Book Description
People on the right are furious. People on the left are livid. And the center isn’t holding. There is only one thing on which almost everyone agrees: there is something very wrong in Washington. The country is being run by pollsters. Few politicians are able to win the voters’ trust. Blame abounds and personal responsibility is nowhere to be found. There is a cynicism in Washington that appalls those in every state, red or blue. The question is: Why? The more urgent question is: What can be done about it?
Few people are more qualified to deal with both questions than Joe Klein.
There are many loud and opinionated voices on the political scene, but no one sees or writes with the clarity that this respected observer brings to the table. He has spent a lifetime enmeshed in politics, studying its nuances, its quirks, and its decline. He is as angry and fed up as the rest of us, so he has decided to do something about it—in these pages, he vents, reconstructs, deconstructs, and reveals how and why our leaders are less interested in leading than they are in the “permanent campaign” that political life has become.
The book opens with a stirring anecdote from the night of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Klein re-creates the scene of Robert Kennedy’s appearance in a black neighborhood in Indianapolis, where he gave a gut-wrenching, poetic speech that showed respect for the audience, imparted dignity to all who listened, and quelled a potential riot. Appearing against the wishes of his security team, it was one of the last truly courageous and spontaneous acts by an American politician—and it is no accident that Klein connects courage to spontaneity. From there, Klein begins his analysis—campaign by campaign—of how things went wrong. From the McGovern campaign polling techniques to Roger Ailes’s combative strategy for Nixon; from Reagan’s reinvention of the Republican Party to Lee Atwater’s equally brilliant reinvention of behind-the-scenes strategizing; from Jimmy Carter to George H. W. Bush to Bill Clinton to George W.—as well as inside looks at the losing sides—we see how the Democrats become diffuse and frightened, how the system becomes unbalanced, and how politics becomes less and less about ideology and more and more about how to gain and keep power. By the end of one of the most dismal political runs in history—Kerry’s 2004 campaign for president—we understand how such traits as courage, spontaneity, and leadership have disappeared from our political landscape.
In a fascinating final chapter, the author refuses to give easy answers since the push for easy answers has long been part of the problem. But he does give thoughtful solutions that just may get us out of this mess—especially if any of the 2008 candidates happen to be paying attention.
Customer Reviews:
American Presidential Politics as Train Wreck, Engineered by Pollsters and Consultants.......2007-08-31
By Joe Klein's reckoning, the greatest scourge of political consultants in the past three decades has been the elimination of Turnip Days - and he may well be right. The peculiar name of this lost element of politics arises from the candicacy of Harry Truman in 1948. At his Democratic Party acceptance speech where he was challenging a do-nothing Republican Congress to reconvene on July 25, President Truman alluded to a Missouri tradition of planting turnips that day, rain or shine. According to Klein, it was a speech straight out of the man, loaded with words and references to Truman's own down-home roots. A genuine, non-scripted, non-manufactured moment in which America saw their President as the man he really was, warts and all. We've hardly had a Turnip Day moment since, and in Klein's view, it's been the ruination of American politics and the cause of horrendous candidacies (Gephardt, Doukakis, Kerry) and equally horrendous Presidencies (Carter, both Bushes, even parts of Reagan and Clinton).
In its basic structure, POLITICS LOST is a history, a chronological retracing of American politics from Jimmy Carter to the 2004 Bush/Kerry election, with particular emphasis on pollsters and political consultants. In Klein's view, this new breed of unelected unknowns have evolved from advisors and strategists to incessant surveyors, focus group holders, and message and candidate micro-managers battling with near-paranoid fervor to suppress anything smacking of reality and spontaneity. As the author retraces successive Presidential election campaigns from Carter/Ford to Bush/Kerry, he introduces us to the little Oz-wizards pulling the strings from behind the curtains. Everything begins with pollster Pat Caddell. After that, it's Richard Wirthlin, John Sears, Bob Teeter, David Doak, Bob Shrum, Mark McKinnon, Dick Morris, James Carville, Ed Rollins, Lee Atwater, Roger Ailes, Joe Trippi, and a host of others. Even to readers for whom those names are already familiar, the stories are simultaneously fascinating and disturbing. Democrats and Repbublicans alike should feel a deep sense of shame over what their leaders have wrought in the last thirty years - hardly "democracy" as the Founding Fathers imagined it.
