Customer Reviews

The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda

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I was never really interested in politics before I read this book. But I've admired and respected Paul Wellstone for a long time, and after his death I was very interested in what he had done in his political life before I became aware of politics (I didn't start really listening until a couple years ago, just before I grew old enough to vote). This book caught my attention and got me interested in the political world and how the laws that are made in Washington DC affect people like me and those around me here in Minnesota. It really does make me want to be active in supporting change for the better. Paul Wellstone will always be a personal hero of mine.

The other morning on one of the Sunday chat shows, a so-called "objective" political pundit referred to the late Senator as "a far-out liberal" with "extreme ideas." Is this how far we have fallen under Bush II? Is it "far-out" to believe that people are more important than profits? Is it "extreme" to feel that the American government should belong to the American people and not multinational corporations? Is the belief that, to quote populist commentator Jim Hightower, "everybody does better when everybody does better" just a naive, "liberal" pipe dream? Wellstone understood, as perhaps no other U.S. Senator does, that the main reason why the 2000 presidential election was so close was that voters accurately failed to discern much difference between centrist Bush and centrist Gore. Senator Wellstone was different, God bless him. Not only did he actually believe what he said, he acted on those beliefs, opinion polls be damned. The greatest tribute those of us who still believe in a just and fair American can pay to him is not just to read this book--although it's a start. We must now organize and run for office ourselves in order to restore democratic ideals to the Democratic party and to the White House. May this be Paul Wellstone's legacy.

It is nice to know that some decency still exists among all of the greed and power in Washington. Paul Wellstone has made it a priority to fight for those who can't afford to hire a lobbyist. This book demonstrates his uphill fight against the money and the power brokers in DC. Even if you disagree with Wellstone politically, it would be difficult not to welcome his honest and sincere attitude towards the process. This is a must read for any progressive.

I met Paul Wellstone about 4 years ago when he was stumping for Bill Bradley, and he was magnetic. Luckily, this wonderful book he left behind is such an impassioned call to arms that it's more liable to get you active in your community than it is to make you sad that Paul died. I know for me, it has already encouraged me to start attending "meet-ups" for the 2004 presidential race. (Speaking of which, Wellstone drops a few hints in this book that he wanted to make the run himself, which DOES make it sad that he never got the chance.)

This book is not perfect. Wellstone uses WAY too many exclamation points, and his writing style doesn't exactly sing. Also, as in far too many other political books, there are too many statistics and figures and a little too much inside baseball.

Yet I found something bracing -- something that made me literally stop and think -- in nearly every chapter, sometimes even every couple of pages. And the personal parts of the book (when Wellstone does something almost no politician EVER does, and writes about true and very real personal difficulties in his life) are downright searing. I've repeatedly read the portion about Wellstone's father's slow death and I cry every time. I found so much to unexpectedly relate to in this book; it was a revelation.

As a longtime Wellstone supporter, I was truly devastated at his passing this last fall. I had purchased this book quite a bit earlier, and, regrettably, never pulled it off the shelf to read until after the Senator's death. "The Conscience of a Liberal" provides a detailed description of the author's life and how his political ideals were shaped by his own personal history. It is rare in American politics today to find a politician who actually believes what he says; and rarer still to find one who backs up his words with action. Paul Wellstone did both, and we will forever miss him. Reading this book will give you a short glimpse into the heart and mind of a genuine "Mr. Smith."

Great book that begins where he was in college and how he and his wife met and how they became the activists they were and what a real progressive is or at least should be. And that being a liberal is nothing to be ashamed of! Sadly the Senator died in 2002 just before he would have been reelected to the Senate. Some of us still believe it wasn't the innocent accident some say that killed him when the plane he was on went down.

Having said that let me rave about this book. I go to Chapter 9 titled A Winning Progressive Politics, where the author notes 'A progressive politics is a winning politics, as long as it is not organized in a way that is top-down and elitist. It must respect the capacity of ordinary citizens and focus on workaday majority issues. I have never understood arguments for the need for politicians to 'move to the center' to get elected. What is the operational definition of 'the center'? If what is meant is that you need to have more votes than your opponent, then I am all for being in the center. But this is too obvious. If what is meant by the center is the dominant mood of the populace -- the issues that are important issues to Americans and what they hope for--then I would again argue for the need to occupy the center. A politics that is not sensitive to the concerns and circumstance of peoples lives, a politics that does not speak to include people is an intellectually arrogant politics that deserves to fail.'

