Losing Our Democracy: How Bush, the Far Right and Big Business Are Betraying America - And How to Stop It

by Mark Green

Book Overview

"For those of us who understand that America's greatest progress is achieved not by cheering on things as they are but by demanding change, Mark Green's Losing Our Democracy is a must-read book."... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1402210434
• ISBN13: 9781402210433
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Sourcebooks
• Length: 438 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

DEMOCRACY IS LIKE SEX. IT WORKS BEST WHEN YOU PARTICIPATE.

One word I can think of that best describes this book is "thorough". Mark Green is an accomplished writer who knows a lot about politics. This is an essential read for all Americans, but especially those who blindly follow the "leader". Green aptly quotes Teddy Roosevelt, "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public". This, then is the lesson of the book. Green covers nearly all of the relevant domestic issues, and cites examples of how the administration is undermining our democracy. Because the book is fairly lengthy, this is quite despairing information. With this quote in the book from Louis Brandeis, "We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both", author Mark Green hits upon the very core of what became of our American Republic. Please read. Please respond!

Not just what, but why.

Green neatly encapsulates the essential struggle we face as Americans, and sets a clear direction for what we need to do if America is to remain truly free. Many of his points will resonate with those made by authors like Thom Hartmann, and Green's perspective both pragmatic and compelling. Reading this book I found it both frustrating and frightening how accepting greedy corporations have made us to the precursors of the destruction of our democracy. We are now a country that has been conditioned to accept with a disinterested shrug the change from representative democracy (one person, one vote) to "corporatocracy" (one dollar, one vote). We have co-mingled democracy (a political system) with capitalism (a form of economic organization). As citizens we've been weaned away from having a "say" to merely having a "voice" and are now, thanks to the power of corporate "free speech" well on the path to not being heard at all. Read Green's book. He brings forth the simple truth that core American values (honesty, fairness, faith in facts and reason, tolerance, belief in the commons and the common good, preservation of nature and preserving for the future, and shared sacrifice for the well being of our fellow man (or woman)) are all being displaced by the one value that out of control global corporations and crony government can understand -- the dollar value. If you're at all curious as to why after 9/11,the best presidential advice we received was that that we all "keep shopping" lest the terrorists win, this book is for you! Bravo, Mark Green.

this is the state of the union

our new government by the lobbist for the special interest everything is cheaper than it looks, don't get to close

Good Summary!

"Losing Our Democracy" begins with a wry observation: "Much has been written about Bush's war for democracy abroad, but what about his war on democracy at home?" Green goes on to observe that while Bushites may question evolutionary Darwinism, they love Social Darwinism. But because of imperfect information, oligopoly power, corruption, deception, laissez isn't always fair. Republicans have been brilliant in marketing their brand. Per Thomas Frank: "Vote to stop abortion; receive a rollback in capital gains taxes. Vote to make our country strong again; receive deindustrialization. Vote to stand tall against terrorists; receive Social Security privatization." How do the Republicans do it? Serial manipulation of information has confused and misled millions of Americans. Then there's the disproportionate influence of corporate dollars (1% give move campaign dollars than the other 99% and receive 40% of all recent tax cuts). Another distortion is created by the fact that 45% of Americans (eg. low population Red states such as Wyoming) elect 55% of our Senators. Gerrymandering (plus enhanced fundraising ability) results in 98% of House members being re-elected. Other abuses include the Republicans running Congress basically without Democrat input, threatening Republican members with primary opposition and lack of funding if they vote against the President (House members do so 84% of the time), holding votes without allowing members time to read the proposed bill, and totally rewriting bills in conference committee with little member input. Green then goes on to list abuses in other areas. The 2005 "Consume Fairness Act" moved class actions from state to federal courts, resulting in them being much more likely to be thrown out as "unmanageable." Then there is corporate accounting fraud (Enron), grossly biased stock evaluators (Henry Blodget)

Losing our Democracy leads to Gaining real Insight

By reading Losing our Democracy, you really get a sense of where our current administration is leading us; and it isn't pretty. Mark Green does a great job of showing us what needs to be done to put this country back on track.