Klein's negative attitude toward professional political consultancy picks up steam in his writing as he progresses chronologically, and justifiably so. By the turn of the millennium, Presidential political campaigns have become a national disgrace, a black mark on the entire concept of democracy. Candidacies are manufactured for emotion and appearance, devoid of substance and content, and the most telling moments in the last three elections have been gaffes or negative ads and attacks. Not surprisingly, the American electorate increasingly elects not to participate, as if a trip to the voting booth means pointlessly soiling one's hands in the whole nasty business. One of the conjectures in POLITICS LOST is that the entire process increases the likelihood that the country will end up with ineffectual Presidencies. From Carter to Reagan to Bush I to Clinton to Bush II, this certainly seems to be the case (with Clinton being the only pause in this steep slide into the intellectual and effectiveness abyss).
In the book's final pages, Mr. Klein practically begs some future candidate to break this cycle and present himself or herself as just a normal human being. Say what you think and mean what you say; don't hide behind pages of polls and empty, feel-good, focus group-tested slogans. The author may indeed be onto something, judging at least in the Democratic candidates' case by people's continued collective unease with Hillary Clinton and their early surge of enthusiasm for Barack Obama (who appears to be less fresh and more scripted as time passes). As Klein might have it with regard to the so-called political pros, "a pox on all your houses." POLITICS LOST is a fascinating survey of recent Presidential campaign history and a worthwhile read for what it says about our leaders, our political processes, our democracy, and ourselves.
Joe Klein Proves in this BOOK, we need something NEW.......2007-08-25
This book is boring in that there are no SOLUTIONS. Plenty of spotlight on the Problems. Like George W. Bush. The biggest problem in a leader we've ever suffered in our entire history. The man never once has done anything that helps ordinary citizens. He blocked Stem Cell research claiming that he knows for certain that no benefit, no cures would ever come from it. Laura even joined him on that, and she should know better, she has read a book.
So, all of the books on politics right now are very bereft of solutions.
But, there is a website where you can find Real Solutions to our problems. [...]
Here, they are starting the 2nd American Revolution and when you think about it, that's what is really necessary. We need a new revolution because they have such absolute control over the media and the rest of us, it's impossible to get any thing fixed. They have a stranglehold on us. But the folks who started the 1st National Voting Block actually have something NEW and PRACTICAL to offer. Check them out. Tell them Amazon them sent you.
We Are As We Vote?.......2007-04-06
Guess what America, you are "STUPID." How Dare I? Well look at what is going on around us. People in Washington like the fact we do not get the real news, and the "Fat Cat" media owners are rewarded, the government looks the other way, and the media does what it wants. Oh sure you say Janet Jackson's strip tease makes one think otherwise. "Smoke And Mirrors".
How then are we stupid? We continue to elect "Career Politicians" who no longer so much as read the laws they are voting for. Worse big business now taylors laws to suit themselves, or they write them all together. Guess what not a peep out of the American people. And what do we do? Why re-elect them of course.
Campaigns are taylored to what you want to hear and that which tends to garner the most bucks. What a joke. George W. Bush, and his group of "Gangsters" stole two presidential elections, with hardly a peep out of we the citizens, or the sleepy heads on Capital Hill. And the beat goes on. Who knows how many other elections will be fraudulent. Who knows which elected offical will put his hand in the cookie jar, and do the American public in.
Maybe we should get Fidel Castro to send some observers to America, to ensure our next presidential election is honest. "Stupid" seems too mild a word. Politicians do look at us the American public as if we are stupid, because we seem to have lost our voice. Their campaigns are only designed to attack one another, not to address the issues. Such as poverty, homelessness, poor education, lack of health care, and big business trying to make us all jobless. We have a war going on on the other side of the world, where our young men and women are dying. Meanwhile the "Cowboy" in the white House has told every lie under the sun to continue killing our young men, and women in uniform. Guess what, hardly a call for "Impeachment", neither on Capital Hill, or from the people. But a former president lies about his personal life and this becomes grounds for Impeachment. No one lost his life here people.
What we call Democracy is long dead, and this book reveals a few reasons why. The career politician, has to rank as number one. Judges for life is number two. Number two is a very hard one to change because if we allow todays politician to fiddle with our Constitution, who knows they may outlaw your religious beliefs or something. Third and formost how about a voter referendum to limit what the government steals from you each payday. Next get rid of these "Career Politicians". One six year term and they are out. And no these people cannot hold either an elected, or politically appointed position for ten years thereafter. Oops.
