Review by jkosse -- Boom! A Revolting Situation
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jkosse
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Review by jkosse -- Boom! A Revolting Situation
[Following is a volunteer review of "Boom! A Revolting Situation" by Thomas Richard Harry.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Political studies are essential to the moment, yet they often possess a limited shelf life. Read in hindsight, they can also provide a useful lens through which to view a moment that has long since passed, or to understand the mindset of a citizenry at a certain time in their history. Such is the case in reading Thomas Richard Harry’s BOOM!:A Revolting Situation. Subtitled “The failure of ideological politics, The disappointment of ideological government,” Harry’s 2012 study is broad in scope while considering the state of America’s hyper-politicized landscape on the eve of President Barack Obama’s second term.
The book’s essential message is that political independents, the plurality of voters who actually tend to lean toward democrats or republicans, need to realize the power in their numbers, demand more bipartisanship, and push their representatives in Congress toward better solutions in terms of fair taxes, more public financing of elections, revamping Social Security, and making minimum wage more reflective of the lives of its recipients. Harry sees a broad base of moderate voters who, if they realized their numbers, could foment a revolution that would make government more responsive and less revolting to its citizens.
BOOM! is most effective in its first half when Harry essentially lays out a history of the two political parties from their origins to modern times. In doing so, the author demonstrates how both have become more ideologically divergent, particularly after the Eisenhower decade of the 1950s, while they also fielded candidates for president that were increasingly independent of party platforms and control (beginning with Kennedy). While Harry does not make a large enough point about the Southern shift toward the Republican Party by use of the race-based Southern strategy in Nixon’s 1968 campaign, he is nevertheless thorough in detailing the arc of the parties in demonstrating how the primaries have amplified the ideological bases of each, leaving the independents with few satisfying options. Hence, there is a need for a solid, moderate middle to bridge the gap between the two and accomplish more for the great good.
As noted above, political books tend toward becoming period pieces. Since the book’s 2012 publication, Obama served a second term that was essentially gridlock, and then Donald Trump was elected. One can presume that Harry’s pluralistic independents have greatly diminished, and America is now divided into two political camps with little room for compromise. It seems, in fact, that each side is interested in victory, not the bargain-making approaches of different era’s politics. While BOOM! provides some solid history, the central call for revolution has, well, gone boom. Like so much in America over the last two years, ways of thinking about the nation, its citizenry, and its place in the world has been unmistakably altered. Calling for common ground and solutions led by less ideological citizens seems like a quaint notion today, out of step with necessary solutions to internal threats against fundamental American institutions.
So what are we to make of BOOM!? Thomas Richard Harry’s aw-shucks prose is fused with solid research, an expansive scope, and a call for shifts toward a more workable politics. This is a laudable message from a time when the nation was in a much different place. As a way to understand citizens’ increasing disdain for politics and the major parties, the book is quite useful. And for students of history it is a insightful window into the hope for a better politics during the era of Obama. I give the book 3 out of 4 stars, because it functions well as a period work; however, readers seeking solutions for today will need to read something post-2016, for the nation’s socio-political shifts have been too seismic and too unimaginable to be effectively addressed in a work like this one.
******
Boom! A Revolting Situation
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3 out of 4 stars
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Political studies are essential to the moment, yet they often possess a limited shelf life. Read in hindsight, they can also provide a useful lens through which to view a moment that has long since passed, or to understand the mindset of a citizenry at a certain time in their history. Such is the case in reading Thomas Richard Harry’s BOOM!:A Revolting Situation. Subtitled “The failure of ideological politics, The disappointment of ideological government,” Harry’s 2012 study is broad in scope while considering the state of America’s hyper-politicized landscape on the eve of President Barack Obama’s second term.
The book’s essential message is that political independents, the plurality of voters who actually tend to lean toward democrats or republicans, need to realize the power in their numbers, demand more bipartisanship, and push their representatives in Congress toward better solutions in terms of fair taxes, more public financing of elections, revamping Social Security, and making minimum wage more reflective of the lives of its recipients. Harry sees a broad base of moderate voters who, if they realized their numbers, could foment a revolution that would make government more responsive and less revolting to its citizens.
BOOM! is most effective in its first half when Harry essentially lays out a history of the two political parties from their origins to modern times. In doing so, the author demonstrates how both have become more ideologically divergent, particularly after the Eisenhower decade of the 1950s, while they also fielded candidates for president that were increasingly independent of party platforms and control (beginning with Kennedy). While Harry does not make a large enough point about the Southern shift toward the Republican Party by use of the race-based Southern strategy in Nixon’s 1968 campaign, he is nevertheless thorough in detailing the arc of the parties in demonstrating how the primaries have amplified the ideological bases of each, leaving the independents with few satisfying options. Hence, there is a need for a solid, moderate middle to bridge the gap between the two and accomplish more for the great good.
As noted above, political books tend toward becoming period pieces. Since the book’s 2012 publication, Obama served a second term that was essentially gridlock, and then Donald Trump was elected. One can presume that Harry’s pluralistic independents have greatly diminished, and America is now divided into two political camps with little room for compromise. It seems, in fact, that each side is interested in victory, not the bargain-making approaches of different era’s politics. While BOOM! provides some solid history, the central call for revolution has, well, gone boom. Like so much in America over the last two years, ways of thinking about the nation, its citizenry, and its place in the world has been unmistakably altered. Calling for common ground and solutions led by less ideological citizens seems like a quaint notion today, out of step with necessary solutions to internal threats against fundamental American institutions.
So what are we to make of BOOM!? Thomas Richard Harry’s aw-shucks prose is fused with solid research, an expansive scope, and a call for shifts toward a more workable politics. This is a laudable message from a time when the nation was in a much different place. As a way to understand citizens’ increasing disdain for politics and the major parties, the book is quite useful. And for students of history it is a insightful window into the hope for a better politics during the era of Obama. I give the book 3 out of 4 stars, because it functions well as a period work; however, readers seeking solutions for today will need to read something post-2016, for the nation’s socio-political shifts have been too seismic and too unimaginable to be effectively addressed in a work like this one.
******
Boom! A Revolting Situation
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like jkosse's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: Misreading Judas by Robert Wahler
