Inspiring reading for aspiring politicians or anyone seeking substantive change.
The youngest man to ever occupy a seat in the Connecticut state legislature tells the story of his unlikely run for office and the lessons learned as a freshman senator.
When all his fellow college juniors were thinking about their first jobs or graduate school, Haskell decided to run for the Connecticut General Assembly. Though he didn’t boast “the typical résumé of a candidate for state Senate—no law or business degree, no decades of service on a local board or commission, no spouse and kids to put on a glossy mailer,” he did have an Obama-inspired belief in the power of positive change and a profound distrust of the Trump administration. His underdog status against a far more entrenched political insider fueled his determination to not only win, but also break the Democrat-Republican tie in the state senate and end political gridlock. Coffee-shop conversations with local politicos that felt like “job interviews” led to discussions with other plugged-in political figures, who regarded Haskell with extreme skepticism. Undaunted, he found the beginnings of support in a state representative who began schooling him on major issues affecting Connecticut. A grassroots campaign effort followed along with the eventual support of seasoned political consultants who helped Haskell win over older voters. Seeking to stay “above the fray” and ignore his opponent’s attacks, Haskell won the 2018 state senate race. He then began his yearlong political education in fighting for the policies about which he was passionate, including free college and gun control, while learning from his mistakes (dozing off during a congressional session). Refreshingly candid and optimistic, this account offers much-needed hope to all Americans and especially to the politically underrepresented younger generations seeking change in a world increasingly hostile to their pursuits of health, wealth, and happiness.
Inspiring reading for aspiring politicians or anyone seeking substantive change.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982164-01-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.
Four decades after Watergate shook America, journalist Woodward (The Price of Politics, 2012, etc.) returns to the scandal to profile Alexander Butterfield, the Richard Nixon aide who revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes and effectively toppled the presidency.
Of all the candidates to work in the White House, Butterfield was a bizarre choice. He was an Air Force colonel and wanted to serve in Vietnam. By happenstance, his colleague H.R. Haldeman helped Butterfield land a job in the Nixon administration. For three years, Butterfield worked closely with the president, taking on high-level tasks and even supervising the installation of Nixon’s infamous recording system. The writing here is pure Woodward: a visual, dialogue-heavy, blow-by-blow account of Butterfield’s tenure. The author uses his long interviews with Butterfield to re-create detailed scenes, which reveal the petty power plays of America’s most powerful men. Yet the book is a surprisingly funny read. Butterfield is passive, sensitive, and dutiful, the very opposite of Nixon, who lets loose a constant stream of curses, insults, and nonsensical bluster. Years later, Butterfield seems conflicted about his role in such an eccentric presidency. “I’m not trying to be a Boy Scout and tell you I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Butterfield concedes. It is curious to see Woodward revisit an affair that now feels distantly historical, but the author does his best to make the story feel urgent and suspenseful. When Butterfield admitted to the Senate Select Committee that he knew about the listening devices, he felt its significance. “It seemed to Butterfield there was absolute silence and no one moved,” writes Woodward. “They were still and quiet as if they were witnessing a hinge of history slowly swinging open….It was as if a bare 10,000 volt cable was running through the room, and suddenly everyone touched it at once.”
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1644-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2015
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