This is a good book with all the lies and deception coming from Capital Hill, I wish something of this nature was standard reading in our schools to make people aware of what is happening, and what is at stake. FREEDOM, because we spend too, too much time on computer games, or looking for what Britney Spears is doing, to be troubled about what is really going on in our government. Get involved America.
Worth Checking Out.......2007-03-09
This is an interesting book. Anyone who is interested in an alternative to the right wing talk radio and tv news should seriously consider checking out the Thom Hartmann radio show opposite Rush Limbaugh weekdays at: thomhartmann dot com / showlisten.shtml
Whether democrat, republican, or indepedent, so many of the facts out there are completely ignored by the mainstream media and talk shows. This show is one strong example of an examination of the facts regardless of your political affiliation.
Poorly Thought Out Book.......2007-01-23
Politics Lost is a poorly thought out book. It purports to be a stunning muckraking work, yet it is nothing more than a critigue of the aesthetics of power in Washington.
Critics such as Klein have long seen advertising as being a negative force in politics at least since the Eisenhower campaign hired an advertising agency in 1952. Klein claims that since the Nixon campaign of 1968, politics have become nothing more than slickly packaged advertisements.
Klein's book is really nothing more than the same old, same old.
Customer Reviews:
First-rate analysis.......2007-01-08
First-rate analysis of the dynamics of power in the shaping of an American city. The analysis benefits from the specificity of having choosen a single city: New Haven, CT. But the results of the analysis would be enlightening to the process of understanding the function of power in any community. The scholarship is of the highest quality; the discussion is insightful and thought-provoking. A great resource for those aspiring to shape/influence direction of community growth.
"who governs" - powerful insight to city politics.......2000-04-17
another well done piece by dahl. he brings you into the everyday runnings of an american city and lets people see how politics can run and ruin everything.
Book Description
Who Will Tell the People is a passionate, eye-opening challenge to American democracy. Here is a tough-minded exploration of why we're in trouble, starting with the basic issues of who gets heard, who gets ignored, and why. Greider shows us the realities of power in Washington today, uncovering the hidden relationships that link politicians with corporations and the rich, and that subvert the needs of ordinary citizens.
How do we put meaning back into public life? Greider shares the stories of some citizens who have managed to crack Washington's "Grand Bazaar" of influence peddling as he reveals the structures designed to thwart them. Without naiveté or cynicism, Greider shows us how the system can still be made to work for the people, and delineates the lines of battle in the struggle to save democracy. By showing us the reality of how the political decisions that shape our lives are made, William Greider explains how we can begin to take control once more.
Customer Reviews:
The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-02
In trying to understand the modern day world - governments, societies, and general direction of the civilization - I found myself very confused. I wanted to find a professor who could get me up to speed on what is really going on in the world around me. As you know one must choose selectively because there are "so many books and so little time". Consequently I have chosen William Greider as my "Civics" professor.
I have finished my third book by William Greider this morning, "Who Will Tell the People." I thought that to be a wonderful title for a book. I have been asking myself that same questions on many different subjects for many years. If you have also been wondering "Who Will Tell the People", I think I can tell you quite sincerely that one of the people who will tell the people is certainly William Greider.
This book is about Washington, "K" street and the money, games and influence. I thought that I knew about all that stuff but unfortunately I didn't know the half of it.
North America and Western Europe Free at Last.......2006-01-13
Greider is expansive in is account of the decline of the U.S..Corruption is in your face at all levels.The elite have to be put down,and we now have the weapon.To talk about what should be done as speculation is B.S.unless you are willing to act.Now all can be involved and unknown.Those who have taken can give back.To get to the point stop immigration into the U.S.
By doing this you take away the power of the elite, and you are in charge.Why because it will give you economic power.The elite will have to bargan with you in the work place.No more foreign slave labor to destroy our country.All you have to do is support the Boarder Protection Act-Anti Terroism and Illegal Immigration Control Act HR 4437.It has Bang for the buck, kick their ass.
Bush talks about he cannot waver,well we cannot waver either.Do not let any protestant, catholic,or jew override the constitution for illegal immigrants.They are real threat to the security of the American People. That war we are in was not.How many lives will it cost,and what about the economy.The minority who are crying help us help illegals should get out of U.S.The law on immigration is not enforced TREASON.There is no excuse.Vote the senate and congress out who vote for more immigrants,they are criminals.Prosecute any one assisting a illegal.STOP IMMIGRATION PERIOD fOR FIVE YEARS-FULL EMPLOYMENT.Please do not let the elite and their puppets fool you as they always have.They play both sides.
