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Take Back Your Government

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As a Heinlein fan, I thought that I had read all his published work, and was saddened to think that there was nothing left. So I was delighted to find this book on Amazon, immediately ordered it, and just finished reading it.

As a book of practical advice, instead of entertainment, it will probably never achieve the popularity of any of his fictional works. However, if you have enjoyed these, not just for their plots and scope, but also for their philosophical and political musings; if you have been inspired by his optimism and his faith in the basic decency of his fellow men; and most of all, if you would like to apply that optimism to the world around you, then this book is by all means for you.

However.

If you can find a copy without Pournelle's introduction and notes, buy that instead. If you must buy this version, try not to let his views get you down. Before reading this book, I had nothing against Jerry Pournelle- in fact, I had read, and quite enjoyed, some of his SF work. So I was very dissappointed to find that here, not only does Pournelle fill his comments with his own political views, something Heinlein is meticulously careful to aviod throughout the book, but he also contradicts the entire message of the book. Heinlein cries "Take Back Your Government!"; Pournelle tells us that this is obsolete, that things have changed, that it's too hard, it's no good to bother. At first I thought that Pournelle was one of the cynics that Heinlein was arguing against. But rereading his comments, I found that I was being too harsh. Pournelle genuinely likes, and supports, what Heinlein said- he just doesn't think that it would work. Not today, at least. Ironically, on pages 175-176, Heinlein describes this attitude, calling it that of the "tired liberal":

"[The tired liberal], like Mrs. Much-Married, has been there so often the thrill is gone. He knows the frailty of human nature -- and that's all he knows. He would like to see you win -- but you won't, you know."

And what does Heinlein advise when confronted with such a character?

"Use the stamp-licking routine on him. After a bit he will go back to his ivory tower and let the grown-ups get on with the work."

Granted, as Pournelle says, the world has changed a lot in the more than 50 years since Heinlein wrote this. His outdated comments on copy machines are only matched by his outdated comments on women. To his credit, these views changed with the years. But neither of them makes the core of this book obsolete.

Certainly, if Heinlein were writing today, he'd have to adapt his methods. But I think that he would have found computers, the internet, copy machines and the like a wonderful boon to his style of campaigning. Yes, there is more money in politics today than ever, even local politics, but that only increases the need for a book like this.

If you are interested in the world around you and want to do more than just complain about the things that are wrong, if you want to see how you can actually make a difference, then read this book.

And then, if you want to settle back in your chair and start complaining again, you can always read Pournelle's comments and agree with his closing, pessimistic remark that "One could only wish that his [Heinlein's] advice had been taken before we lost control of the political process."

Heinlein wrote Take Back Your Government (originally entitled, How to be a Politician) in the months following the end of World War II, at a time when he felt an urgent need to warn the U.S. populace about the arms race. Heinlein himself referred to that time as his `world saving' phase. Given the tenor of Take Back Your Government, Heinlein might have felt concern over the way the Truman administration was handling any number of situations in the wake of the war (this was written as everyone was witnessing radical and sometimes painful postbellum changes: housing shortages, spiraling inflation, epidemic labor strikes, Taft-Hartley, the Marshall Plan and other outlays of foreign aid, the National Security Act, the creation of the United Nations and many other things). And perhaps Heinlein had a little more faith in the wisdom of ordinary citizens acting in their enlightened self interest during this period of gearing down from World War II and ratchetting up to a new Cold War footing. To this end, he penned what amounts to a manual for citizens who wished to get involved in politics at the precinct level.

Although we all know Robert Heinlein best as one of the truly great authors of speculative fiction, it is in the pages of Take Back Your Government that he shares with us his considerable know-how in the field of politics. In the 1930's, before he became a professional writer, Heinlein got thoroughly involved in California politics (as a Democrat!), both turning out copy for Sinclair Lewis' gubernatorial bid and himself running for a seat in the state legislature. Lewis and Heinlein both lost, but in the process, Heinlein learned a lot about the art and science of politics, from building coalitions to canvassing neighborhoods to dispensing patronage to working with machine pols, and he shares it all in this manual. His style is friendly and politically impartial, forsaking his opinions to concentrate ! totally on the civic processes that constitute the science of politics, and on the human niceties which constitute the art.

