may, in part, have contributed to his own death by not adhering to the Service’s request that he not get as close to crowds as he liked. And also by not riding in an open car and by not allowing agents to stand on the rear bumper of his limo.

Leonnig explores subsequent presidencies to inform readers in great detail about each administration since: Ford’s two close calls. Reagan’s near-death attack. How the Service erodes during Bush’s and Clinton’s administrations. How the Service is pushed beyond its capabilities during Obama’s era when threats and attempts on him rise exponentially and when two different “jumpers” leap over the White House fence, one of them actually coming within feet of the Obama family’s living quarters. The author informs us of the unrest within the Service: the frequent change of leadership, the history of good old boy networks that reward relationships instead of meritorious service. She tells of the scandals that rock the service, including details of the one in Cartagena where at least ten agents become extremely drunk and involve themselves with prostitutes. Her conclusion: many problems still exist. The agency needs a complete restructuring, much more funding, and a coordinated effort to heartily renew its mission of always putting the lives of the president and family and other figures ahead of lives of agents sworn to protect them. Until these things occur, the Secret Service will remain stretched beyond its capabilities and perhaps remain a second-rate organization.

NEXT FRIDAY: My Book World | Reinaldo Arenas's The Doorman

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A Writer's Wit: Katherine Graham

6/16/2021

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No one can avoid aging, but aging productively is something else.
Katharine Graham
Author of The Pentagon Papers
Born June 16, 1917

K. Graham

FRIDAY: My Book World | Albert Camus's The Plague

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President Obama: Promises Fulfilled

1/15/2021

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A WRITER'S WIT
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Author of Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?
Born January 15, 1929

MLK

My Book World

Obama, Barack. A Promised Land. New York: Crown, 2020.

Having read President Obama’s 1995 memoir Dreams from My Father a number of years ago, I pre-ordered this book and anxiously awaited its arrival from Amazon on November 17, 2020. Dreams had revealed to me a skilled and sensitive writer. The scene in which Mr. Obama kneels at his father’s grave in Kenya is deeply moving and serves as the striking climax. It remains fresh in my memory.

A Promised Land is a title that resonates in a global way. However, Mr. Obama transforms it a bit to reveal how the United States of America has functioned as a promised land for him, for his life. The book seems to possess a unique structure. The former president limns in this the first volume of his long-awaited memoir his political life. Yet he does not hesitate to return readers by way of carefully selected flashbacks to his humble beginnings: we learn things about his family that we perhaps did not know before, the boldly liberal nature of his Kansas-born grandparents who flee to Hawaii to live a freer life; their daughter who marries a Kenyan man and gives birth to Barack Hussein Obama.

At the same time, this memoir develops a strand of history focused as readers would expect to see through the eyes of the person to whom it happened, the one who witnessed first-hand his several political campaigns, his earthy language in dealing with staff who have displeased him or fallen short of their expected performance. In spite of the subjectivity of such a view, one senses that Mr. Obama is being fair, that not many can argue with his point of view, his memory, his own fact-checking.

But finally, this book is silver-lined with personal and moving vignettes the president experiences throughout his first term: campaign events, public and private; White House anecdotes (he gives an inviting description of the contemporary White House); the relationships he develops with everyday WH employees, the large majority of whom are African-American, one essentially declaring, “You’re one of us.” At the same time, though he avoids making too much of the issue, Mr. Obama sets the record straight on the political evils he must endure: Donald Trump’s birtherism campaign; the media’s daily tearing at his flesh even though he is far more transparent and open than the previous administration’s leader; obstructionist Republicans who wish to thwart the President’s agenda, not because they so much disagree with him ideologically (which they do) but because they object so blatantly to him. Mr. Obama very elegantly portrays their vitriol without saying what I have no problem stating: Republicans regularly respond with a latent but powerful sense of White person’s entitlement, racism, and bigotry that have laced our American life since before its formation. That the man continues to rule with great dignity is a tribute to his stature as an adult who wishes to build on our democracy, not destroy it.

Mr. Obama relates the night at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, in which he takes stand-up potshots at a seated and furious Donald Trump. I think Mr. Obama must later realize how much this roasting inspires DT to run for president. Finally, skillfully building toward the narrative arc’s fine climax, Mr. Obama relates the fulsome scenario by which Osama bin Laden is assassinated and buried at sea. Though at times the reading is a slog, because the former prez wishes to be thorough and exact (a quality I appreciate), the book is well worth the time. And that infamous date, May 2, 2011, is where the first half of this memoir ends.

NEXT FRIDAY: My Book World | Steven Millhauser's The Knife Thrower and Other Stories

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Electoral College: Bane of Our Existence

10/30/2020

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A WRITER'S WIT
Nothing seems so tragic to one who is old as the death of one who is young and this alone proves that life is a good thing.
Zoë Akins
Author of The Greeks Had a Word for Them
Born October 30, 1886

Z. Akins

My Book World

Edwards, George C. with a foreword by Neal R. Peirce. Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America. New Haven, Yale UP, 2004.