Greider talks about the elite control.They have educated us to be fools.Class against class to support the elite interest.In the end most of the upper classes are taken out also,But they go down stupid.The only people that are not brainwashed are the elite.They play hard ball,if you want to win be like them,then you will be the boss.You are the majority.Stop being a SHEEP.You have been on your knees long enough,show them you can win.JFK could not win because he did not have the power,you do.
The american culture is finished if we do not act now.Educators are corrupt,news media,banks,oil,insurence,coporates,contractors,government officils,etc.We have to reinstitute the western culture which is our birth right.The people need to know their history.Prior to NAM most americans were western european who fought the american wars.AS with Japan why should we be ashame.We fought for our country,right or wrong.WE won by our power,not by weakness.All nations win and lose and take advantage.There is no law without the power to enforce it.People believe in their nation.The manorities who do not like us need to get out we do not need them.It is a privilege for them to be in U.S. they do not own us.They did not win our freedom.I am referring to third world.The world bank and IMF need to help these people in their own country,not here.We have poverty,long term unemployment that is not counted.Once unemployment insurence is finished,they do not count you as looking for work.American indians,Blacks,poor whites need a minimun standard of living with guality before illegals.They need full employment.Why has the government not taken care of the problem.Banks only take care of themselves with the rest of the elite.
Grieder states the case you have to act,and now it is so easy a new beginning.All we have to do is stop immigration,that will be the new AMERICA.Do not let them B.S. you anymore.
GRIEDER has tried to help you help yourself.Maybe we should have a draft no exemp for the educated.Get rid of electorial college.Get rid of Federal Reserve it is a violation of the constitution.Put all government officials in prison who commit treason or violate the law of the U.S. no exception.We should be proud to be americans.A revolution to enforce the constitution.Read the declaration of independence,and right of man,common sense,Thomas Paine.God whoever he is bless america.
Always celebrate christ birthday if you are christian,merry
christmas,remember the ten commandments.God is what you believe he is,so all can believe what they want,but do not deny my right whether you are gentile jewish or other.First amendment right.Do unto others as you would have them do to you.An atheist can have compassion.Why would any one hate JC a lover of man.The jews can believe any thing they want as well as all others.Bring christmas back,santa clause,silent night,etc.Keep in mind our founding fathers,and the settlers who made america.Keep our culture alive. The minority are the manority,and they are in america?????????????????????????????????KEEP IT THAT WAY MULTIcultualism does not work on large scale.Look at the problems in north america and western Europe.What a joke.
Thing Haven't Changed Much.......2005-04-11
It has taken me several months, but I have finally finished reading Who Will Tell The People by William Greider. It wasn't an easy book to read, it deals with government policy, protocol, politics, economics, and history. However, it was a fascinating book, therefore I stayed with it as I read several other books in between its completion. I have been a fan of Greider's since I started reading his articles about politics and the economy in the pages of Rolling Stone.
It is amazing how accurate Greider's description of the failings of democracy is today, 12 years after the book had been published (1992)-not much has changed, especially during the build up to the November 2004 elections. Most of his examples come from the Carter-Regan-Bush administrations or before. But he does an amazing job of showing how the power of the people has been transferred over the years into the hands of the rich and powerful. However, he does provide examples of how these powerful forces have been overcome by grass roots movements, and he seems hopeful that someday the true spirit of democracy will be seen in government.
One of his biggest concerns is how government fails in its greatest role upholding laws:
"Corrective mechanisms that are supposed to prevent political manipulations have been purposely weakened. And public inherits a grave injustice: a government that will not faithfully perform its most basic function-enforcing laws." (107)
Corporations will often accept fines rather than changes business practices that are in opposition to laws passed by the government for the good of the people. How long did it take to get air bags installed as a matter of course in cars?
