WRITING
The Path to The White House Is Paved With Memoirs
Just don’t forget to juxtapose
Love them or hate them, it’s an irrefutable fact that the Republican Party is now led by a duo of best-selling Memoir Writers.
The Art of the Deal and Hillbilly Elegy played a large part in Donald Trump and JD Vance’s rise to prominence as national figures.
A few quotes from Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance:
- On Family Influence: “I learned that I was not just a product of my upbringing; I was also a product of my choices.”
- On Resilience: “The people I grew up with were not victims; they were survivors.”
- On Community: “The culture of my hometown was not just a story of despair; it was also a story of hope.”
- On Identity: “You can take the boy out of the hills, but you can’t take the hills out of the boy.”
Did you spot the pattern in these sentences?
Politicians are big fans of heavy-handed juxtapositions.
“Ask not what your country can do for you…”
As writers, on your own path to the White House (or greatness on Medium), you should study them and learn how to use them.
Donald Trump also relied on the prose technique in his 1989 Best Selling memoir, Art of the Deal.
“Critics get to say what they want to about my work, so why shouldn’t I be able to say what I want to about theirs?”
— Donald Trump, Art of the Deal (1987)
He certainly lived up to that quote in the 46 years afterward, didn’t he?
Trump also demonstrated that an effective memoir doesn’t need to rely on clever prose, self-deprecating language, or making worldly observations with a distant narrator’s point of view.
“I’ve read hundreds of books about China over the decades. I know the Chinese. I’ve made a lot of money with the Chinese. I understand the Chinese mind.”
— Donald Trump, Art of the Deal (1987)
Lock ’Em Up
Before her Vice Presidential days, when Kamala Harris was the District Attorney for San Francisco, she wrote a book on the criminal justice system. She possessed a slightly different take on law and order in those days:
Getting smart on crime’ does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes.
— Kamala Harris, Smart on Crime (2009)
Dream Big
Many literary minded writers like to trade in the currency of internal thoughts. If you are such a writer, I advise you to study Barack Obama’s 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father.
“I thought I could start over, you see. But now I know you can never start over. Not really. You think you have control, but you are like a fly in somebody else’s web. Sometimes I think that’s why I like accounting. All day, you are only dealing with numbers. You add them, multiply them, and if you are careful, you will always have a solution. There’s a sequence there. An order. With numbers, you can have control….”
— Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father (1995)
A Long Road Paved With Memoir
Many previous Presidents published books before being elected into office:
- Bill Clinton: “The Arkansas Traveler” (1985)
- Ronald Reagan: “Where’s the Rest of Me?” (1965)
- Herbert Hoover: “American Individualism” (1922)
- Theodore Roosevelt: “The Naval War of 1812” (1882)
(Maybe they aren’t all for everyone.)
Many leaders also wrote books (mostly about how important they were) after leaving office.
Winston Churchill’s ego was so large after winning World War 2, he needed to mansplain the entire 2,000-year history of the “English-Speaking Peoples”:
The Oval Office, and higher offices in other countries, are filled with Writers, so there is hope for us all here on Medium.com.
A final quote:
“Leave nothing for tomorrow, which can be done today.”
— Abraham Lincoln, Notes for a Law Lecture (1850)
Don’t procrastinate. Start writing your own best-selling memoir today!
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