The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda - Hardcover

Wellstone, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679462945 ISBN 13: 9780679462941

Publisher: Random House, 2001

Synopsis

“Never separate the lives you live from the words you speak,” Paul Wellstone told his students at Carleton College, where he was professor of political science.

Wellstone has lived up to his words as the most liberal man in the United States Senate, where for the past decade he has been the voice for improved health care, education, reform, and support for children. In this folksy and populist memoir, Wellstone explains why the politics of conviction are essential to democracy.

Through humor and heartfelt stories, Paul Wellstone takes readers on an unforgettable journey (in a school bus, which he used to campaign for door-to-door) from the fields and labor halls of Minnesota to the U.S. Senate, where he is frequently Republican Majority Leader Trent Lott’s most vocal nemesis. Along the way, he argues passionately for progressive activism, proves why all politics is personal, and explains why those with the deepest commitment to their beliefs win.

About this title

Review

When senators think about running for president, they write books like The Conscience of a Liberal. Indeed, Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota thought about pursuing the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, but ultimately backed off. Unfortunately, his death in an October 2002 plane crash ended both a promising political career and all speculation about where it might lead.

The first part of the book explains Wellstone's unlikely ascension to the Senate (he was once a college professor), and some of his campaign war stories are fun reading for political junkies. One of the most amusing passages describes how he once nearly clocked New York Republican Alfonse D'Amato over a disagreement: "When the train reached the Senate chamber, I jumped out and lunged forward, intending to catch D'Amato and deck him. My body was shaking with uncontrollable anger." Another senator held him back, and Wellstone calmed down.

The bulk of The Conscience of a Liberal, however, is given over to laying out a political agenda that includes universal health care, reversing welfare reforms, prekindergarten education, raising the minimum wage, and campaign-finance reform. He closes with a call for a new politics: "This is not a conservative America.... There is a huge leadership void in this country that the Democratic Party, emboldened by political courage and a commitment to the issues that made our party great, can fill." Sadly, one of the politicians who helped fill that void is now gone himself. Still, his ideas live on. --John J. Miller

From the Back Cover

"The Conscience of a Liberal is an absolutely fascinating and compelling work, rich in humor and with unexpected revelations of the backstage machinations that take place within the corridors of power, by a deeply moral man whose private decency and public courage render him unique in civic life. A hero to the young, a reproach to the cynical, a living symbol of clean politics and unadulterated liberal conviction, Wellstone is also a superb gut-fighter and — unlike too many jaded liberals — he fights to win. It is all here in this vitally exciting story of a man whose anger at injustice never wavers and whose innocence remains untarnished by the exercise of power."
— Jonathan Kozol, author of Ordinary Resurrections

"Vivid, readable, and grittily honest about how the influence of the money power undermines the liberal agenda. Wellstone's populist commitments shine through. So does his skill and his guts in this account of how one Senator can make a difference. "
— Frances Fox-Priven, author of Why Americans Still Don't Vote

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0679462945
• ISBN 13: 9780679462941
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240