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The Perot Legacy: A New Political Path

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In the 1990s, the American political system was shaken by a grass roots political movement headed by Ross Perot. While the focus of most comments about the politics of that era are about Perot, the movement itself was largely about the self-initiated actions of millions of American voters who were dissatisfied with the way their public affairs were being managed and the politics surrounding them.

In 1992, Perot running as an independent candidate got almost 20 percent of the popular vote. His success was due in large part to the grass roots activism he stimulated. In 1996, Perot received almost 9 percent of the popular vote though rivals Bill Clinton and Robert Dole excluded him from the Presidential debates. The vote he received, however, qualified the Reform Party as a national political party eligible for public funding in the 2000 election. This was a historic first.

Pat Benjamin tells the story of that reform movement very well. And well she could, because she was intimately involved throughout. It is a story with highs and lows, personal conflicts, triumphs and defeats. Most important, she provides an instructive lesson in real politics involving real people that should be useful for when the next "third-party" movement arises, as it surely will.

And while I was deeply involved, including running as the VP candidate in 1996, I learned much from this book that I did not know.

Ultimately, The Perot Legacy is a tribute to the independent voters in this nation, which now constitute a political majority. As this book makes clear, when they are sufficiently dissatisfied with the "unrepresentative democracy" that now exists, they are fully capable of taking control of the U.S. government. It is a hopeful thought.

I highly recommend this book.

Benjamin's book shows the power apathetic Americans can have once they have been given a voice. Ross Perot, who quietly has become perhaps our nation's greatest philanthropist, offered us that voice in 1992 and millions came. To quote her book :
"They were everyone and anyone who could be imagined. Small business men and women actually closed down their businesses to come and volunteer. They were white, brown, yellow, rich, and poor. There was a guy in his fifties, with tattoos running up both arms. He was sitting near a wealthy woman who had just stepped off the society pages of the Dallas Morning News. There were people who had never voted and those who voted every time the polls opened. Boy and girls in their teens sat next to men and women and their grandparents. There were liberals and conservatives and a lot of middle-of -the roadies. None of that mattered; they were all Americans who had come to take their country back."
For decades we have been sold on the ideology of right and left when, really most of us are right in the middle. It's that quiet sleeping middle that feels they have no voice. We don't vote for someone, but rather against someone and all the while knowing that both the Republicans and Democrats have together become beholden to the special interests. The Perot Legacy tells the history of the Perot campaigns, United We Stand America--the movement that made NAFTA a household name--and the incredible rise and fall of the Reform Party from the inside perspective. During the 1990's, Americans almost took their country back from the two parties, and this book captures within it's pages more than just a rehashed history of our political past. It's a lesson in human nature and of what not to do, the story of a movement that almost made it, but eventually succumbed to the same pitfalls they had organized against. From innocence to warring factions, Pat Benjamin chronicles the Perot movement that changed America forever, told by the people who were there themselves. The Perot Legacy shows us that we can find such success again and teaches us that the next time we will be even more ready.
"The question is can we do it? This is America! Of course we can!"--Ross Perot. Go. Read. Vote.

This book was a great bargain. A completely like-new copy at a discount price, delivered quickly. You can't beat that!

Pat Benjamin has written an excellent book on a timely topic. I voted this week in the 2008 Presidential election and the primary criteria for my vote was which candidate was the "least bad" - which one would cause the least damage to our country with their old, tired Democratic or Republican policies.
It's time for the U.S. to have a three-party system and Pat Benjamin tell us how to make it happen. That Ross Perot won a significant percentage of the popular vote in two elections despite roadblocks from the two existing parties demonstrates that many Americans feel the same way. It's true that if we had a 3-party system, none of the three might have a majority. But that would force real compromise in Congress instead of the partisan bickering and inaction that we have today.
It's time for a change! But as I've written in my book, Taming the Dragons of Change In Business, we first have to overcome the fixed beliefs and emotional responses (the "dragons") we have about a political system that clearly no longer gets the job done. Thank you, Pat, for showing us how that could be done. Now it's up to us as voters to make it happen.