Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution: A big, beautiful mess of a book
The year after a national election is always an interesting scenario for the defeated candidates. Some continue to work on Capitol Hill while planning for a potential run in four years, some quit politics all together, and some cough cough Gore cough cough produce mediocre documentaries. But, no matter what, one thing reigns true: They all write books that stay on nonfiction top 10 for at least a month. Enter Bernie Sanders, the beloved candidate who won 23 states, funded his campaign with small donations, and when all was said and done, created a grassroots movement. With all of the anti-Trump momentum going into 2017, and opinion polls at an all time high, you’d think it be a slam dunk to write a good book. Just keep pushing the grassroots style, and badda bing badda boom, you’re on NYT’s bestseller list for a solid couple of months. And, from what can I tell, the original book, Our Revolution, was reviewed quite well. In fact, I was looking for the book on Amazon, when I accidentally ordered the wrong book.
Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution is a mess, a big ol’ beautiful mess. First of all, the book looks to be composed of excerpts from Our Revolution. Now, it’s not like there’s no original stuff in the book. In order to attempt to appeal to Gen Z, there are infographs littered all throughout the book. The art style here is goddamn atrocious. It looks to have a collage esque style, with fake folds and everything. But the cutout faces just look plain gargoyle like, with some of them looking straight nightmarish.
Notable among these infographs is a graph displaying the top one percent and top .1 percent’s wealth compared to the other 99%. The problem? the graph goes up by millions, causing the 99% wealth to flatline in comparison. And finally, it looks to have been written by a group of aides or former campaign staff trying to appeal to young adult readers. The book is just a couple of steps away from going full Steve Buscemi, backwards cap and all.
The worst crime about the book is how neutered it seems to be. Instead of embracing leftist ideals of old, Sanders’s policies seem to be more centrist. Gone are the calls for changes in Democratic Party leadership, of endorsements of young, liberal candidates. Gone are the slight rightwing tones of gun control and general government involvement. Instead, what you get is a word for word retelling of the Democratic party’s position on stuff. It may as well have the signatures of Peter Daou and Tom Perez on there. In this way, the book kills the movement, and with it, any potential surge in youth voting.
Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution is the political book equivalent guide to an Americano. By all means, if you enjoy watered down political theory, enjoy it. Just don’t serve it to me.