He goes on to look at the unseemly practice of government officials going from public office to corporations:
"The federal government as a whole ahs been reduced to a training camp for private enterprise-a school in which the students learn the skills and insider knowledge that will be most valuable to outside employers. Under those circumstances only the most dedicated civil servants-or the most incompetent-are willing to remain in the public's hire." (116)
I know every administration is guilty of this, but it seems more visible in this one with Condi Rice coming from Exxon and Dick Cheney from Halliburton. The first MBA president, who has run every company that he has led into the ground save the Texas Rangers, scares me-business leaders are beholden to their stockholders-everyone else has to fend for themselves, this model works well when you think of shareholders as the people who gave money to his campaign,
The Democrats are just as guilty of this as the Republicans as Greider discusses in his chapter "Who Owns The Democrats?" And it's the same sort of big business types who fund Democrat candidates. The move to the center economically happened long before Clinton. This in turn leads to the kind of corporate welfare documented here:
"As it turned out, General Electric was possibly the biggest single winner in Ronald Regan's celebrated tax cuts. It had corporate profits of $6.5 billion during 1981-1983 and, astonishingly, received a tax rebate of $283 million form the federal government. Its tax burden went from $330 million a year to minus $900 million a year-money the government now owed GE. By rough estimate, the 1981 tax legislation yielded as much as $1.3 billion for General Electric over several years and probably much more in the long run." (341-342)
In the chapter "The Closet Dictator" he discusses the dangers of globalism, a chapter I'll guess that led him to write his book on globalism, One World Ready Or Not. All in all, it was a very thought-provoking book. Actually, it riles me up, because there's so little we can do about it. I guess democracy is a sort of utopian goal that we have to constantly strive for.
History Proved Him Right.......2003-02-13
It's funny how some negative reviews of this book spoke about how wrong Greider was and how right corporate superheros like Jack Welch were. Now in 2003 as America struggles to rebuild after the savage [things] that these corporate overlords have done (Enron? Worldcom? Global Crossing?) we see just how accurate Greider's predications were. The men who rose to power in the 1990's didn't get there because they loved all humanity, they got there because they wanted power above all else. It wasn't the job or the love for their products, it was for money. If they had to fire tens of thouands of people, if they had to bankrupt the company, that was fine. THEY got to keep their millions in the form of Golden Parachutes. History has now born this simple truth out. Power doesn't neccesarilly corrupt, but absolutely corrupt people seek power at any cost.
Luddite Nonsense.......2001-12-16
Regurgitated Luddite foolishness from an economic ignoramus. This is the worst kind of populism, based not in love but in fear: "He is really big, but if you and I get together we can bop him." Mix that with the leitmotif of intellectuals ("How unfair that people like Jack Welch have influence: what were his grades in high school?" and "What a better place the world would be if we were in charge!") and you get the picture. It is amazing to me that this stuff still has an audience.
Book Description
Collected here in one volume are fifteen cutting-edge essays by leading academics which together clarify and defend the claim that freedom from poverty is a human right with corresponding binding obligations on the more affluent to practice effective poverty avoidance. The nature of human rights and their corresponding duties is examined, as is the theoretical standing of the social, economic and cultural rights. The authors largely agree in concluding that there is a human right to be free from poverty and that this right is massively violated by the present world economy which creates huge unfair imbalances in income and wealth among and within countries. This searing indictment of the status quo is all the more powerful as the authors endorsing it exemplify diverse philosophical methods and moral traditions and also highlight different aspects of poverty and global institutional arrangements. This volume will be of great interest and value to academics working in the fields of philosophy, political science and international relations, as well as to undergraduate and graduate students in these disciplines. It will also be a crucial aid and challenge to practitioners in international governmental organizations (such as the UN and its agencies) and NGOs who think of their work in human-rights terms. Indeed, in view of the magnitude of the human rights deficit at issue, any moral citizen has reason to engage with the arguments of this book. And the book makes this possible for most in that, throughout, even the most complex aspects of rights theory is discussed in clear, direct language, making the text accessible to specialists and lay readers alike
Average customer rating:
- This book goes against the writing of founding fathers
- History Lessons
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Who Speaks for America?: Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy
Eric Alterman
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
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God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
ASIN: 0801435749 |
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Americans are often assailed for their lack of knowledge concerning foreign affairs. Collective current-events acumen seems confined to the U.S. unless an incident is covered live by CNN and involves high-tech gadgetry and explosions. Eric Alterman, a columnist for The Nation and a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute, admits a national detachment, but blames the process and culture behind the making of foreign policy, not the American people, for creating this climate of skepticism and ignorance.
