Customer Reviews

The Enduring Revolution: How the Contract with America Continues to Shape the Nation

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a somewhat turgid but solid piece of reportage on how the Contract of America came about, its brief career on the national stage, and then how its goals seeped into the platforms of both parties.

I seriously doubt that Bill Clinton wanted to pass things like welfare reform, before the Contract With America started gathering momentum. Thanks to Clinton's astounding political skill and his lack of principles, he was able to outmaneuver the flat-footed GOP, pass much of their platform with him taking the credit, and easily win re-election in '96. Gingrich was ousted, Clinton's impeachment scattered the chesspieces, and that seemed to be the end of it. But a scant eight years later, John Kerry and the other Dems were forced to pay lip service to the goals of the CWA, in order to stay competitive.

Author Major Garrett avoids most polemics, instead concentrating on the political wrangling that went into reconfiguring the Republican Party post-Reagan, and the crafting of the CWA. One rather funny scene has a key backer being called to his office door late at night, still in pajamas, to sign off on a compromise draft.

Again, the thorough reconstruction of the events of this time are the book's real value, and as such it can be read with profit by Americans of all political persuasions.

Major Garrett's book has brought the Republican Revolution back into the light it so richly deserves. His coverage of the pre and and post-Reagan Movement reads more like a spy novel, with twists and turns and personality clashes, than a book of politics. This is the book to buy if you want to know why you have more money in your paycheck, the best military in the world, and ethical leadership.

Major Garrett's book is a fascinating and detailed recollection of a history only 10 years old. There was a lot in this book, including some amazing memos at the end that were circulated in 1993 and 1994 between the key players.

This book made me think about how prior to the Contract we never heard the left talk about tax cuts. Once an election was won by running on tax cuts, the left has adopted tax cuts as a campaign issue, though they are always much smaller than the cuts the GOP proposes.

Had the 1994 election not happened, the United States would probably have become the property of the Chinese Communists who funded the Clinton campaigns (my opinion, not that of the author). The GOP stopped the Impeached President Clinton from doing away with national security and intelligence funding and who knows what else. Clinton was more concerned with getting re-elected than standing for the left wing issues he ran on, so he was willing to cave quite often when the GOP was about to deliver the death blow to Clinton.

The Enduring Revolution is not a puff piece promoting the GOP. Garrett is critical of both parties and of some individuals on both sides of the aisle. Give the book a try.

Garret's enduring revolution is a valuable work of political reporting. Far too often today, political scientists fail to provide political knowledge in great depth and detail. Rather, political scientists are usually hopefully trying to replicate the "hard sciences." The consequence is that we are beaten over the head with empirical generalizations, and bereft of any knowledge of any actual instances in which the phenomenon of interest occurred. Garret corrects this trait, in the context of programmatic policymaking. The story he tells us is a coterie of dedicated revolutionaries trying to affect a shift in national policymaking. These individuals, lead by Gingrich, Armey, and Delay, did this with perseverance, dedication, faith, and a small amount of genius. Given the characteristics they displayed, success was still not a foregone conclusion, but rather something that needed to be fought for with every ounce of effort while hoping for some luck. Garret details how the Clinton era provided such luck, and illustrates how unlikely such change will for now, and ever.

The aim of this book is to explain the origins of the Contract with America and its effects on the American political landscape.

It succeeds on the first goal; the book provides the who, what, when, where, how, and why in explaining the origins of the Contract with America. This includes naming people within and outside the GOP, at both the federal and local level. There is also sufficient coverage of how individuals outside of government contributed to different parts of the Contract, such as Ross Perot and various influential members in the media.

The book also provides a detailed account of how the Contract was received by Democrats, the media, and the public in general both before and after the 1994 mid-term elections.

On the other hand, the book does not cover all the effects of the Contract with America. Specifically, the book emphasizes effects at the federal level, which have actually been quite limited: notice the spending growth from 1995 - 2004 in most of the departments and programs that the GOP wanted to cut or eliminate in 1994. Instead, the Contract with America has inspired the biggest changes at the state and local level. I will list and elaborate on these below.

1. The Contract emphasized the importance of a balanced budget. In contrast with the Republican - controlled Congress, numerous state and local legislatures have taken this to heart. After the dot.com bust, tax revenues across the nation dropped. Many state and city legislatures have responded by cutting spending, often in social service programs such as education and health care. Witness the newest trend in the nation's high schools: fees for extracurricular programs. This cost-cutting is new; in previous downturns legislatures often would just go into the red or raise taxes.

2. The Contract with America emphasized low taxes. Since 1994, laws, referendums, and initiatives have passed in various states, counties, and cities that limit the government's ability to raise and collect taxes. But the public's desire for public goods has not subsequently reduced. The result is two unintended consequences.

First are fees. From 1994 to now, American society has witnessed an explosion in the number, frequency and variety of government fees. There are fees on everything: phone bills, airplane tickets, student loan applications, etc... This fee-craze has spilled over into the private sector also: fees on home applications, ATM fees, credit card fees, phone card fees, fees on gift certificates, etc... Basically voters told their governments to keep a lid on taxes AND maintain a balanced budget, but did not keep a lid on their own desires, so governments respond by raising fees.

Second is personal debt. The emphasis on low taxes and a balanced budget has restricted the ability of local governments to provide services such as health care and education, which many people use and desire. Many of these users would not and could not be able to afford these services on their own. The result is that a larger percentage of the US population is in debt in 2004 than in 1994. A large percentage of this debt is due to medical and educational (college) expenses.

3. The Contract with America specifically left out social issues such as abortion, flag-burning, prayer in schools, teaching of evolution, gay marriage, etc... Congressional Republicans as a whole have tended to follow this line, though Democrat opposition has a lot to do with this. But a side-effect of these exclusions is a rise in social conservatism at the state and local level. This is exemplified by the fact that several states have included bans on gay-marriage in their state Constitutions.

4. The Contract with America emphasized deregulation, specifically fewer laws to restrict businesses and individuals. This included environmental, financial, business, and other areas of the law. The immediate result of all this was greater freedom for individuals and organizations to do what they like - make money. The long term results are more disheartening, and I will provide an example. From 1994 - 2004, the world saw an explosion in Internet business, and specifically the use of credit and debit cards to purchase products online.

European legislatures acted in concert with this trend by passing numerous laws to prevent identity theft, credit card theft, etc... Legislatures and governments in America did not follow suite, primarily because of the deregulation emphasis brought about by the Contract with America. The result is that a much higher percentage of Americans have and will be victims of identity theft. American legislatures are now playing catch up in this field; after hundreds of thousands of Americans have been victimized...


These four trends that I have listed are just the tip of the iceberg. The Contract with America and those who were elected on its platform have brought about a lot of changes to this country, both at the national and the local level. Some of these changes were intended, but as I have tried to show, most were unintended and probably unforeseen by both Republicans and Democrats. Because of these important omissions, I dock 2 stars.

Contrary to what some other reviewers have said, this book is not impartial. It is biased conservative, though in a quite subtle manner. Several times in the book, Democrats are referred to as simply liberals, or liberal Democrats. Reading this book, I could distinctly hear traces of Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity speaking through the words.

In all, this book is worth reading, but it omits a lot more than it covers, and for that, its content must be taken with a grain of salt.

When the Republican party initiated the Contract with America, maybe they were talking about a different kind of 'contract' ?