Oct 15

Oct 15 2020 Book Club

Andrea Phillips, Vice Chair of the Iowa Democratic Party and founder of the 2020 Book Club -

”Iowa Democrats take their role in vetting the 2020 presidential candidates seriously. I started a book club to read the books of all of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates” Iowa Starting Line

“Phillips told MSNBC she hopes the book club has helped voters know the candidates better. "That's really the point of the whole thing so that people can make a good decision on caucus night," she said.” MSNBC

The first question that Phillips asked everyone to respond to for each of the books written by the 2020 Democratic candidates is “How would you review this book in one sentence?” I post my “one sentence” reviews on Facebook + @bookwormsitw, on Instagram, and also below.

Joe Biden

Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose

A fundamentally very decent and talented public servant, focused intently on the restoration of the middle class, with a sensitivity evidenced by moving recountings of visits to families of slain New York City policemen; immense foreign policy experience; a man in the public eye for over 50 years; deeply impacted by the tragic loss of his wife and young daughter, and the heart wrenching loss of his son Beau; apparently tortured by his inevitable 2016 decision not to run; a warm, loving, devoted father; President Obama’s devoted right hand man; a warm and moving,

emotionally compelling memoir and at the same time excessively self-laudatory and overtly political (an awkward mix); hopefulness displayed by his recitation of The Cure at Troy by Irish poet Seamus Heaney (“History says, Don't hope/ On this side of the grave/ But then, once in a lifetime/ The longed-for tidal wave/ Of justice can rise up/ And hope and history rhyme.”); flawed, as we all are, and a man whose time may have passed (although I will be an enthusiastic supporter if he were to get the nomination). #2020BookClub

Andrew Yang

The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future

Frightening/ dystopian picture painted; the “war on normal people” is the “great displacement”, the elimination of large numbers of jobs, whole job categories (e.g. long distance trucking + the huge numbers of workers in diners, etc. that service the trucking industry) and entire local economies (e.g. Camden, NJ), resulting from AI and other technological advances, also resulting in ”job polarization”, the elimination of middle class jobs most of all; already taking a toll (increased drug overdoses, suicides, unemployment among young men, decreased marriage rates and life expectancy) on large #s displaced by automation in manufacturing and retail industries; Yang’s solution: UBI (Universal Basic Income); eliminate poverty by paying everyone (18-64) $1,000 each month (utopia to address dystopia); also, “we need to break free of the logic of the marketplace” + “human capitalism to reshape the way we measure value and progress”; very thought provoking.

Other Reviews The New York Times | Kirkus | Publishers Weekly | Quillette | Reason

Elizabeth Warren

This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class
Senator Warren focuses both on the need for the fight and the burdens and pressure on an angry middle class; influenced greatly by her mom’s ability with minimum wage job to save and take care of the family after her dad’s heart attack (no money; home on the verge of foreclosure; station wagon repossessed), and also by her family’s stories of the Great Depression (“Economic crises bite hard and the memories don’t fade”); determined advocate for living minimum wage, especially important for Blacks and Latinos - disproportionately impacted by the financial crisis, and for the importance of home ownership; rails against big banks, painting with very broad brush, and against revolving door between government and the banks/ government and major corporates; advocates for an economy that will produce widely available opportunities, a feeling of security for families and a chance for a better future; influenced also by FDR’s attacks against the privileged, and the way he reveled in the hatred towards him; the Senator advocates for the type of regulation that saved the country after the Great Depression (“Markets need a cop on the beat to make sure everyone follows the rules and assures the free market. I am deeply pro market and in favor of competition. I believe in competitive markets but there must be rules.”); decries the lack of a level playing field and the concentration of wealth (quoting Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.” We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both”); sharply critical of tax cuts, trickle down economics and deregulation of Reagan/ Trump/ McConnell/ Ryan (“trickle down is a lie, and a lie that won't die”); of Reagan’s attack on air traffic controllers union and anti-union message to corporate America; of the Republican plan to sink more and more workers (“destroying America’s working class”); and specifically of Trump, “a showman looking for the next big con”; speaks highly of Bernie Sanders, “passionate, smart, totally committed . . . friends for so many years”, and concludes by expressing her “optimism, hope and fierce determination”.

