How to Overthrow the Government

The book entitled, “How to Overthrow the Government”, is written by Arianna Huffington, and is, for the most part, one giant political editorial about the evils of having a strict two-party system, and the problems that arise when special interest group money is funneled into political campaigns.

Beginning from the very first page, paragraph and sentence, Huffington starts in with her theme that pretty much continues throughout the entirety of the book, “We live in a democracy universally acknowledged to be the greatest governing system in the world. But a democracy is only as strong as it is responsive to all of its citizens.” This “theme of government accountability rings through the remainder of the book. It seems right from the get go as if Ms. Huffington, once a diehard Republican, has seen some things in the political process that she has been less than thrilled with. As this chapter proceeds we see these things explained-- lack of representation of all people in the voting process, callousness toward the sick and dying in our country (p. 15), the ignoring of the poor and homeless in this our “great” land. This chapter did a great job of laying the proverbial groundwork for the themes that would run through much of the book.

In the next few chapters Ms. Huffington explains the growing wave of unrest in our political system. This is the first politically charged book that I have really sat down and sunk my teeth into, but I cannot believe that, with some of the allegations that she makes in this book, she has the courage ton name names.

For instance, her apparent hatred of everything “Dole”. In chapter three, “Voting for Dollars”, she makes reference to Dole’s testifying before the Senate in 1986 on the ethanol subsidy Loophole and how it should immediately be ended (p. 58) only to then change her mind after Andreas contributed “ to the Dole’s PAC’s, think tanks and foundations.” Or, in the chapter named “The Public Opinion Racket where Ms. Hufffington brings up the topic of the Dole campaign’s ignorance in giving to much clout to the pole numbers in the 96 election (p.74). Yes, it appears that Huffington might have been able to pick a better candidate for the Republicans party to run against Clinton in the 96 elections, and yet—she didn’t. I guess she was to busy running her mouth in this book to be able to see that it takes more than talking about numbers to change things.

One person that Huffingotn repeatedly praises in this book that, in my humble opinion she is right on the money with is Sen. John McCain. She repeatedly praises McCain in the book for his courage to stand against everything popular in his party. In using the ethanol subsidy example listed above, McCain was the ONLY 2000 presidential campaigner to come out against it. In our political world, that could have been a suicide move but, as Huffington repeatedly points out, McCain is not afraid to rock the boat by making decisions based on what is right, rather than on what the latest poll might be saying.

Article Author: Jeff Petermann

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