Homegrown Democrat

The link is to my book review of Garrison Keillor's Homegrown Democrat on my Joyread site.

Here is a teaser:

With his sense of humor intact and burnished with a burning outrage at the desecration of democracy perpetrated by the rabid-rightists--mutant offspring of the miscegenation of religious and wall street absolutism, who are currently dismantling all the institutions sustaining community and thus democracy--Keillor of Lake Woebegone fame, writes an unabashed apologetic for the values and vision of Democrats.

He reminds us that we have democrats to thank for civil rights, clean air, clean water, women’s rights, public education, G.I. Bill, public services like 911, fire, police and EMTs, public parks, public libraries, public transportation, public roads and bridges, the internet, public radio and TV, Social Security for seniors and disabled, American’s with Disabilities Act, public sidewalks, public utilities, public hospitals and much, much more. All of which serves to weave a tight-knit community closely interdependent on one another and thus predisposed to civility and kindness and trust and willingness to serve the community. All this Keillor had firmly believed was rooted in the very same Christian Theology which the Republicans have now co-opted on behalf of their imperative to dismantle each and every one of those civilizing institutions in order to privatize them in the name of power and profit for the few.

Get ready for the new Ownership Society. Only don’t count on being one of the owners. They are a fast shrinking segment of the global population. And once these zealots, through trade agreements, the WTO and the World Bank, have forced America and all other nations to privatize all their public works and abolish their labor movements, the prophets of profit will have yanked on the last thread stabilizing a thriving community....

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