1. I had to push myself to read it, as in I was getting no enjoyment out of it towards the end. It went from an activity of leisure to a measure of self-discipline.
2. I will never, ever, ever, so long as I remain the way I do in thinking about government and politics as I do now, EVER become a registered member of the Republican party. NEVER.
After reading this book, I must say that I've never been so disgusted with a political party before. I don't know if the author John Dean is currently a registered Democrat, but I do know that he was once an active staffer in the Republican party during Nixon's presidency. Reading what I read, I can only say I was in total disbelief, numerous times about how absolutely and horridly corrupt the Republican party has become. I'm astounded, baffled, dumbfounded, amazed, and just plain bewildered at how people who are elected to serve those who put them in power choose to serve only themselves and their individual interests. The hypocrisy, duplicity, and sheer [insert additional negative noun] of these people is so thick it's almost tangible!
When I say it was an effort of self-discipline to completely read it is because it was. After every chapter or subsection I'd read, it became harder and harder to return to read it because of how upset the book's contents made me.
Among the hypocrisies listed, I think the biggest one is how this party is the one that claims to be so moral, and yet they engage in some of the most immoral and corrupt practices!
You know what? Trying to even type about this book and what I read is so difficult that it makes me even more upset just thinking about it. So I'll conclude with a few quotes from the book taken from the last chapter: Repairing Government: Restoring the Proper Processes:
In almost four decades of involvement in national politics, much of them as a card-carrying Republican, I was never concerned that the GOP posed a threat to the well-being of our nation. Indeed, the idea would never have occurred to me, for in my experience the system took care of excesses, as it certainly did in the case of the president for whom I worked [Nixon]. But in recent years the system has changed, and is no longer self-correcting. Most of that change has come from Republicans, and much of it based on their remarkable confrontational attitude, an attitude that has clearly worked for them. For example, I cannot imagine any Democratic president keeping cabinet officers as Bush has done with his Secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, men whom both Democrats and Republicans judged to be incompetent. Evidence that the system has changed is so apparent when a president can deliberately and openly violate the law--as, for example, simply brushing aside serious statutory prohibition against torture and electronic surveillance--without any serious consequences.
And another quote:
Ironically, when Republicans find Democratic officials with even a toe across the line, they raise unmitigated hell for that official. But when a Republican official crosses the line, Republicans close ranks around the miscreant . . . Conservatives once claimed they stood for law and order, and that no person was above the law, but their words belie their true beliefs as expressed in their actions.And the last quote I'll share:
Ignorant and apathetic voters, and dropouts, probably frown at the sign in the shop on East Nineteenth Street in Manhattan that says: "Democracy is like sex--it works best when you participate." A charming thought, if a questionable simile. (If democracy were, in fact, like sex, it would be impossible to prevent people from participating.) If I ever come across this shop, I plan to offer them an additional sign that sums up the GOP attitude about process: "If democracy were like sex--Republicans would make it illegal, except for themselves."
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