Bernie Sanders, King of YA Lit

[KPN]

How did his latest political manifesto become a young adult best-seller?
Oct. 12 2017 4:31 PM
By Ruth Graham

Excerpts:

As YA best-sellers go, the Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution is an unlikely contender. The author is a 76-year-old man. The cover illustration consists of his balding head. And teens are not known to be passionate about tax reform (the subject of Chapter 2) or health insurance wonkery (Chapter 4). Nonetheless, the book rode near the top of the New York Times best-seller list for Young Adult Hardcovers for weeks after its debut in late August, peaking (so far) at No. 2.

In eight brisk chapters, he surveys a host of outrages from Wall Street greed to climate change. In each one, he starts by laying out the problem with minimum fuss. “The tax code is helping the very rich get insanely richer, while the middle class is disappearing and the poor are getting poorer,” begins the chapter on tax reform. He swiftly deploys some statistics to back up the point and then plunges into a series of policy prescriptions: closing corporate tax loopholes, instituting a progressive estate tax, raising taxes on households making more than $250,000, and so on.

Sanders’ popularity with young people took many journalists and career Washingtonians by surprise in 2015 and 2016. But this book is a deft illustration of why his campaign was so energizing for young progressives. For one, he has a knack for framing policy positions as matters of urgent moral outrage. In a section on paid family leave and medical leave, he writes bluntly, “When it comes to supporting real family values, the United States lags behind every other major country on earth.” Sanders is cranky and impatient, and he makes a convincing case that the left could use more crankiness and impatience if it wants to start winning.
[link:http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2017/10/bernie_sanders_guide_to_political_revolution_reviewed.html|

[Not Ruth]

1. Bernie is reaching out to 2024 voters

[KPN]

2. That's a good thing, no?

But also to 2018 and 2020 voters don't you think?

[Saviolo]

9. Reaching out to future voters is only half of it

He's reaching out to future senators, congresspeople, governors, trustees, judges, and presidents. The people holding office in 30-40 years are young adults now. Time to instill in them a sense of economic justice, empathy, social justice, equality, tolerance, and caring while at the same time standing up for what's right against the (currently) rising tide of fascists, white nationalists, white supremacists, nazis, and economic totalitarians on the right.

[emmadoggy]

17. My thoughts exactly.

[disillusioned73]

19. Very well said..

[KPN]

23. Well said. Couldn't agree more.

[SMC22307]

32. It's amazing how that's lost on so many (at this very site, even).

Well said.

[Cryptoad]

3. Too bad he is not a Democrat, heh?

[KPN]

7. That dog don't hunt no more.

[Martin Eden]

10. Yep

I'm very disappointed it takes an independent to drag the Democratic Party back to what should be its core values.

[pangaia]

11. Hope you have a flak jacket and helmet..

[HughBeaumont]

12. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

[KPN]

13. Me too. Glad I'm not alone in that.

[Amimnoch]

14. I don't mind that very much at all. His antics helping put R's in office...

Now that has me forever opposing him.

Mixed bag of feelings. Love that he works with Democratic Party senators in congress. I love that he keeps important conversations going no matter how fanciful or bad the timing.

The virulent rhetoric he all too often spews.. that same divide that you see in many of the threads on him here, including some of the other replies to your comment as evidence.. Yep, that is exactly why I will continue to oppose him as a political figure. His antics made him an unwilling accomplice to the political reality of today.

I support the Democratic Party.

[KPN]

24. Poo.

That's not even meaningful really. What is the party if not the people and their values ... all of them?

The label is the least important thing, especially given our situation today.
EDIT: Oops, meant this in response to post 16.

[Trumpocalypse]

16. It's too bad that many here seem to forget that

the purpose of this site is to promote the democratic party and their candidates, not to promote an independent who has repeatedly refused to join the party.

[WiffenPoof]

18. Wow

Just wow.

[Cryptoad]

21. more Rumor Control has it,,,,

that the Russians are doing everything possible stoke this fight in within the Democratic party,,,,,, what u reckon

[Trumpocalypse]

27. I think we need to stick together

and not engage in a cult of personality.

