Lily Geismer

What a totally depressing (but necessary) read. Pairs well with [Poverty, by America], also recently published.

You can draw a straight line to New Democrat policies and the financial crisis, current housing crisis, systemic inequality, Republican radicalization of rural voters, and general lack of any kind of social progress in my lifetime.

And what's sad is that the current democratic party has not gotten any more progressive since Bill Clinton. In fact, it's all just market-based status quo.… (más)

Left Behind: The Democrats' Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality by Lily Geismer presents in clear and precise terms what many have known, that the Democratic party failed as a response to the Republican party and thus as an advocate for those the GOP cared little about.

The writing here is clear and accessible with any jargon explained very well. As a history of the period and of the Democratic party in particular, it offers insight into some of the reasons we are in the predicament we're in. So as a book that educates the reader and puts detail to what may have already been vaguely understood it succeeds quite well.

I think where it might excel is in generating ideas and opinions in the readers themselves. While Geismer briefly outlines, in broad terms, what mindset we need to adopt moving forward. This reader took an opinion of the past that, while in agreement with the broad ideas mentioned is perhaps a bit more leftist than liberal. It isn't just that the Democrats attempted to use the market concept, which inherently leads to inequality if not held in check. It isn't just that they favored far more privatization than is healthy for any government or society. In even broader terms they made what to me was a major ideological mistake. While the GOP kept pulling the center ever further right, the Democrats didn't pull the other way to maintain some semblance of balance, they kept chasing that center. They have chased it so far that they are as far right now as the Reagan administration was in its time and they are to the right of Eisenhower's conservativism. This was done to win elections, not to improve people's lives. So that now we have two parties, in a horrid two-party system, both ignoring the people and both pursuing electoral victory. By the way, don't hold my opinion against the book, I am not trying to paraphrase Geismer here. The point is that the book made me think. You may well come to different opinions but, like any good book should, this will make you think about what has happened, why, and what we might be able to do about it (if anything).

I would recommend this to anyone who still thinks that the two parties are opposites. While I stop well short of making the cliche that there are no differences, there are, but they are of much smaller degree than they once were. I would also recommend this to those who simply enjoy reading about recent political history.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (más)