American politics: summer reading

Book review: an entertaining insight into life in America’s heartland

I’m just about finished zipping through “Deer Hunting With Jesus” by John Bageant. It is not something I would add to my Oxbridge reading list, but certainly worth reading by those who want to scratch beneath the surface of what it means to live life pursuing what is for many the unattainable American Dream. It describes life for the millions who avoid government assistance, and instead work hard to make ends meet in low paid, dead end jobs. In doing so it echoes many of the themes outlined in books like Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed” in uncovering the realities of job insecurity, poor, or non-existent medical coverage, the humbling and demeaning existence of a lifetime of struggle with nothing to show. These themes are also picked up in Michael Moore’s film “Sicko”.

But where this book departs from these two excellent works is that it serves to explain the socially and politically conservative attitudes of the poor and low paid rednecks, why the Democrats struggle to connect, and why therefore George W Bush was elected not just once, but twice, by an electorate seemingly hoodwinked into believing that what’s good for America’s wealthy is good for those at the bottom of the pile.

I became attracted to the study of Politics since it offered answers to questions about what Harold Lasswell described as “who gets what, and why”. Written in a style with obvious echoes of Hunter S Thompson, this book is sure to bring a few laughs while simultaneously offering further answers to what politics is all about.