review of the book

The book I read was The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics by Major Garrett and Tim Penny. It is a good book and for a book about politics, which I personally was never really into, was interesting and captured my attention. The authors did a good job of balancing the opinions from both parties. For example when debunking the myth about abortion they did not take aside and presented arguments from both sides of the issue and then gave the opinion that their years of experience lead them. A weakness is that this book had was that it tried to appease both sides of the issue to much, like during a political campaign and not wanting to lose voters by taking a definite side. A strength is that Garrett and Penny both always presented a lot of evidence, research, and reasoning behind the conclusions to which they came.

I encourage people to read this book. I would recommend the book to people who are looking for a better understanding of issues that prevalent today. This book enhanced my understanding of politics in America because it took the myths and lies that I had been hearing all my life and gave the truth for each issue.    

the second half of the book

The second half of the book The 15 Biggert Lies in Politics by Major Garrett and Tim Penny deals with the remaining eight lies. The first lie is one that by 2013 we know is not true: the budget will be balanced by 2002. Garrett and Penny believe that 1998-2000 will be the most balanced the budget will be for a while. The next lie is Social Security is a sacred government trust. But it has functioned as it was designed to, and is reducing old age poverty. Medicare works. No, Medicare does not work. It is covered with fraud and the input cannot keep up with the output. Tax cuts are not good. New tax cuts and laws are an exercise in economic discrimination and they will not increase economic growth. More money in education will not wield better results. The nation is not educating children as well as it did 30 years ago despite all the money that has been put into education reform.

The environment its mother earth or mother load. Laws that protect the environment are the same ones that are keeping them from protected by tying up resources and preventing work to be done with useless litigations over the land. Republicans believe in smaller government. They do believe that the best government is the government that governs least but they are about shrinking the size of the government and they have not been trying to. Democrats are compassionate. This is no longer true, democrats are stuck in the past and have not been trying to build new working programs nor have they been able to make existing programs adapt to help the future.

Although I have little previous knowledge of the inner workings of government before reading this book, I still hold to my earlier claim of agreeing with the big picture ideas that are given, but it is hard to make a solid and educated opinion with only one resource, this book to go off of. My prediction that the second half will deal a lot with money was correct.  

 

the first half of the book

The first half of The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics by Major Garrett and Tim Penny lays out seven misconceptions. It deals with the abortion debate. The book does not say which side is the correct one, pro-life or pro-choice, but instead says that the debate is pointless the Supreme Court has already ruled on the matter in Roe v. Wade, it is doubtful that a case will be able to overturn it or that abortion will be outlawed. The only victory that those who are pro-life can hope to make is to reduce the number of annual abortions. The second lie is that gun control reduces crime. When top research has shown that gun control dose nothing to effect crime rates. Years ago when there was less of this evidence people were against gun control but now that there is scientific proof of the ineffectiveness of gun control people are all for it. The next myth is that religion and politics do not mix. The thought at the time of the making of the first amendment was that men should be able to question the authority of God and government at once. The myth that immigration hurts America is also false; the diversity that immigration adds to the strength of America is not the only key to success, but the unifying values that forms our nation’s identity, is why immigrants come over and is why our country is able to thrive.

All politicians are not corrupt. Although corruption does exist in America we have some of the most ethical and intelligent politicians in the world. Now day’s government is more accountable and visible than ever before. Money does not buy elections. It is easy to jump to that conclusion and people often do try to use that as the answer of every political move. Money makes things move and go but it does not explain why some people are able win in elections or why some legislation passes and others do not. Fat cats are not the problem. There is a misconception that more money equals more problems, which is not true. Nixon and Watergate there was less money and less special interest groups involved than there are today. Special interest groups exist because common people choose to be a part of them.

After reading the first half of the book and the evidence that they presented I can see how they have come to their conclusions and for the most part agree with their big picture idea. I predict that most of the myths in the second half will pertain to money, because that is a big concern in modern culture.

 

Why this book?

I chose the book The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics by Major Garrett and Tim Penny. I chose this book because the title seemed interesting and made me want to learn about the most common myths in politics. I expect to learn more about the inner workings of politics and how public misconceptions effect political growth. Major Garrett was August 24, 1962 and graduated in 1984 with a Bachelor of Journalism degree and a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from the University of Missouri. Before wring the book Garrett was a congressional reporter for the Washington Times and a congressional correspondent for U.S. News and World Report. With things he experienced with those news outlets Garrett would have up close and personal knowledge politics. Tim Penny was born November 19, 1951 and graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from Winona State University. Penny severed in the U.S. House of Representatives 1983-1995 from Minnesota and was part of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Penny run in office has given him the behind the scenes view that is needed in order to debunk the myths that cloud the political world. Since the book is by humans and not entirely fact based the view will be slanted, given that the two authors have had different experiences with the political world the book will be as true and unbiased as it can be.