One might wonder why a book written in 1946 about a style of politics that mass media and PACs have largely killed should be trotted out for publication in 1992. What possible relevance could it have in 1990s America, where money and Madison Avenue put officials in office and a vast portion of the electorate is effectively disenfranchised? In the election year of 1992, a lot of people felt a need to enfranchise themselves again and manifested their will by giving Ross Perot the largest percentage of the popular vote of any third-party presidential candidate since Teddy Roosevelt ran as a Bull Moose in 1912. Though Take Back Your Government hardly advocates the top-down approach that the Perotistas took, it does assure the ordinary citizen that he can, with a bit of dedication, make his will be felt.

Fellow SF author Jerry Pournelle wrote the introduction, as well as a number of footnotes to the text. I feel that his hastily written material is more knuckleheaded than helpful, but I agree with him on one major point about Take Back Your Government, and that is that its chief value is its obsolescence. How starkly it contrasts the long-gone days of precinct politics with the system that only pretends to serve the ordinary citizen today. Unlike the Perotistas, Heinlein is not screaming `Throw the bums out!' but rather, `Get out your vote!' and the professional politician of Heinlein's manual is not a "rascal," a corrupt puppet of big business, but rather an honorable, self-sacrificing citizen doing his best to get out his own vote--in the finest American tradition. Wouldn't it be nice to have that sort of politician back in the majority? Possibly in that same period (though the date of writing is not known), Heinlein wrote a fascinating non-SF story about local campaign! politics entitled, "A Bathroom of her Own," and it can be found in the anthology Expanded Universe.

Many have noted Heinlein's strong political statements that suffuse many of his books, from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress to Starship Troopers. Few, however, seem to note the knowledge of the political process that he displays in many of these works, or worse, think his portrayal of such processes is incorrect or not founded in reality. Here in this book of practical advice we can see from what point Heinlein got this knowledge, without much in the way of Heinlein's own political philosophy, though with some very strong opinions about various `types' of people who help shape the political process.

Heinlein was, at one point, associated with Sinclair Lewis and his EPIC (End Poverty in California) program, and ran for the California legislature in 1938 on the Democratic (!) ticket. He didn't win, but his experience from that time is the base material from which this book is derived. Written in 1946, just after the close of WWII, this book was part of several items he wrote at that time both as a method for breaking out of the `pulp' markets and because he felt that he could offer advice and warnings to America that were (in his mind) desperately needed. Most of the material from this period did not find a publishing market, and this work wasn't published until 1992, not because they were poorly written, but because there was little interest in such material then.

Heinlein looks at (American) politics from the most basic level, that of the individual voter. Grabbing this voter's attention and vote is the prime focus of this work. Chapters are spent on how to do door-to-door canvassing, setting up local meetings, organizing the associated office work, recruiting workers, funding, and most especially the reasons why you, as an individual, should not only get involved in this process, but what impact a single person can make. Some may object that this model of how to run an election campaign has been outmoded by today's technological communication methods, PACs, and national organizations directing even the smallest local elections, but a close look at the actions Heinlein is advocating will show that almost all of them are still applicable today, or would need only small modification to take advantage of today's technology. Viewed this way, the advice this book offers can be invaluable.

For the reader who has no intention of becoming politically active in the fashion of this book, though, this book still has something that makes it a worthwhile read: Heinlein's comments about various types of people (from senior citizens to the `reform' politician), the value of participation in the process in terms of maintaining a healthy government, the relative merits of different types of governments, `reactionary' groups (such as the American Communist Party), and the role women should play. This last item is definitely colored by the cultural attitude of the time this was written, that women are mainly only good as homemakers (though he does present at least one case of a woman working successfully at a high level in a political campaign).