Bernie Sanders

Where We Go from Here: Two Years in the Resistance

Bernie’s book stands out for its unabashed attack on the current occupant of the Oval Office, “an unmitigated disaster, a racist, sexist, bigot, xenophob … a phony, a pathological liar who played on the fears of the American people … a mean spirited, authoritarian billionaire”; and stands out as well for a historical perspective that few of the other candidates have (and which appears to have formed him), with references to FDR (Bernie’s brother Larry knows that their parents would be proud that ”Bernard” is trying to fulfill the vision of FDR) and to Eleanor Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Jesse Jackson and Dr. King (who mobilized people at the grassroots level to effect the required fundamental change), and to Dr. William J. Barber (whose Moral Mondays make him a “modern day” Martin Luther King), and also to the overthrow in 1953 of the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, the overthrow of Chilean president Salvador Allende, U.S. invasions of Grenada and Panama, plus wars in Vietnam and Iraq, most resulting, at least in part, from Congressional abdication of its obligations and deferral to the President, and most resulting in vast unintended consequences; we learn that Bernie’s parents came from Poland unable to speak English and without a nickle in their pockets, that Bernie grew up in Brooklyn (no kidding) and is proud of his Jewish identity; Sanders rails against economic inequality, racial inequality, mass incarceration, and for election reform, including universal voter registration and public funding of elections, and he strongly advocates for the Democratic party to focus on the needs of working families, to be a 50 state party and to not concede anything to the right wing conservatives; he exclaims that real change always begins at the grassroots level and that grassroots in the modern era includes live-streaming (“If you say you want a revolution … the revolution may not be televised, but it may be live streamed”); one of the first moments for him of recognition of the power of corporations and wealthy individuals was when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles when Bernie was a child living minutes from Ebbets Field in Brooklyn (“For the owners of the Brooklyn Dodgers there was something that meant more than community and it was money. It was a lesson I never forgot”); lessons in class struggle abound.

Kamala Harris

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

Reared by a smart, tough, fierce and protective mom from India (breast cancer scientist), who with Kamala’s father from Jamaica (Stanford economics professor), introduced her to the civil rights movement of the 1960s in Berkley and role modeled the importance of education; role modeled as well by a grandma community organizer in India; learned early that service to others gives life meaning; bussed to school and learned from the richness of diversity in the classroom; Howard University and UC Hastings College of Law; chose to be an advocate for crime victims and victims of ”a broken criminal justice system“, and thrived at being “for the people” as SF City Attorney, SF District Attorney, CA Attorney General; elementary school truancy project - jail and fines for parents of chronically absent students (a source of some controversy, then and now); impressed me as a tough and determined prosecutor and public servant, objecting to criminalization of the public health crisis (opioids, marijuana, etc.); railing against mass incarceration for minor offenses; promoting bail reform, sentencing reform, prison reform; advocate for DACA/ Dreamers; support for “Black lives matter” and for implicit bias and procedural justice training for police; also, for Medicare for all, healthcare/insurance/patient advocates; elimination of racial disparities in health care and life expectancy; debt free college; the same sex marriage battle; fight climate change; housing reform advocate; mortgage fraud strike force; rent assistance; child care; rebirth of organized labor; gun safety laws; protect NATO: reinstate the Paris climate accord; referred to Trump administration separation of children as “state sponsored child abuse”; patriotically “fights every day for the ideals of our country”, a fight borne out of optimism; an impassioned prosecutor and public servent; a self described “joyful warrior” in the battle to come.

Kirsten: Gillibrand

Off the Sidelines: Speak Up, Be Fearless, and Change Your World

Memoir by upstate, farm country, New Yorker, role modeled by lawyer/ hunter mom, Albany politico grandma, Rosie the Riveter WWII munitions assembling great grandmother + her predecessor in the U.S. Senate, Hillary Clinton (“decisions are being made every day in Washington, and if you are not part of those decisions, you might not like what they decide, and you’ll have no one to blame but yourself”), and profoundly inspired by her friend and colleague, gun shot survivor Gabby Gifford; Dartmouth, UCLA Law School; a runner, tennis/ squash/ softball player; middle class upbringing and is a working mom (described many of the details of wedding planning, child rearing, bathroom cleaning, etc.); risk taking and, in the very best way, idealist; an ambitious, tenacious, empathetic, self described eager and earnest, and also an optimistic public servant (“when God closes a door, he opens a window”); an unapologetic advocate for paid maternity leave and sick leave, affordable daycare, universal pre-K, mandated equal pay for equal work; open and transparent government, and “the battle she was meant to fight” - gun reform; also battled to repeal don’t ask don’t tell; fought for support for 9/11 first responders, and has been hot on the trail to address sexual assault in the military; not without her complexities/ subtleties (supporter of gun rights + gun reform advocate; a woman of faith and bible study and profanity laced speech; “Al Franken . . . as charming and funny as a senator from Minnesota as he was on Saturday Night Live”.); expressly addressed to a women audience; the ultimate happy warrior, but nonetheless a warrior: “Walking away from the fight is not an option”/ “for a time such as this … we each have a moral responsibility to act”.

