Reviews for Rethinking power

The average rating for Rethinking power based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-07-03 00:00:00 SHINICHI NAKAMIZO I first learned of Mike Gravel when he was seeking the Libertarian nomination for president in 2008. returnreturnThis review is of the first edition of this book in 1972. This edition had a lot of references to what at the time where current events, such as relating to Richard Nixon, that I felt as a 90's kid I didn't have enough back ground on to reference. It would be interesting to compare it with the 2nd edition released during the '08 election cycle, to see if he updated these references to provide more background, or found more modern examples to show his positions. However, at only 3 stars its not really worth my time to get another copy for that reason alone. returnreturnGravel is a great champion of Democracy, and his book explains why quite well. Its a good reminder that the same problems we have now, have been no different in the 70's. He does fairly well explaining his plan for the 4th branch of government, to allow for national referendum. If you believe in democracy I guess it makes sense. But he takes for granted that his reader does believe in democracy. For me he does nothing to convince me the rights of the minority will be improved at all under such a stance, in fact I fear it would be worse. Not to mention who wants to hear commercials from every special interest group in the world about the need to "save the earth from businesses" no explanation on this at all. returnreturnIf you are a true believer in Democracy, but feel that the current republican form of government has been taken over by special interests, than this book is for you. If you are a true believer in individual liberty, the ideas here are not main stream enough for it to be considered looking at our competition and no respectful enough of the NAP for it be something we can adopt.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-12-04 00:00:00 Douglas C. Nelson I have to write a book and literature review for this book for school, so here's me getting some stuff out. Written originally in the 1970s, Senator Mike Gravel updates his book for his run for president in 2008. Obviously, he would end up losing that race and Barack Obama would eventually become president. What's interesting about this book is that his ideas have permeated the zeitgeist of the Left's culture. Many of the chapters of the book were on policy ideas that may have been deemed radical in 2008 (certainly they were in the 1970s) that are now on the platform of nearly every Democrat running for office in the 2020s. It's refreshing to see that the progressive ideas that we are currently fighting for have existed for decades and there will always be people fighting for those ideas. Of course, it's also unfortunate that they haven't been fully realized yet. This book felt like an overview of many of my views – though I would take Gravel's healthcare plan further to the Left; I'm sure he would do the same at this point with the ACA not living up to the original expectation. The editing of the book could have been better. There were many instances of "than" and "then" mix-ups. Some parts of his chapters were long and dull, and that may have been because I was already aware of some of the facets he was discussing.