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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.
From Publishers Weekly
Minnesota Senator Wellstone opens this memoir with his attendance at the funeral service of archconservative Barry Goldwater. Wellstone was there because as a boy he had read Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative. Paradoxically, he credits his admiration for Goldwater's political integrity with providing the moral basis for his own liberalism. And he is very liberal, indeed. After reading this lucid and personal book, however, even those of opposite views would find it hard not to admire him. Wellstone presents two propositions. The first, that integrity in politics is essential, will be widely applauded. The second, that liberal political values reflect mainstream American values, will receive a mixed reception. At the core of this account is Wellstone's desire to mobilize voters to organize around issues he believes important to the country's well-being. The litany of societal problems addressed is broad and includes health care, education and testing, economic justice (welfare reform) and campaign finance reform. About each, Wellstone provides cogent and thought-provoking facts, figures and expert opinions, as well as personal stories that humanize the damage and loss of human potential he sees flowing from current public policies. He also offers solutions consistent with his view that government is capable of making a positive difference. The book is, for the most part, pleasantly free of partisan invective; his criticisms are generally oblique. Wellstone's 1996 Senate campaign adds drama. The only senator facing reelection who voted against welfare reform, he survived an extremely negative campaign, even by modern standards. Many readers will be glad he did. (May 22)Forecast: With millions of voters disappointed that their man barely (and, some would argue, unfairly) lost the recent presidential election, Wellstone offers reassurance that liberal values are still alive and well in Washington. As he tours New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with his home state, the senator will surely attract die-hard liberal readers with his concise but thoughtful tome.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Is the Left dead in America? As former President Clinton moved the Democrat Party to the center and as President Bush continues preaching a more "compassionate conservatism," one is forced to ask: who speaks for the poor, the dispossessed, the downtrodden, and the hurt? Wellstone, the Democratic U.S. Senator from Minnesota and a former professor of political science at Carleton College, is known as one of the few consistently liberal voices in the Senate, and with this book he attempts to sound the clarion call for a return to a more progressive politics in the United States. Focusing on personal stories some from his growing up and others from his meetings with everyday Americans Wellstone cautions his readers, "Never separate the lives you live from the words you speak" and calls on America to develop a more activist and liberal political reform agenda. Entertaining and well written, this book may not stimulate a liberal revolution, but it should force readers to face the difficult question of how we can truly match our compassionate rhetoric to our public policies. Recommended for public libraries. Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Wellstone (D-MN) has impressive titles on his resume--including U.S. senator and Carleton College professor--but he seems always to moonlight as a grassroots organizer. His book combines biography and legislative history with "a call for an active citizen politics that could . . . restore democracy and build a progressive politics." Insisting that effective activism must include good ideas and policy, grassroots organizing, and electoral politics, Wellstone describes his astonishing 1990 election and his 1996 reelection in the face of a highly negative campaign that consistently described him as "embarrassingly liberal." But Wellstone is not embarrassed; he discusses the rationale of his positions on a wide range of issues, including education, health care, economic justice, and campaign-finance reform. Wellstone also describes mistakes he made in his early days on Capitol Hill and acknowledges legislators, some of them Republicans, who helped him learn the ropes. Likely to appeal to those who believe, with the author, that "Politics is what we create by what we do, what we hope for, and what we dare to imagine." Mary Carroll
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Review
"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
Book Description
From his earliest childhood memories to the college classroom, from rural Minnesota farm fields and the defense of workers' rights to his 1990 election campaign promises of politics for the benefit of the people, The Conscience of a Liberal candidly discusses Wellstone's life experiences and the coming-of-age of his political views. What emerges is an intriguing inside look at Wellstone's crusade to assert an unabashedly liberal agenda. From the moment he was elected, Wellstone has passionately articulated a path to economic and social justice for all citizens, justice not contingent on the size of a person's bank account or their political influence. A call for personal politics and deep commitment to beliefs, Wellstone's tenure as a U.S. senator has been a vigorous, at times outraged, and always active fight for support for farmers, working families, and other Minnesotans; for decent jobs, improved health care, a good education, and retirement security. At once responding to the conservative hijacking of compassion as a political yardstick and explaining his own political record, Wellstone engagingly elucidates what contrasts conservative and liberal interests and, as always, rouses progressives to influence the future of American politics. "Wellstone promised to be what Washingtonians always say their city desperately needs: a colorful character. No one was disappointed. He still considers himself an activist, and his book reads like the work of an activist." Wall Street Journal "Wellstone relishes the role of the lonely hero taking on powerful bullies, and irritates his jaded colleagues with his stubborn stand on principles." Washington Monthly "A call to arms aimed at politically like-minded Americans, time and again The Conscience of a Liberal argues that a grassroots movement of progressives can defy the odds." National Journal Senator Paul Wellstone was a professor of political science at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, for twenty-one years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1990.
Download Description
A true "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" story, this wise and heartfelt meditation explores the value of doing what you believe in, written by one of the most outspoken liberals in the United States Senate.
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