"The public's values," writes Alterman in Who Speaks for America?, "are a good deal closer to the liberal republican values of the country's original founders than are those of the establishment that professes to represent them. The problem is not that the public does not care. Rather, it has no idea how to force the government to respond to its preferences." The preferences Alterman indicates are based on a wide range of public-opinion polls that demonstrate the sharp dichotomy between what citizens consider important and worthwhile and what lawmakers, self-appointed experts, corporate lobbyists, and other elitists comprising the "punditocracy" actually put into practice as foreign policy. For instance, polls reveal that the public attitude toward the United Nations is overwhelmingly favorable; that nearly all forms of covert governmental action conducted abroad are viewed as inexcusable; that there is strong public opposition to the size and scope of U.S. arms sales across the globe; and protecting the environment is given a higher priority than insuring adequate energy supplies. All of these opinions are inconsistent with current American foreign policy, yet voters are unable (or, some would argue, unwilling) to exert any meaningful and sustained influence over the manner in which the government interacts with the world.
According to Alterman, the primary reason for a lack of public access to this process is the attitude historically held by leaders that the public is ill-equipped to make decisions concerning foreign affairs. "How, then," he asks, "can the United States claim to be a functioning democracy when one of the most crucial aspects of public policy allows for almost no democratic participation?" The short answer is that it can't, so Alterman offers an "immodest proposal" for overhauling the current system--though immodest is putting it lightly. He should be credited for highlighting a significant problem in this informed and important book, but it must be noted that his solutions are so sweeping, and the implications so vast, that actually activating them would require restructuring the electoral process and creating new institutions from the ground up--a radical idea with a familiar ring. --Shawn Carkonen
Book Description
A book in current affairs by a columnist for The Nation whose first book sold some 30,000 copies. The new book continues the work the author began in Sound and Fury: The Washington Punditocracy and the Collapse of American Politics (Harper-Collins, 1992). Alterman says that elites dominate U.S. foreign policy at every turn, and that the gap between the views of the public and those of the policy-making elites has increased to the extent that the United States has become an empire.Journalist and historian Eric Alterman argues that the vast majority of Americans have virtually no voice in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. With policymakers answerable only to a small coterie of self-appointed experts, corporate lobbyists, self-interested parties, and the elite media, the U.S. foreign policy operates not as the instrument of a democracy, but of a "pseudo-democracy": a political system with the trappings of democratic checks and balances but with little of their content. This failure of American democracy is all the more troubling, Alterman charges, now that the Cold War is over and the era of global capital has replaced it. Americans' stake in so-called foreign policy issues from trade to global warming is greater than ever. Yet the current system serves to mute their voices and ignore their concerns.
Experts have long insisted that the public is too ignorant to contribute to the creation of successful foreign policy. But over the course of two hundred years, as Alterman makes clear, the American people have shown an impressive consistency in their ideals and values. The problem for any elite, the author explains, is that Americans often define their interests quite differently than those who would speak in their name. The American public's values are, ironically, much closer to the "liberal republican" philosophy of our founders than to those of our most powerful elites. Alterman concludes with a series of challenging proposals for reforms designed to create a truly democratic U.S. foreign policy.
Customer Reviews:
This book goes against the writing of founding fathers.......2003-10-08
Our founding fathers had the good sense to create the United States as a represenative republic instead of a democracy.
The mess with true democracy and the recall mess in California show why the founding fathers were on the money with the idea of a represenative republic instead of giving the masses immediate control through the chaotic process of a true democracy.
This book as with all Eric Alterman books, his Altercation on msnbc.com, and his column in "the Nation" are designed to show us that the country should be to the left so that it goes along with Eric Alterman's ideals.
The purpose of this book and other Alterman books is to say since the government won't do things my way, I'll create a book based on questionable documentation to show why I'm right.
I don't fault Eric Alterman for his leftist and radical beliefs which are to the left of most liberals, democrats, and even Bill and Hillary Clinton.
What I don't like is when Eric Alterman tells the rest of us why were wrong when we don't agree with his leftist, liberal, and radical beliefs.
History Lessons.......2001-02-04
As a non-US citizen, this eye-opening book is a challenge. Intricate, with massive information and intense analysis, the book is a must to understand how US foreign policy evolved and revolved around similar interventionist attitudes. History tells, according to Alterman, how it can repeat itself with the help of US officials. Rewritten history as in the Orwellian 1984 is the means by which the most antidemocratic facets of US state policies are set into place. I learned about this book in a C-Span 2 panel and Alterman's words did not disappointed me a bit.
