How to Overthrow the Government - Softcover

Huffington, Arianna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060988312 ISBN 13: 9780060988319

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 2001

Synopsis

Powerful and enlightening. How to Overthrow the Government is an impassioned call to arms from one of America's sharpest and most independent commentators. In its pages Huffington breaks away from the party-line platitudes of Republicans and Democrats alike while challenging Amerians to rise up and take back their government. From the power of special interests to the ravages of the war on drugs, Huffington offers radical yet viable strategies for reclaiming our nation from the corporate and political powers that hold it hostage. For, as she argues, if We the People are to preserve and protect our more perfect union, we must stand up and fight for our country -- before it's too late.

About this title

Review:

"Our government is no longer serving us," declares Arianna Huffington in How to Overthrow the Government. "[It] is slow, unfair, corrupt, and peopled by politicians living on graft and sinecure." While the political class gloats about unprecedented prosperity, Americans are more turned off by their rulers than ever before: the public holds deeply cynical views about Washington, voter turnout continues to drop, and "modern campaigns ... are so thoroughly dominated by pollsters and consultants that there's no oxygen left for ideas that might challenge the status quo." Politicians have turned a blind eye to America's real problems. "Glad-handing lobbyists" (there are roughly 38 per member of Congress, says Huffington) and "the seductive allure of incumbency" have made lawmakers resistant to necessary reforms. "It's this vicious cycle that explains why 35 million Americans are living in poverty and more children are homeless than at any time since the Great Depression; why middle-income Americans are saddled with crippling levels of debt; why our children attend drug-ridden schools where they are not safe and cannot learn." Much of this book reads like an extended political column, full of anecdotes and zinging one-liners. Yet there's also more earnestness and less satire on these pages than was glimpsed in Huffington's previous book Greetings from the Lincoln Bedroom. How to Overthrow the Government and its provocative recommendations will appeal mainly to the supporters of America's dissident politicos, such as Sen. John McCain, Ralph Nader, and the Reform Party. --John J. Miller

About the Author:

Arianna Huffington has been named one of Washington's most influential commentators by both Newsweek and People. Her syndicated column appears twice weekly in newspapers around the country, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a frequent guest on television talk shows from Crossfire to Politically Incorrect, and a contributing writer to Talk magazine. The author of seven previous books, she lives in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., with her two daughters.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0060988312
• ISBN 13: 9780060988319
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352