Customer Reviews

The ACCIDENTAL ACTIVIST: A Personal and Political Memoir

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This personal and political memoir clearly depicts the struggles and warmth of her experience. The determination to explain what it is like to live as a homosexual in America has been successful. One of the most heroic works I have read.

Candace Gingrich has in her own way scared me into becoming more of an activist than I would ever have considered myself being. Living my everyday life believing that I knew what was going on in Washington has all changed thanks to the Accidental Activist. Candace goes out of her way to give "Brother Newt" every oppurtunity available to counter her words, but is always snubbed instead. Critics blasting her for using Newt's "fame" as a way to boost her own popularity obviously haven't read the book! Candace proves that she's a leader in her own right, and obviously, this Gingrich knows the true meaning of words such as "power" and "family values". A MUST READ for ANY and ALL people interested in what's going on in government and human rights today!

With states amending their constitutions to ban gay marriage, the media's fixation on "family values" and the Red state vs. Blue state dichotomy, it is welcome feeling to know that these issues did not spring today or ten years ago when Candace Gingrich wrote her personal and political memoir.
The Accidental Activist by Gingrich (Yes, she is related to the former Speaker of the House of Representatives) is an attempt to describe how she turned to campaigning for GLAAD in opposition to her brother's stand on gay issues.
If only Gingrich had settled on that.
Instead she uses the book as a sounding board to hurl invectives at critics. While she berates the Right for intolerance and hypocrisy, she condones it at her own end. The negative connotations for her opponents are too numerous to mention. Gingrich christens James Dobson's Focus on the Family and Pat Robertson's 700 Club as antigay organizations even though they harp toward abortion. (Not that there is much to like about Robertson).
Indeed just about anyone is termed antigay. Elsewhere she lashes out against "indiscriminate Republican budget slashers"; so much for decency in political discourse.
Other times she is content to leave certain statements that beg for explanation hanging. For example, "A spate of genetic research has shown we are the way we are by nature." What does "the way we are" mean? Or when a fan writes, "My straight daughter was born with rights. My gay daughter has to fight for them." Which rights are being talked about?
The harshest criticism would be on her portrayal of her brother. Lacking nuance, it is a facile attempt to play to his image as the far Right poster boy. She fails to acknowledge that political expediency demands an eschewal of libertarian ideals once in the mainstream. It is not admirable, but elections have never been won by being idealistic.
With Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter coming out as lesbian, the avalanche of events has overtaken this book. If you believe as US News and World Report does in its December 5, 2005 issue that Newt Gingrich is making a comeback, you might want to read the Accidental Activist. If not, there should be tons of good stuff out there, somewhere.

The only people that could agree with this book are far, far left wing. Candence simply rides on her brother's fame and runs roughshoud over him. This is one book that should stay in the closet.