Book Description
Public deliberation is essential to democracy, but the public can be fooled as well as enlightened. In three case studies of media coverage in the 1990s, Benjamin Page explores the role of the press in structuring political discussion.
Page shows how the New York Times presented a restricted set of opinions on whether to go to war with Iraq, shutting out discussion of compromises favored by many Americans. He then examines the media's negative reaction to the Bush administration's claim that riots in Los Angeles were caused by welfare programs. Finally, he shows how talk shows overcame the elite media's indifference to widespread concern about Zoe Baird's hiring of illegal aliens. Page's provocative conclusion identifies the conditions under which media outlets become political actors and actively shape and limit the ideas and information available to the public.
Arguing persuasively that a diversity of viewpoints is essential to true public deliberation, this book will interest students of American politics, communications, and media studies.
Customer Reviews:
Mass Media vs. Ordinary Citizens?.......2000-05-23
Page dissertates that public deliberation is highly mediated, a process through which most citizens formulate their political ideas and information. Thus, professional communicators dictate, in a sense, the ideas and information which they want ordinary citizens to believe as their own. Page also shows that this process will continue, unless a public issue arises that affects the mass of ordinary citizens so personally, that direct democracy overrides represented officials and media elite.
Case 3, Zoe Baird, Nannies, and Talk Radio, somewhat discounts Page's dissertation that most citizens formulate their ideas and information from professional communicators. Case #3 is a classic example of direct democracy and success for the ordinary citizen. Masses of American citizens voiced their disapproval to public representatives. The response was so overwhelming that public representatives felt obligated to request that Baird not be appointed.
This issue affected the 'ordinary citizen' in such a negative personal way that outrage resulted in Hometown, USA, and 'trickled' up to those elected leaders of the country. It is possible that the ordinary citizen is so far removed from the lifestyles, values, and conduct of professional communicators, public officials, and media elite that unconscious behavior [as represented by Baird] usually goes unnoticed by the ordinary citizen. It is possible that the 'elite', as represented by public officials and media, are so far removed from the ordinary citizen that they are not actually representing the American people. This is evident in the somewhat passive acceptance of mass media reporting.
Public outrages are rare. It seems to be that the only time there are public outrages is when something occurs that affects the ordinary citizen personally, or that the ordinary citizen can relate to on a personal level. This is evident in the Los Angeles riots, the Zoe Baird case, and, most recently, the Elian Gonzalez issue.
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Anatomy of South Africa: Who Holds the Power
Richard Calland
Manufacturer: Struik
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
South Africa
| Africa
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Southern Africa
| Africa
| History
| Subjects
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Government
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Civics
| Congresses, Senates, & Legislative Bodies
| Constitutions
| Democracy
| Elections
| Federal Government
| Legal System
| Public Affairs & Administration
| Public Policy
| Social Policy
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| United Nations
General
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History & Theory
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Practical Politics
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General
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General
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
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International Institutions
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
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ASIN: 1868729036 |
Product Description
Politics in South Africa is alive and vibrantly so, although the media often fail to reflect this. This book s main aim is to bring that political world to life. It presents a vivid, up-to-date picture of how power works in the new South Africa and who really makes the decisions around here. It is people who make politics, and this is a book about personalities as well as the institutions they belong to. Discussing topics such as the presidency, the cabinet and the directors-general, the opposition parties, the parliamentary committees and the ANC alliance partners, Calland takes the reader along the corridors of power, mixing vivid anecdote with solid research. The result is an accessible yet authoritative account of who runs South Africa, and how, today. The title is borrowed from Anthony Sampson's seminal work about who ran Britain, Anatomy of Britain, which was first published in the early 1960s. Like Sampson before him, Richard Calland has a fly-on-the-wall, insider's approach to the people who control the power that affects us all.
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Andrew Jackson: The Man Who Preserved Union And Democracy
Clifford Smyth
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
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Presidents & Heads of State
| Leaders & Notable People
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
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Jackson, Andrew
| ( J )
| People, A-Z
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1432571532 |
Books:
- Pontius Pilate: A Novel
- Radical Forgiveness, Making Room for the Miracle, 2nd Edition
- Richard Nixon and the Quest for a New Majority
- RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
- Road to the Code: A Phonological Awareness Program for Young Children
- Rpg IV by Example
- Serenity - The Future is Worth Fighting For (Pocket Star Books Media Tie-In)
- Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson
- Shrub : The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush
- Simple Genius
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