Page 206 of the same chapter 'Clearly, there is a forgotten American majority. It is precisely this America that our politics today fails to serve fully and fairly. This America faces major challenges: low wages, insufficient health care, nonexistent pension coverage (the majority if private sector workers have no pension coverage), daunting child care expenses, rising college expenses, and exorbitant housing costs. These Americans can't hire lobbyists. They can't fly senators and congressmen to resorts. They don't fill the campaign coffers of political candidates. Only when these Americans are given proportional voice in politics can we claim to live in a truly representative democracy.'

Page 208 'Not only do Democrats have too timid and downsized an agenda, we also have failed to confront conservatives on core value questions. I call the Republicans' philosophy the 'New Isolationism.' Not as in foreign affairs, but in human affairs. It is a 'Buddy, your're on your own' philosophy. If you are losing your family farm, if you can't afford prescription drugs, if you have no health insurance, if you are working forty hours a week but are still poor and unable to support your children, if you are a homeless Vietnam veteran struggling with mental problems, you're on your own. Whatever happened to 'There but for the grace if God go I'? Or 'Love they neighbor as thyself'? We need to replace isolationism with fellowship. We need to talk about community, about justice, about the goodness of America. People are ready for a politics that inspires them to be their best'.

Thus this book is rich with common sense honesty that I want more Democrats to read and follow, rather than the disoriented, weak kneed, stand for NOTHING nonsense the Democrats are giving us now. This book should be a must read for anyone who dislikes with a passion the special interest, elitist administration, congress and senate we now have.

The late Paul Wellstone puts together a great story of how he became who he is...a liberal and proud of it. So often these days, we hear the word liberal used in the pejorative sense. That doesn't have to be. I prefer to think of liberals as "free thinkers," who don't happen to march in line like Limbaugh and Hannity...and don't forget Jessie Helms.

Wellstone was a great and HONEST politician. This world of Bill Clintons and Jack Ryans needs more honest politicians with the enthusiastic spirit of Wellstone!

TWO THUMBS UP!!

Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"

Impressive work by Senator Paul Wellstone, who would have been my presidential preference in the 2000 Democratic Primary had he chosen to run. Senator Wellstone is the last of the Breed in the United States Senate who genuinely believes the nation can change. The Conscience of a Liberal shows the passion of the Senator and recognizes there is unfinished business at the center of our nations history that this generation of Americans has a responsibility to change. Sen. Wellstone has the courage to do something about it. Both sides in Washington are fighting for Bi-partisanship. Given the history of bi-partisan compromises like those of 1820-1850's, we need more than bi-partisanship to reclaim this Democracy, we need the Conscience of a True Liberal. Well done.

This book chronicles the political life of Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota), a progressive liberal, New Deal-type senator that is a rare breed in today's "New Democrat" politics. It started with how he got started his political career as a grassroot organizer in a rural Minnesota county, his first Senate election in 1990, which he won despite the fact that he raised very little money and was labeled a lost cause by the Democratic party establishment, and then went on to describe his senate career, which he described as more "playing defense to the Republican attacks" than playing offense and pushing for new progressive initiatives (such as a national health insurance program), because such programs are not going to be supported even within today's Democratic party. He then proposed that to create a new progressive majority and to enact progressive policies, we have to elect new progressive politicians, which have to be backed up by grassroots organizing directed toward the democrats constituencies, both old (labor unions) and new (recent immigrants). It is sad that Wellstone would never see the reemergence of the Progressives, because of his untimely dead last month. It is the job of us as Progressive Democrats to make his dreams come true and to build a new America based on Progressive policies.

I was a great admirer of Paul Wellstone ever since the fall of 1990. Although I have lived in Minnesota since 2001, in 1990 I was a college sophomore in another state who was writing a paper studying the 1990 elections. I follwed the 1990 Minnesota Senate race, and was pleasantly surprised when he went against the predominate "conventional wisdom" and scored an upset victory (he was the ONLY Democrat to defeat an incumbent that year).
For someone like me, who has been quite frankly sick and tired of the right-ward drift of the Democratic Party and the "play it safe" convetnional wisdom, Paul Wellstone was the antidote.
I enjoyed the autobiographical narrative of this book, it brought back a lot of memories. I enjoyed his frank discussion of the inner working of the US Senate, and I especially enjoyed the later chapters where he offered hope for a people-centered, progressive politics.