[PatrickforO]

30. We are the Democratic party and if we cannot disagree and hash out policy positions,

on this site or on the ground, then we will continue to lose elections.

Whenever I address young Democrats, I tell them to talk about kitchen table issues. Health care. Cost of education. Jobs disappearing.

The party got pasted in 2016. Republicans control 33 state legislatures, 32 governorships, both houses of Congress and the White House. So...we better make some changes, you think?

[Trumpocalypse]

31. Disagreeing on issues is one thing

But engaging in a cult personality or setting up litmus tests is another.

[PatrickforO]

33. True. Though, given the current occupant illegally squatting in the WH, I do have one

litmus test -

The person I'm to vote for must be sane, and have some empathy. Because Trump just doesn't seem to even 'get' that there are other people in the world, and his decisions affect them. A true sociopath. Clinton would have been much better. Sane, well-informed, well read, and balanced.

[Trumpocalypse]

34. Too bad all progressive didn't feel that way

last year and either stayed home or voted third party.

[OxQQme]

4. A review from amazon

>"In the Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution, Independent congressman, presidential candidate and activist Bernie Sanders continues his fight against the imbalances in the nation’s status quo, and shows you how to make a difference to effect the changes America―and the world―need to create a better tomorrow." <

>"With more than two decades of Washington D.C. insider knowledge and experience, Senator Sanders knows how to fight and change the system from within, a system desperately in need of reform in health care, immigration, taxes, higher education, climate change, and criminal justice." <

The political revolution is just beginning. What role will you play?

edit to embold the need for reform.

[lark]

6. Love the review.

Guess it's time I read the book and then share it with my kids.

[onit2day]

8. Excellent review. Right now we have a madman in power

[Demsrule86]

28. There is no revolution...it died the day Trump won...and we lost the courts...you are kidding

yourself. We have a gerrymandered congress...no power, and I see more ideological battles than a concerted effort to elect Democrats...and until we stop attacking Democrats and vote Democratic, stop primarying Democrats and use our resources to get rid of the GOP instead...the Democratic candidates are going to lose....and as we continue to marginalize ourselves by pretending there is some progressive revolution on the horizon...the country moves right.

[bluepen]

15. Not surprised.

[PatrickforO]

20. Every once in a while, something like this comes out and makes my day.

I've always been appalled at the ignorance of most of the American public about issues that affect us, and about whether various policies will help us or hurt us. When you look at it even more closely, you can see that the ignorance isn't just about laziness, but also about a very well-funded propaganda effort that's been going on since Powell's 1971 memo to the US Chamber of Commerce suggested strategies to shape opinion in favor of unpopular policies that big business wanted. So we had the metastasization of hate-talk radio and the proliferation of right-wing 'news' outlets like Fox and Breitbart.

So the fact that:
1. Bernie wrote this book for young adults, to educate them about these policies, and
2. It ended up on the best seller list

That's pretty darned good.

I'm an economist, and I was strongly for Bernie in 2016 (I subsequently supported Clinton, of course), because he talked about kitchen table issues in a compelling, understandable way, and that is what people worry about. Things like 'what if I lose my job? How will I afford health care, then?'

We have so much big dark money that pays for ads against things like health care and other safety net programs, that it isn't even funny. The only way to combat this is by educating the people beyond the mainstream media corporate pap they are exposed to each day, along with all the bullshit right-wing dog whistles that are carefully designed to swing public opinion in ways that are contrary to the public's best interest, but are in the best interest of freaks like Charles Koch.

Kudos to Bernie.

[KPN]

25. +11111!

[MuseRider]

29. Also there are few schools now

that even begin to talk about our government. This is such an important book for the younger generations. It can start them thinking and they can then be involved and learn.

I cannot begin to understand how this could be thought of as a bad thing.

[Arazi]

22. I bought 2 for nephews who just inhaled them. It's very readable and enjoyable