The forward and various notes to this book by Jerry Pournelle need to taken with a grain of salt, as Jerry was definitely promoting his own agenda with these, but they do provide a more modern perspective from which to view this.

The language of this book is typical Heinlein, somewhat folksy, American colloquial, certainly a long way from all too many other books that deal with this area that have a somewhat strained academic approach and language. Overall, this is an easy read that will probably bring forth a few grins, perhaps a few violent disagreements with some of the expressed opinions, and a greater knowledge of just how the political process works.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Whew! Look what those "Take Back Your Government" books are fetching these days. I should take better care of that paperback I bought for five bucks a decade or so ago.
Heinlein never pulled punches and seemed to have a conservative bent. He did in fact foresee the collapse of Soviet communism years before it happened. He was quite a political activist as a young man and has some interesting anecdotes to tell. What is most memorable about the book, I thought, was his absolutely scorching comments on the American elderly. He called them a pack of greedy, selfish, step-on-their-children's-faces gimme gimme gimme coots, and that's just his warm-up. And this before Social Security had thoroughly infiltrated society as an entitlement!
Blunt stuff from a more honest age. I think some of his advice would still be practicable, too.

This work, far from whatmany of the reviewers have claimed, is far from outdated.

The people (as well as the footnotes by Jerry Pournelle), who insist it isn't applicable in today's political world have overlooked a key point.

This ISN'T a book on how to win a mainstream election as the selected candidate of one of the two major parties. As Heinlein describes "Machines", it is patently obvious to the person who steps back and looks anew, that the mainstream of BOTH major political parties qualify as "machines".

This book describes what would be classified by political operatives as a "grassroots" campaign, even though it tries to distinguish it from what "grassroots" meant in 1946.

The techniques are valid, if in need for technological updates. Yes, internet, cell phones, scanners, word processors, etc -- ALL have affects that were not fully considered in 1946. Consider, however, the simple word processor: Even the cheapest and most basic is capable of replacing two very expensive tools Heinlein feels are critical -- by allowing "Mail merge" to create "personalized" correspondance without requiring a specialized machine that in 1946 wasn't even available in most small towns and allowing one who is not an expert typist to create them. Likewise desktop creation of much of the hand out literature than in 1946 would have been essentially hired out to professionals. Can you get copies of teh voter's rolls, perhaps even who has voted in which primaries, electronically? Run it through a quick sort in any spreadsheet program, and dump the results to a list of teh very people Heinlein advocated concentrating your efforts on. Instead of spending weeks and moths to do so, one amateur could have it done within MINUTES of receiving the data file. The technological advances have made it EASIER to apply these techniques.

But the basic philosophies of integrity (even when you've made a mistake in promising something), determination to adhere to the principles of basic democratic procedures, and most improtantly -- GETTING THE VOTE OUT are just as valid today as ever.

One of his most important points -- personal contact with as many likely voters (i.e., "ringing doorbells") matters. One of the biggest blocks (especially in local elections and primaries) of untapped votes is quite simply people who aren't going to the polls to vote on YOUR issue, but rather are going to vote for another issue or office. If these voters step into the booth still undecided about the race you are interested in, there's a very good chance they'll simply vote for the guy they can put a pleasant face to from personal contact -- even if that face belongs to an 18 year old volunteer doorbell ringer. If you've had your people out there ringing doorbells, while the other guy is relying on flashy signs and email spam, guess who that pleasant face is associated with? That's right. . . YOUR candidate or issue.

As for his observations on females and the political process. Unpalatable as it is, his observations were accurate for the time -- and to a certain extent, remain so today. His observation that women will often vote as their husbands plan to is still somewhat accurate among non-political junkies. And when married women vote differently than their husbands, they tend to vote based on feelings of security (this is what Heinlein means when saying the tend to vote more conservatively -- remember this was in 1946, before Limbaugh, before Mondale, before Reagan, before even Goldwater).

