I'm wondering if anyone has read this book. It looks interesting and I've left a couple descriptions below of the book. Mr. Phillips was a Republican until just recently registering as an independent. As noted below he worked in the Nixon Administration. He recently did an interview with Rolling Stone (yeah I know...) which I read while spending time in one of my most popular hang outs of late, a doctors office waiting room. Anyway, one thing that stuck me reading the interview (aside from the fact that he brought up Burke's Peerage and how the Bushies love the fact that they have royal ancestery...which you may remember Kent bringing up here several times) was that this guy could have wrote the blueprint for the Dean Campaign.
He does seem to stand by the idea that for the Democrats to win back the White House they need to get the people energized with anger...I don't really like the politics of anger but it seems to be the dominant theme today. This is supposedly part of the Republican dominance we've witnessed pretty much going back to Nixon. They have more than the Democrats harnessed the anger of the American public and created the sort of divide and conquer environment in which we live. Rush and O'Reilly types dominate the airwaves preaching a doctrine of liberal decay and moral indecency that falls in line with the message of faux "Family Values" that the Republicans have hung their hat on for years. It is this "values" issue they use to anger and separate us and it will be on parade yet again in the coming election. It is supposedly why Democrats are weak in the South and Midwest...it is a hoax and a sham that gets fulltime exposure on the airwaves 24/7 and 365. The thing is though that they have had years to beat the drum and get people to buy into this message. The idea I think that Phillips and Dean share is that the Democrats need to fight back using the same strategy...in this case get the largest group in the country (poor to middle class folks) angry enough at the wealthy power elite to, in Dean's words, "take America back"...a simple theme really and one that's hung around for quite a while I'm sure you'll note. Any way I thought the book and the idea would make for some good discussion.
Book info below: _
_____________________________________
______________________________________
There are many Bush-bashing books out there, but this one is quite different. Ivins, Franken, and Conason, among others, have focused primarily on the current president's administration. This book, written by a former Republican strategist, is more wide ranging, more scholarly, and in many ways, more disturbing. Focusing on the last four generations of Bush men, Phillips brings the reader into the secretive upper echelon of the American power establishment, where connections are made in Ivy League clubs, and he shows how members of that old-boy network become the policymakers of the country. In the case of the Bushes, this resulted not only in money and power but also in links to the CIA, the energy industry, and the military-industrial complex--links that have shaped this country's national and foreign policy for decades. Phillips explains the Bushes' relationship with Enron and the House of Saud in eyebrow-raising detail and adds confirming information about troubling claims, including the notion that the Reagan-Bush ticket arranged that American captives would not be released from Iran until Reagan took office. One of Phillips' main points is the juxtaposition between the Bush family ascent and European aristocracies, but this discussion almost seems intrusive. Unfortunately, Phillips' source notes were not appended in the galley; it will be interesting to peruse them in the finished book, which will generate much debate in the coming months. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
