Customer Reviews

Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Positively American
by Senator Chuck Schumer
(Rodale, New York , 2007, 274pp)

I am surprised to be recommending Senator Chuck Schumer's Positively American and yet it is a very powerful and effective book.

Schumer is a liberal and very positive Democrat but he is also very smart and has some profound insights into contemporary American thinking.

For any Republican who would like to understand what happened in 2006, the Schumer explanation is compelling and sobering. He and Rahm Emmanuel have understood that a hard left Democratic Party will never be a majority. They were prepared to recruit candidates who were electable and to accept that those candidates would infuriate their more liberal wing. They saw a center-left majority as preferable to a happy leftwing minority. It is a formidable warning about how they will run 2008 and beyond.

Furthermore, Schumer has a much better sense for middle class than I would have expected. He is thinking a lot about how to understand the needs and concerns of middle class and how to develop programs which will appeal to the middle class vote.

Schumer's reelection by 71% (a new york record) was not an accident. He has a serious, thorough understanding of how to emphasize issues and achievements which will appeal to moderate voters who would be infuriated by the left wing of the democratic party.

Finally Schumer lists 11 major areas of solutions. Republicans could easily coopt half of those solutions and challenge Senator Schumer to help pass them into law.

This is a smart book by an intelligent, liberal Democrat who is determined to turn his party into a governing majority again. It is worth study by every Republican who would like their party and their center-right philosophy to prevail.

In the interests of full disclosure, I am solidly conservative, I voted for the president in 2004 (too young to vote in 2000), and would vote for him again if there were an election today. So now that all of that is out of the way, you can judge my review on its merits.
I thought the book was extremely well written. I don't know if Mr. Schumer employs a ghost-writer, or writes it himself, but whoever did the writing did a great job, the language was concise and flowing, and the actual text itself was easy to read.
In spite of my disagreements with the Senator, his passion and his beliefs come across strongly during the book, and at the least, conservatives must grant that this man is motivated by a genuine system of beliefs, and is not a finger in the wind politician.
I will not list my disagreements with his policy proposals, this is a book review, not a debate forum, but I had one huge structural beef with the book. There is not a single footnote in the entire book! I understand that many authors, both right and left, don't footnote properly, or at all, and I hate it when it happens. I do not think Mr. Schumer would lie to his readers, but I absolutely think that as a partisan for his party, he may distort statistics, mis-quote opponents, or spin data a certain way (not that this is a negative, I would do the same thing were I in his shoes). I am only saying that if you are going to make declarative statements, provide citation!
I gave this book 3 stars because it was a good read, but it was not the page-turner or rhetorical masterpiece that I would give 4 stars to (I would give 5 stars only to a few select books in the English language). I freely admit that my opinion may be biased by my political disagreements with Senator Schumer, but I must call a spade a spade and say this was a well-written and moving book, with stylistic flaws that made it a little less than it could have been. Worth a read for sure, no matter what your politics are...

Refreshingly honest, this book is a much-needed wake-up call for all Democrats, reminding us all of the needs and interests of the average American family. Written in a straightforward, yet compelling, voice, the book is a surprisingly good read. Kudos to Senator Schumer for his honesty and insight. I highly recommend it!

What a fantastic book! Senator Schumer was the architect of the Democrats victory last fall, and if they listen to his blueprint in Positively American the Dems will take the White House in 2008. Kudos to Senator Schumer for talking about the middle class and how to make government work for the average American. I especially applaud his call on p.118 to have readers contribute their own message for the Democrat party on the website for his book.

A great read. Ultra current but also far-sighted about issues that matter not only for the middle class but for America as a whole. The insights about economic changes and social trends are lofty yet accessible. I am going to recommend it to my Republican friends.

This book is great. It provides a sound and practical overview of the problems that the country faces and good solutions that should be implemented by Congress and the President. Every citizen should read this and encourage their Congressional representatives to support them. Every citizen should read this so that she/he can be informed.
I loved the stories and the fictional Bailey family that grounded each concept.

Though I'm more a conservative, I've been impressed by some of Sen. Schumer's analyses, and was interested in learning more about his insights. He is an interesting read, but three things bother me.
1. The first half of the book is NOT a discussion involving middle class issues or policies--it is an autobiographical de-briefing of his activities and observations: "I'm a numbers person. I read polls; I love analyzing data...I periodically get briefings....these numbers shocked me. For years, I had known...I had no idea..." THIS, from one paragraph on pg 79. Nonetheless, he is interesting, and his writing style is very conversational! [Just wasn't what I pulled the book for].
2. No footnotes, despite constant 'facts': "...two-thirds of the promising, approved cancer research in this country never gets the money needed..." [pg. 201] Continue for another example.
3. For a deep, bright, 'thinker,' he succumbs to wishful thinking unencumbered by reality. Example [pg 129]: he provides [unsupported] facts regarding hourly wage increases for college grads between 1980 and 2003, then concludes from THAT that "despite outsourcing, over the next century Americans who are well educated will have their pick of jobs."...blissfully ignorant of changes in our economy, effects of continued globalization, and an endangered middle class since the 80s/90s, but relying 100% on a comment made by lunch companion Alan Greenspan that "globalization will work for us." Ex.#2: Bear Stearns was outsourcing a software engineer's job to an overseas worker. After lunch with Mr. Greenspan, Sen. Schumer writes about the engineer: "I never met him again, but the odds are very high that he was able to find a job as good as the one he lost."[pg. 130]. I wouldn't have the guts to write that.
With this depth of analysis, it would be hard to take either his facts, conclusions, or proposals seriously. In snippets on the news, I found him curiously interesting, and even sent him an e-mail once on his 'enlightenment.' I now have reason to be disappointed.

Sorry I haven't responded with a review of this product. I ordered it for my husband and I don't remember his comments. But service was good and efficient. Thanks,

Anyone reading anything that Senator Schumer writes and does not know the history of the man might be mislead into believing him to be a thoughtful concerned American. Nothing could be further from the truth. Chuck Schumer is a liar who, if there was any decency in Washington D.C. would have been run out of town on a rail dripping tar and feathers. His bottom line is expand government at the expense of individual liberty. His underlying motives are self-aggrandizement and self promotion. Do not put a dime in this man's pocket or offer him a minute of consideration. He is the political mendacity writ large in a small man.

It's useful that Senator Schumer has developed personas for his couple, Joe and Eileen. It helps in understanding the complexity of people's choices.

Using personas to inform the design of products (web sites, Windows and Mac applications, telephones, hand-held devices, and so on) is a key approach of user interface and interaction designers. Exploring personas is usually a prerequisite to creating early prototypes of a new or revised product.

In the 1950s, in writing about his craft, the industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss described the wants, exigencies, and capabilities of a couple named Joe and Josephine.