For years the electoral college mystified me, but it seemed like a concept that worked because more or less the right candidate always won both the popular vote and the electoral college vote. Then came the 2000 election, a bizarre turn of events by which five people on the Supreme Court would, through their action/inaction allow the candidate with fewer popular votes to win. And one of those justices would tell the rest of us to get over it—instead of taking the time, like a reasoned person, to explain to us why we should get over it, why their decision was such a wise one. Another justice, years later, before her death, would confess that she regretted her vote. Nice. I hope it made her feel better. The electoral college is a roulette wheel that is loaded. Rigged. Like any roulette wheel, we don’t really know until the last second which way the falseness is going to lie.

Author Edwards logically and factually proves his thesis as to why the electoral college ought to be drummed out of existence. Interestingly, instead of beginning with the historical context of its origins, he begins with how the electoral college works, how it among other things, cheats the voters in a particular state who vote for the “losing” candidate who may actually have more popular votes. Most important in his discussions may be the idea of political equality or more important the political inequity that the electoral college tends to foster. The biggest takeaway from Edwards’s chapter on history is the recorded fact that the electoral college was not a well-thought-out concept that received rigorous attention from its founders. No, Philadelphia was hot that summer, and men [and I mean only men] formed the electoral college in a hurry, so that they could find cooler places in which to spend the rest of their summer vacations. At every turn, Edwards has an answer for those who would retain the electoral college, especially by noting when the proponents begin with false premises. The e.c. does not protect the smaller states, as some claim. It does not maintain cohesion and harmony among citizens. Candidates are not more attentive to small states with a low number of electors nor to large states that are entrenched in one party or another.

In the book’s foreword, scholar Neal R. Peirce sums up what is most flawed about the electoral college: “The electoral college process, Edwards reminds us, doesn’t simply aggregate or reflect popular votes; it consistently distorts and often directly misrepresents the votes citizens have cast. Indeed, the unit vote actually takes votes of the minority in individual states and awards those votes, in the national count, to the candidate they opposed” (x).

Don’t worry that Edwards’s tome was published in 2004; nothing much has changed concerning the institution. Author Edwards’s study is prescient in that he states emphatically that what happened in 2000 with Bush v. Gore will happen again. Voilà, 2016! The United States must abolish the electoral college when it comes to voting for the office of the president. The time to do so has past.

[This book published by Yale University Press has, by my count, five typographical errors derived mainly from a lack of close reading by copy editors—rather egregious for an Ivy League press, eh?]

NEXT FRIDAY: My Book World | Oscar Lewis's Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty

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Mr. Putin: As Bad As You Think

10/23/2020

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A WRITER'S WIT
A diary is the response to an impulse—as opposed to an instinct—for self-preservation.
Ned Rorem
Author of The Paris Diary
Born October 23, 1923

N. Rorem

My Book World

Hill, Fiona and Clifford G. Gaddy. Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin. New and
Expanded. Washington: Brookings, 2015.

When I tuned in to President Trump’s impeachment trial at the end of 2019, I was impressed with the testimony of Fiona Hill, at that time former Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European and Russian Affairs on Trump’s National Security Council. Her credentials seemed impeccable, and I told myself I would read the book she co-authors with Mr. Gaddy.

The Hill/Gaddy team paint a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin that is not personal. They do not delve much into his upbringing or family life, only as those elements may apply to his long political life. They formulate what they refer to as Putin’s six identities, by which the book is structured: “the Statist, the History Man, the Survivalist, the Outsider, the Free Marketeer, and the (KGB) Case Officer (18).” The man manipulates or exploits each one of these identities in order to further his own career, his own strategies, and each study is an eye-opening view into the life of the real Mr. Putin.

Mr. Putin declares himself to be a gosudarstvennik, “a builder of the state, a servant of the state . . . a person who believes that Russia must be and must have a strong state” (40). The State is of ultimate importance, not the individual. Hill/Gaddy claim that “Putin continued with an analysis that echoed the language of the tsarist statist school, noting that Russia will ‘muscle up’ by ‘being open to change’ through state-sanctioned procedures and rules’” (55). The authors reinforce what President Obama once said of Putin, that Putin still maintains a nineteenth-century view of the world. He may utilize some of the tactics he learns while serving in the KGB, but his worldview is rooted in a glorified, pre-Soviet past: he aspires to be a tsar.

To summarize most of the other five areas, Putin manipulates history to strengthen his power. He is a survivalist who will do anything to get what he wants. Ultimately, his sense of strategy (over tactics, which only serve to fulfill his overarching set of goals) is one of his greatest strengths, one that Hill/Gaddy claim the West underestimates at its own peril. A man who creates a long-term strategy for the success of his State and is willing to do anything to see that it succeeds is to be to watched very carefully, something that the authors indicate the West has failed to do thus far. The West must see clearly how the man views himself, and the West, while not forfeiting its own values, must develop strategies for dealing with him, ones that realistically exploit his perceived strengths and weaknesses. Until the man is taken seriously, the rest of the world cannot deal with him in a realistic manner, and such a stance is not good for that world.

