Customer Reviews

Independent Nation: How Centrism Can Change American Politics

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John Avlon's book Independent Nation, distinguishes itself from the pack of jeremiads against our polarized political culture via his ability to use small points to prove larger ones. He weaves a rich tapestry from the fabric of American history that allows the reader an insight not only into political giants such as Moynihan and Giuliani's policies, but there persons as well. By including sections about lesser known figures Avlon shows that while we do live in a unique time, this is not the first generation whose politics were personal or polarized.

One of the most fascinating parts of the book is the section on Edward Brooke, who is an often forgotten figure in the struggle for civil rights. How did a black Republican get elected to the US Senate in white Democratic Massachusetts? Avlon argues that by pursuing the "vital center" he was elected first in 1966 and then re-elected in 1972 even as Nixon was losing the state. The arguments he uses to buttress this point are impressive and well-thought out.

Is there a vital center anymore? The fringes of both parties take out their vengeance via the primaries on any person who puts forth what Dick Morris called the "triangulation strategy" and but yet we sometimes let great leaders slip by like Guliani, Moynihan and even Clinton.

I once read that we get the politics we deserve rather than those that we desire. Avlon illustrates this with countless examples of people who were excoriated by their own parties and often only appreciated in historical retrospect. Where have you gone Daniel Moynihan....

John Avlon's Independent Nation is a cogent and nuanced history of the profoundly independent character of American political life. As a historical education in the lives of leaders who defied the conventional political wisdom of their times by steering an independent path we see icons from Teddy Roosevelt to Rudy Giuliani. They sometimes left their base voters puzzled but won accolades from the vast center. In these character and leadership profiles, Independent Nation shines.

Both parties continue to wage primary battles that mandate we follow Nixon's dicta: run for your base in the primary, run in the center for the general. As the fractures on the far left and far right combine with increasing vocal constituency groups at either end of the spectrum, getting back to the center in either campaigns or governance becomes more challenging, though as Avlon's work demonstrates, more vital than ever.

Independent Nation serves as a smart roadmap for campaigners, historians and those interested in the tidal flow of ideological life in America. It is a picture not only of what effective leadership from the center of our nation has been, but is becoming.

Avlon makes some good points, and his book is worth reading, particularly for its insights on what went wrong in the Carter administration.

On the other hand, Avlon sometimes stretches the evidence to make a point, so that he even winds up contradicting himself.

Writing about Nixon as a typical moderate, Avlon says that Nixon rejected the Republican appeal to racist southern votes, and that Nixon strove to reassure voters he "was no Wallace." Nixon was "ultimately successful" in desegregating southern schools, and is finally quoted as writing that "Republicans must not go prospecting for the fool's gold of racist votes."

But when later writing about African-American Senator Edward Brooke's role as a moderate, Avlon claims that Brooke was constantly fighting the Nixon administration's "southern strategy," now claiming that Nixon himself was appropriating "George Wallace's blue-collar southern segregationist support." To signal his support of the South, Nixon here is said to have nominated to the Supreme Court Haynsworth, who had questionable commitment to civil rights, and then nominated Carswell, who was "spectacularly unqualified," though Southern, and believed in segregation. The Nixon administration had an "intentionally slow timetable for desegregation." Here, BROOKE, not Nixon, is quoted as calling the search for southern racist votes "fool's gold."

The book is worth reading, but beware the stretched facts.

The binding in the book I bought was cheaply made.

As a young independent voter, I am frequently mocked as too liberal for my Republican friends and as an "apologist for coporate America" by my Democrat friends. This book speaks to me in the assurance that I am not alone. It reads like "Profiles In Courage" for the political arena. Extremists are denounced and not given the chance to color the progressive landscape of the Centrists. The book feels well-paced and should inspire one to action. It personally gave me hope for 2008, when hopefully reasonable voices will be raised again.

I was disappointed with the book. The first part of the book had a description of 'Centrism' that is relatively well-reasoned. The majority of the book has to do with describing individual politicians (or political races) involving Centrists. This is where the book fails. Of the presidents since FDR, the author classifies them all as Centrists, with the exception of LBJ, Ford, and GHW Bush. The real kicker came when he describes GW Bush and his 2000 campaign as centrist, and using "Centrist" as a description for the Reagan Conservative Revolution is more than just a stretch.

I was looking for some glimmer of light for those of us who are dismayed by the strong partisanship in the US today. Instead, the author seems to embrace the partisans (mostly on the right) as centrists, while he ignores real centrists such as John McCain or Christine Todd Whitman.

Finds too much fault with the left but does little to criticize the rightwing fascists. To Avalon, himself a worker under Rudy Guliani who goes fundraising all the time for his Repug cronies even in South Dakota and Mississippi, being a moderate means giving in to the rightwing fascists as much as possible without looking as rightwing-ish. In other words, just be rightwing-light and you'll automatically be billed a moderate. Worthless book.