Is this a book on how to run a presidential campaign? Nope -- and it doesn't pretend to be. Can these techniques be used to affect the outcome of a presidential election? YES -- by bringing your influence to bear on the process, by influencing the party of your choice at the regional or state level.

Book Review by C. Douglas Baker

Hardcore Heinlein fans will find Take Back Your Government to be an engaging monologue on democracy and American government. Take Back Your Government, as the title suggests, is a polemic, albeit a light-hearted one, about the importance of participation in a democratic system of government. Heinlein often states that if people do not participate in democracy, then they cannot complain about the corruption and malfeasance of their government. He strongly asserts that people participating in politics does matter. Heinlein's key message is that democracy can only survive if citizens participate and take responsibility for their government. He conveys substantial anecdotal evidence where one ordinary person or groups of people, participating in politics, made a difference. Without citizen participation, government becomes atrophied both morally and effectually.

Although written in 1947 and a bit out-of-date, one of the basic premises of the book, that local government matters and is the place to start if you are interested in politics, still holds true today. The book is filled with Heinlein's witticisms and conjectures about the democratic political process. One can find little fault with the facts and opinions Heinlein expresses vis a vis local politics at mid-century. Those familiar with academic literature on urban machines, the reform movement, and local politics will find Heinlein's analysis both accurate and humorous. The only time I found Heinlein's analysis to be questionable was in his too optimistic outlook for the possibility and efficacy of starting a third political party in the United States. History and precedent suggest that third parties are greatly disadvantaged in the American system of government for reasons too numerous to examine here. Probably the most enjoyable chapter is the second to last entitled "Footnotes on Democracy". Therein, Heinlein maintains that if the United State's did not have any Communists "we would almost be forced to create some". He goes on to aver:

"any social field or group in which Communists make real strides in gaining members or acceptance of their doctrines...is in bad shape from real and not imaginary social ills [and] the rest of us should take emergency, drastic action to investigate and correct the trouble. Unfortunately we are more prone to ignore the sick spot thus disclosed and content ourselves with calling out more cops (pages 223-224)."

Maybe Heinlein is not quite the authoritarian his detractors would have us believe.

Heinlein also has some interesting insights on the role of lawyers in politics that ring true today. Specifically, he notes about the creation of laws: "[lawyers] assert that their special language is necessary, as ordinary speech is not sufficiently exact...[yet] lawyers are forever disputing as to what a law means after they have written it" (page 225). These are just a few examples of Heinlein's clever analysis of American politics.

Take Back Your Government was published, I assume, mainly for fans of Robert A. Heinlein. I doubt non-Heinlein fans would find the book particularly interesting. The book, from an academic standpoint, is pedestrian and dated. Therefore, the audience most likely to enjoy this book are those who have some interest in Heinlein's works.

This is an excellent book. Don't believe the people who say it's outdated.

First, most elections are local. County commissioners, mayors, state legislators, some sheriffs, and many more. The techniques outlined in this book *will* get you elected. If you're running for state-wide or national office, of course, these techniques are less applicable, but Heinlein points this out himself. This book works out-of-the-box, no adaptations required.

Second, the way most political races are funded, campaign consultants have a definite financial interest in funneling their candidate's budget into less productive, scatter-shot techniques, relying heavily on mass media. Heinlein's reliance on person-to-person selling and volunteer work is the antithesis of this approach. So the consultants always recommend the media-heavy approach and Heinlein's techniques are labeled "naive" or outmoded.

Shortly after first reading this book, I decided to follow its instructions about how to get involved. Thing happened pretty much *exactly* as described. Since then, another political professional far more successful than I was told me that he, too, had gotten his start from reading this book.

A few points in the book *are* very dated. For example, his comments on women were probably accurate when he wrote them, but that was when women had tightly restricted roles in our culture. Political clubs and salons no longer exist as they did in his day. Those anachronisms are easy to spot and don't detract from his core message.

