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Title: The Fifteen Biggest Lies in Politics by Major Garrett, Timothy J. Penny, St Martins Press ISBN: 0-312-18294-5 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.44 (16 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: While not at all in depth, eye opening nonetheless!
Comment: If you're reading this review, you've probably correctly observed the play-pen behavior that politics, candidacy, political journalism, and everything else inside the beltway has become. And if you're reading this review, you may be either in the dark about the specific ailments that've lead to this stranger-than-science-fiction climate of symptoms, or you're pretty sure what the problems are but want to hear the authors take. Whichever the case, you've come to a pretty good place.
The two authors (from my understanding, a republican and a democrat, not that these terms mean anything anymore) have written a pretty provacative and insightful book, attempting to 'prove' points as far from conventional fox-news wisdom as the irrelevance of the abortion debate, to PAC's as a healthy part of democracy. In the end, they are pretty convincing on all 15 of their points.
The problem, though, comes from the fact that there are 15 chapters, all focusing on the shattering of a different political 'myth.' The result is that while this is an entertaining and eye-opening book, there is no coherence at all. The only coherence, itself inadvertent, was the midsection of the book where there are a few chapters in a row on what the authors feel is the oft-exagerated power of money and special interest on political campaigns and public policy. These chapters are especially eye-opening as they may be the hardest for most people to swallow, but taken togheter they become seriously redundant. If the authors had thought about it more, they should've reduced these 3 chapters to 1 which would've left more room to be more in depth in other chapters.
The other fault (or virtue, depending on where you stand) is that while non-partisan over all, this book will likely appeal to the more conservative or libertarian voter. From the authors beliefs against McCain-Feingold campaign reform or gun control as crime reducer to their support of religion as an effective tool in politics to their crushing conclusions that social security as a fraud, most (not all) of their positions are those recently taken up by those on the right.
In conclusion, despite the above glitches, this book is witty, erudite, 50% entertaining and 50% informative. Personally speaking, my favorite chapters were 1) that discussing the relative unimportance of the abortion debate to most people (look at polls, it's true), 2) shattering the myths that republicans are for small government and democrats are compassionate, 3) the chapter on the myth of gun contol being a crime reducer (as another reviewer pointed out, very persuasive) and 4) cracking the myth tht tax cuts are good (while I don't agree with their conclusion, another well-argued chapter). As the blurb on the books cover points out, this is a good "self defense manual for voters". A similar book readers may enjoy is "Ten Things You Can't Say in America" by libertarian author Larry Elder, who takes up very similar points.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Understanding of Politics the Media Avoids
Comment: Finding the truth in the media circus of sound bites and bias is like finding an intellect on the Jerry Springer Show. The truth is that the American citizen knows that there are more choices than offered to us by the media. The issues are presented in a very non partisan atmosphere with just enough history and research data to be interesting and to clarify the issues. The title sound like a Republican, but one of the authors is a Democrat. The book is concise and enlightening. They attack the tough issues head on; abortion, gun control, big money in politics, social security, Medicare, tax cuts, etc. This is a must read for every intelligent voter regardless of party affiliation.
Rating: 3
Summary: Lots of "points," little depth
Comment: It's hard to rate this book, because I simply don't know how much of it to believe. Sure the authors "prove" their points. Writers with contrary points of view, such as Paul Krugman, Michael Moore, "prove" the opposite with their own facts and statistics. Who should I believe? (Read the chapter here on gun control and then read Moore on the same subject; most interesting.)
But more importantly, while the book has breadth, it lacks depth. Each chapter is as short as a modest newspaper article. The authors have a habit of drawing conclusions based on relatively few facts; so many sentence start with "Obviously that means..." or "This clearly shows that..." I feel like the authors predigest my information and do all my thinking for me. Maybe there's more intricate reasoning than what appears here that went into their conclusions, but we don't see it.
For example, one chapter says that throwing money into education does not correlate with higher results. No argument. But after citing a bunch of stats about how increased spending does not yield increased results (Washington D.C. is one of the highest per-capital spenders on public education, yet their test resorts are dismal), the authors never investigate *why* this is: are they saying there's just correlation between money and learning? On *some* level that must be untrue. Or is it that the money, while being appropriated, is not going where it needs to go to be effective? Is there too much pork, or is money just totally irrelevant. Just where do the authors think the money is going, anyway? These questions, obvious to me, are not addressed.
The same is true with the other issues. We are told that looking at statistics reveals a different truth than popular wisdom and media hype suggests. That's entirely believable. But then the book just cites a large number of studies that show results that are contrary to the common wisdom. Disraeli said there are lies, damned lies and statistics, and unfortunately, this book does little more than reinforce that view. So whom do you trust? Odds are, after reading this book, you'll probably just believe what you're comfortable with, or, like me, you won't be enlightened at all. I closed this book feeling like a hungry man invited to a buffet who walked away still craving nourishment.
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Title: How Washington Really Works by Charles Peters ISBN: 0201624702 Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 January, 1993 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Corruption of American Politics: What Went Wrong and Why by Elizabeth Drew ISBN: 1585670499 Publisher: Overlook Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Power Plays: Win or Lose--How History's Great Political Leaders Play the Game by Dick Morris ISBN: 0060004436 Publisher: Regan Books Pub. Date: 16 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken ISBN: 0525947647 Publisher: Dutton Books Pub. Date: 29 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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