NEXT FRIDAY: My Book World | George C. Edwards's Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America.

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The Fight to Vote Is an Old One

10/16/2020

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A WRITER'S WIT
When you're fifty you start thinking about things you haven't thought about before. I used to think getting old was about vanity—but actually it's about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial.
Eugene O’Neill
Author of Long Day's Journey into Night
Born October 16, 1888

E. O'Neill

My Book World

Waldman, Michael. The Fight to Vote. New York: Simon, 2016.

I wish I had read this book when it came out during the run-up to the 2016 election—when I bought it. Even though the last chapters seem dated now, considering what the country has been through, the early chapters give an excellent historical account of how this country has ALWAYS been divided into two camps: those who would like to allow everyone to vote and those who would only have so-called elites vote. White (heterosexual, one assumes) male landowners comprised that group in colonial times:

“And there were men who worked as hard to restrict the vote as others did to expand it, such as John Randolph of Roanoke, who fought to deny the franchise to men without property, declaring, ‘I am an aristocrat. I love liberty. I hate equality;’” (xi)

Slowly, and only through arduous struggles, did other groups gain traction over great spans of time: African-American males, white women, African-American women and other minority groups (including the young). Still, the fight to vote has wavered back and forth, according to the whims of the SCOTUS and voter suppression activities. One group rises up and gains three feet, and another group grabs power and sends progress back two feet. And tragically . . . the struggle still continues. If readers have time, they should consider devouring this informative and at times humorous book. If you’re undecided about voting in 2020, perhaps its contents may sway you to get registered and do so now!

NEXT FRIDAY: My Book World | Fiona Hill's Mr. Putin

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A Writer's Wit: John W. Gardner

10/8/2020

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The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept.
John W. Gardner
Author of On Leadership
Born October 8, 1912

J. W. Gardner

TOMORROW: My Book World | Blake Bailey's A Tragic Honesty

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A Writer's Wit: George Packer

8/13/2020

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Character is destiny, and politicians usually get the scandals they deserve, with a sense of inevitability about them.
George Packer
Author of Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
Born August 13, 1960

G. Packer

TOMORROW: My Book World: Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki

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Impeachment: Not As Easy As It Sounds

1/4/2019

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A WRITER'S WIT
Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.
Natalie Goldberg
Born January 4, 1948

N. Goldberg

My Book World

Tribe, Laurence, and Joshua Matz. To
End a Presidency: The Power of
Impeachment. New York, Basic,
2018.

This eminently readable book explicates a complex subject, one worthy of study during a period when the term “impeachment” is bandied about in the media with incredible ease. The authors do a commendable job of, first of all, discussing the laws governing impeachment of a president and how they sprang to life in the first place as part of the US Constitution.

On the other hand, Tribe and Matz help readers to understand that nothing about impeachment is simple. They limn the intricacies of the laws, how the proceedings must begin in the House of Representatives and can conclude only in the Senate. They tell us about how difficult it is to obtain a two-thirds majority vote (under normal times, let alone now with such great partisan divides) in either house to advance impeachment. They explain which offenses are impeachable and which are not and why, that it is not a matter of removing a president from office because he is a boor. He must have committed a crime or misdemeanor. Even with those parameters, it is never a simple matter for Congress to decide.

Ultimately, the authors rule against impeaching our current president, largely because of the disruption it would cause in our society. Under normal circumstances, the executive and judicial branches of the government would help to reign in the abuses of a president. Even now, during times that do not seem normal to those of us of a certain age, the other two branches are doing their job. The House will be governed, beginning in January, 2019, by Democrats, who can begin to call the actions of President 45 into question. Even the Supreme Court, which has now been loaded with conservatives, could surprise the president. The two men whom he seated owe him absolutely nothing. The president cannot remove them from their seats if they should rule against him. And if they do favor him in ways that are questionable, they themselves could be subject to impeachment . . . theoretically. As the authors say in conclusion:

“We must abandon fantasies that the impeachment power will swoop in and save us from destruction. It can’t and it won’t. When our democracy is threatened from within, we must save it ourselves. Maybe impeachment should play a role in that process; maybe it will only make things worse. Either way, reversing the rot in our political system will require creative and heroic efforts throughout American life. And at the heart of those efforts will be the struggle to transcend our deepest divisions in search of common purpose and mutual understanding” (240-1).

“Transcending forces of decay, disinformation, and disunion will not be easy. This is the great national calling of our time—the North Star that must guide decisions about ending, or enduring disastrous presidencies. There is no quick fix for the challenges we face. They are surmountable only if each of us resolves anew that American and democracy are well worth fighting for” (241).

NEXT TIME: My Journey of States-36 Vermont

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