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| The Thread's Must-Read |
3 books to read during the Democratic Convention
For the next two weeks, political junkies will be consumed with the COVID-adjusted “doings” of Democrats and Republicans at their respective conventions.
I’ve covered a lot of national political conventions and you just can’t beat roaming the convention floor in search of the swooning delegates with the goofiest hats: The elephant trunk mashed to their head. The giant glittering donkey ears flopping over their face.
These crowd-less conventions will be — by necessity — short on silly and long on substance, but they, nevertheless, will usher in a knock-down, drag-out campaign season.
So, here are three books with which to prepare.
As I wrote this, I drew my dog-eared copy of Richard Ben Cramer’s “What It Takes” off of the bookshelf. I read it as a young TV reporter covering my first campaign and it helped to prepare me for the chaos, the kookiness, and the sheer cravenness of political campaigning.
This masterful book chronicles the 1988 race for president that, by the way, included a much younger Delaware senator named Joe Biden, before he dropped out.
My second convention must-read is “The Parties Versus the People” by former congressman Mickey Edwards. It’s a “call it like I see it” diagnosis of what ails American politics and Edwards ought to know. He had a front row seat to the way elected representatives put party over principle, the corrosive consequences of such cynicism and what voters can do about it.
And finally, a novel about politics when you simply can’t take any more cable news coverage of the real thing. Curtis Sittenfeld’s “American Wife” draws us into the life of Alice Lindgren, a library-loving, devout and often prim young woman who marries into a Republican political dynasty.
And if you’re thinking this sounds vaguely familiar — the novel fictionalizes and dramatizes the life of former first lady Laura Bush.
Next week? Three more political must-reads as Republicans take center stage.
—Kerri Miller |
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