May 1, 2012
The three-term Democratic senator shares his political perspective and primary concerns for the United States. Bradley (The New American Story, 2007, etc.) is worried about the spreading contempt for Congress and the increasing tendency for the concept of public service to be replaced by a sense of entitlement and the self-perpetuation of elites. The author also focuses on the economy, discussing what has gone wrong and offering his own views on possible solutions--not only through public investment in infrastructure, but also through imaginative reforms of the tax code. He takes matters further in a broad-ranging discussion of how recent transformations in domestic and foreign policy have begun to undermine the American way of life based on upward mobility. He is particularly contemptuous of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which "sits at the center of selling America to the highest bidder." However, Bradley is clear that government is not the problem and that there can be no prosperity without government. He affirms the bipartisan political tradition of promotion of the general welfare and highlights what he calls "horse-trading for a noble purpose," which has made possible some of the greatest achievements in American history. The author does not support the automatic recourse to military force to solve international problems, and he believes the challenge from China will depend more on economic competition than military conflict. He does not believe the two parties should have a monopoly on the political process, and he supports increasing openness as in other countries--epitomized in this electoral cycle by the efforts of Americans Elect, a group intent on challenging the country's nominating process. An important contribution to the national discussion with appeal to independents as well as the more traditionally party-minded.
COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
March 1, 2012
Some readers may wonder why a prominent Democrat is publishing a book about how "we can all do better" during a Democratic President's campaign for reelection, especially given the author's message that we must all work together. Former U.S. senator Bradley (managing director, Allen & Co., LLC; The New American Story) presents a cogent and historically grounded book outlining the problems embedded in our current American way of civic engagement and proposing solutions. The prevailing circumstances that he identifies have been noted before--e.g., that we have grown absurdly partisan and cynical and have forgotten what Democracy is supposed to stand for, that the media no longer act responsibly as the Fourth Estate--but he writes crisply and uses historical anecdotes well. He is neither polemical nor argumentative. Still, the question lingers about his timing. "Democracy is not a vicarious experience," Bradley reminds us. He cites President Eisenhower as an enlightened Republican who understood government's role in supporting the individual, and the cooperative work of Martin Luther King Jr. and President Johnson as exemplary of the collaborative work that democracy demands to improve all people's lives. Perhaps of most interest, he promotes a specific alternative to our entrenched two-party system. VERDICT For all popular current events collections of political punditry.--Margaret Heilbrun, Library Journal
Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.