A National Party No More

Rating:
Summary: Like it or night, He's right.
Review: This book was written well before the 2004 presidential election, in it a prominent and successful lifetime Democrat tells the world that his party is no longer one that can hold or hope to hold any national majority; in it he warns of the errors in thought and philosophy that his party is making; in it he predicts failure at the national level for his party. All these things are true, and 2004 proved that at the national level, the Democrats are failures. This book helps explain why. For these reasons alone, this book should be read.

Rating:
Summary: A National Party No More
Review: This is a very nice book from a very honest man, I only wish there were more like Zell Miller in politics today.

Rather than write a fluffy biography like Bill Clinton did, Zell Miller writes his conscience and explains very clearly what he hopes will happen to make the Democratic party a National Party once again.

Of coarse the only possible way this would happen is if most Republicans were to change parties but still it is the thought that counts!

Way to go Zell!



Rating:
Summary: A most deceptive title........
Review: It would be more accurate to say, "The World According to Zell's New Hero, W."

The reason I gave the book one star is that the title is in no way descriptive of the book. There is no analysis of the party -- only invective and criticism. His take on the party, and he's got a point, is that the party has been taken over by special interests. He could have accomplished that in two pages, and in fact does.

The rest of the book is "Zell's Biography" and "What Zell Thinks About Everything Else."

I read with interest his background and how he came to be what he came to be. He is one of us, and what the middle class is. We work hard, we aspire to an education, we try to do right by others. I was dumbfounded, therefore, by his obvious adoration and hero-worship of W, who has not demonstrated even 10% of the values that Zell discussed, learned and lived. I am at a loss to understand why, then, that Zell wrote this book, sputtered and yelled at the Republican convention, and why he went off the deep end and challenged Chris Matthews to a duel. I understand being cut off from a party you loved and gave your life to, but to buddy up to everything that is the opposite of what you are? And to write a book that is the equivalent of stamping your feet and screaming in print?

I am an unapologetic liberal, and I am just as disgusted by the DNC as he is (which is why I read the book). I refuse to give to the DNC for the reasons Zell is so mad at them -- they are incompetent and they have sold us out. I still respected Zell (even after his speech at the convention) -- until I read this book. He has tossed aside everything that is good about living right, working hard, and playing by the rules. Instead of screaming speeches, finger-pointing, nutty comments, and doe-eyed worship of someone that is none of what you value, how about getting in there with the rest of us and offering real solutions to fixing the travesty that the party has become?