The Conscience of a Liberal

April 23, 2001
Minnesota Senator Wellstone opens this memoir with his attendance at the funeral service of archconservative Barry Goldwater. Wellstone was there because as a boy he had read Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative. Paradoxically, he credits his admiration for Goldwater's political integrity with providing the moral basis for his own liberalism. And he is very liberal, indeed. After reading this lucid and personal book, however, even those of opposite views would find it hard not to admire him. Wellstone presents two propositions. The first, that integrity in politics is essential, will be widely applauded. The second, that liberal political values reflect mainstream American values, will receive a mixed reception. At the core of this account is Wellstone's desire to mobilize voters to organize around issues he believes important to the country's well-being. The litany of societal problems addressed is broad and includes health care, education and testing, economic justice (welfare reform) and campaign finance reform. About each, Wellstone provides cogent and thought-provoking facts, figures and expert opinions, as well as personal stories that humanize the damage and loss of human potential he sees flowing from current public policies. He also offers solutions consistent with his view that government is capable of making a positive difference. The book is, for the most part, pleasantly free of partisan invective; his criticisms are generally oblique. Wellstone's 1996 Senate campaign adds drama. The only senator facing reelection who voted against welfare reform, he survived an extremely negative campaign, even by modern standards. Many readers will be glad he did. (May 22)Forecast:With millions of voters disappointed that their man barely (and, some would argue, unfairly) lost the recent presidential election, Wellstone offers reassurance that liberal values are still alive and well in Washington. As he tours New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with his home state, the senator will surely attract die-hard liberal readers with his concise but thoughtful tome.

June 1, 2001
Is the Left dead in America? As former President Clinton moved the Democrat Party to the center and as President Bush continues preaching a more "compassionate conservatism," one is forced to ask: who speaks for the poor, the dispossessed, the downtrodden, and the hurt? Wellstone, the Democratic U.S. Senator from Minnesota and a former professor of political science at Carleton College, is known as one of the few consistently liberal voices in the Senate, and with this book he attempts to sound the clarion call for a return to a more progressive politics in the United States. Focusing on personal stories some from his growing up and others from his meetings with everyday Americans Wellstone cautions his readers, "Never separate the lives you live from the words you speak" and calls on America to develop a more activist and liberal political reform agenda. Entertaining and well written, this book may not stimulate a liberal revolution, but it should force readers to face the difficult question of how we can truly match our compassionate rhetoric to our public policies. Recommended for public libraries. Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2001
Wellstone (D-MN) has impressive titles on his resume--including U.S. senator and Carleton College professor--but he seems always to moonlight as a grassroots organizer. His book combines biography and legislative history with "a call for an active citizen politics that could . . . restore democracy and build a progressive politics." Insisting that effective activism must include good ideas and policy, grassroots organizing, " and" electoral politics, Wellstone describes his astonishing 1990 election and his 1996 reelection in the face of a highly negative campaign that consistently described him as "embarrassingly liberal." But Wellstone is " not" embarrassed; he discusses the rationale of his positions on a wide range of issues, including education, health care, economic justice, and campaign-finance reform. Wellstone also describes mistakes he made in his early days on Capitol Hill and acknowledges legislators, some of them Republicans, who helped him learn the ropes. Likely to appeal to those who believe, with the author, that "Politics is what we create by what we do, what we hope for, and what we dare to imagine."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)