I'm a big fan of Jerry Pournelle, but his liner notes subtract value. As other reviews point out, they're rushed, sloppy, and show little appreciation of the craft of politics, despite a PhD in political science. Most of his footnotes promote the Ross Perot candidacy, argue that Heinlein's approach is no longer applicable, and stop midway through the book. A gifted man like Pournelle can only be forgiven for botching this because he got the book reprinted in the first place.

If you're trying to be elected to a local office, even if you could care less about science fiction, this is the book for you.

"Take Back Your Government" is a sound guide of 'How To ..." influence government. If you are fed up and refuse to take any more garbage from any politician or from your government or if you want to run for offrice, this book will help you get started.

The truely odd thing is that I have yet to come across another book on the subject! Amazing! There must be something else out there...

Fair warning: the book is dated. There is no mention of using computers or the internet or any of the many technological possibilities that have been developed over the last fifty years. Still, this is a very good investment for anyone interested in influencing politics.

Unlike most political books, which either place a huge reliance on your knowledge of current events/history, or go into such abstract concepts that leave the reader baffled, or are simply just too wordy, this book is for the layman: consise, easy to read, and rapid fire enough to be engaging. For the average joe who is up in arms over the election of ____ (fill in whichever politician you hate most), it offers an insightful view of what to do next. Too bad the price is so high, I think it should be out there for more people to have ready access to.

I have read much by and about Heinlein and knew that he had been involved in politics. However, before I encountered this book at a used book sale, I didn't know that he also wrote about grass roots politics. As a science fiction writer, Heinlein's works are generally considered on the right side of the political spectrum. Stories such as "Starship Troopers" glorify the military and he clearly advocates restricted government and individual responsibility. The attitude of many can be summed up by the comments of a fellow student when I was in college. When he saw me reading a Heinlein book he said that he did not did like Heinlein because of the "militaristic/fascist" tones.
Those tendencies, to the extent that they exist in other Heinlein writings, are not present in this book. It is as non-ideological a description of how to develop a political organization at the grass roots level that you will find. If a large group of people across the political spectrum were to read it, there is no question that there would be two levels of consensus. The first is that he knows how political organizations work and so it is a blueprint for success. However, the second would be a sense of outrage from many due to the way he portrays women in the body politic. He generally characterizes them as airheads, who vote the way their husbands tell them to.
Setting aside the weaknesses due to attitudes that are best left to history, Heinlein makes some controversial and politically incorrect statements. Sometimes they are clearly right, other times they would be debated. One of the most controversial would have to be the one on page 30, " American church groups as a whole are frequent sources of corruption and confusion in politics." Of equal power to generate controversy is the statement on page 40, "Clergyman, although usually worse than useless, make wonderful altruistic politicians when they happen to possess both love of humanity and hard-headed realism. Too often the ones that are bright aren't good and the ones that are good aren't bright. Catholic priests are usually both and you can work with them to limit the issues in which you both see eye to eye. If you happen to be Catholic yourself the problem is simple. The same can be said of rabbis, to a lesser extent." One can only speculate with a great deal of delight about what he would think about the involvement of evangelical Christians (non-Catholics) in recent presidential elections. (Note: Heinlein states that he was raised Methodist.)
Most of the book is devoted to basic things such as how to conduct yourself when conducting a door-to-door effort. Simple actions such as petting the family dog, being polite, asking to see a picture of the children, asking children their names and where they go to school are all the kind of things that will make someone favorably disposed to you, which by extension means your candidate. How to meet and greet people at the door when holding a meeting, collecting demographic information and techniques to help you "remember" information about an individual or his family. He states that he used to keep a box of note cards indexed by name by the phone so that when someone called him, he could stall for a few seconds while he accessed their card. He could then interject comments into the conversation that would make it appear that he remembered them in great detail.
I really don't know whether Heinlein's principles could win a modern election. So much has changed since 1946, which is the year Heinlein wrote the book. One thing I do know, if he were still around, his approach would grab a lot of press and would be very entertaining to follow.