Amy Klobuchar

The Senator Next Door: A Memoir from the Heartland

Earnest, focused, successful as a County Attorney, and now a United State Senator in the great populist tradition of her Swiss/ German/ Slovenia immigrant Minnesota roots, a disciple of former Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale and former United State Senator Paul Wellstone, with ”Midwestern humor”, ”Minnesota good sense”, and ”Minnesota nice“ (I’ve read the articles about allegations of ill treatment of her staff, but also note the constant shout outs, recognition and expressions of appreciation for her staff throughout the book), recognition as well, across the aisle, for President George W. Bush’s assistance in the rebuilding of a collapsed bridge in Minnesota, looks for the good in people and looks for the middle ground (“You can disagree without being disagreeable”), embracing the internationalism of the heartland, a granddaughter of a hard working Slovenian immigrant ironworker, daughter of a teacher and a newspaperman (“rough and tumble life”; “a champion of those on the outside”), great appreciation for the opportunity to attend, on financial aid and scholarships, Yale and the University of Chicago Law School, family + public defender/ prosecutor/ victim advocate; work/ life balance philosophy: “I do my best”; Senator Klobuchar scratches the itch that many feel, as I do, to record for posterity the details of life and family, and lots of personal details in this memoir, which, when taken together, paint a picture of the foundation of a person’s life, so I read and listened, searching for clues to an understanding of the author, and clues abound, including from her optimism, reflected in the following from a Slovenia obituary, “May you always remember that obstacles in the path are not obstacles, they are the path”.

Other Reviews Kirkus | The New Republic | Publishers Weekly | University of Minnesota Press

Julian Castro

An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up from My American Dream

Julian Castro attributes his drive, hope, resilience, inspiration and life of public service, which lifted him out of his poverty stricken neighborhood, to the strong encouragement of and the example set by his Mom, a role model (up to a point) who struggled to sustain her family but who created a foundation of support for her sons, who was an outspoken political organizer and “a hell-raising civil rights fighter”, a teacher and a fierce believer in the importance of education, and which resulted in degrees from Stanford and Harvard Law School, a seat in the San Antonio City Council, three electoral victories as a very successful Mayor of San Antonio, Texas and appointment by President Obama as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, truly an American Dream story, and a grandson of a border crossing immigrant’s story as well.

Other Reviews The New York Times | Kirkus | The San Antonio Current

Pete Buttigieg

Shortest Way Home

A moving and hopeful memoir by a future leader of our great country, an extraordinarily well educated, yet humble and practical, son of the Midwest and self described millennial that recounts and reflects his experience as a very successful Mayor of South Bend, and as a Navy Lieutenant in Afghanistan, his experience with foreign affairs as well as urban affairs, experience addressing issues of race, urban housing, gun violence, policing, data driven efficient, analytical, rigorous city management, taking advantage of AI and machine learning along with intuition and judgment, and as a human rights advocate, his personal experience as a member of the LGBTQ community and his relationship with the man who would become his husband, and his experience as a Rhodes scholar student of philosophy, politics and economics who recognizes the Importance of coupling policy with symbolism, being present as the mayor, on behalf of the city, to show empathy, and who believes in “working at the local level as part of building a better nation, tearing down obstacles to a good everyday life in a single community, knowing how the small adds up to the great”, and who is likely to have the opportunity to do so much more, in 2020 or thereafter.

Article https://www.mobilize.us/iowa/event/92997/

Cory Booker

United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good

United States Senator Cory Booker wrote a compelling narrative about his warm upbringing in a New Jersey suburb and academic excellence that led him to Stanford, to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship and then to Yale Law School, about his social consciousness and activism, which led him to live in the inner city, specifically in Newark and in one of the most challenged apartment projects in the city, about his many mentors and his appreciation for the guidance and love shown to him on his journey from Council member, to Mayor and to his current position in the United States Senate.

Other Reviews The New York Times | HuffPost | Library Journal | The Observer