219. Republican Like Me: A Lifelong Democrat’s Journey Across the Aisle

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:  Mike Brady

Author:  Ken Stern

Genre:  Non-Fiction, Politics, Public Policy

288 pages, published October 24, 2017

Reading Format:  Book

 

Summary

In Republican Like Me, Ken Stern, a former CEO of National Public Radio and card carrying Liberal, takes a year to  crisscross the country in an attempt to better understand what makes  Republicans tick.  He spent a good deal of time listening, talking, and praying with Republicans from all corners, neocons to traditionalists, fiscal conservatives to social conservatives, moderates to libertarians.  He considers the issues that divide and provoke the left and right:  immigration, gun control, abortion, the environment and global warming, elitism and the establishment, the government, the “makers” and the “takers,” and attitudes toward gender and race.  He introduces the people he met and the viewpoints and opinions he heard, and examines their impact on his own long-standing views.

 

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My Take

Many Americans are still wondering how Donald Trump was elected President.  Much like J.V. Vance in Hillbilly Elegy (which I really enjoyed), Ken Stern, the author of Republican Like Me has some answers.  Stern (a lifelong committed Democrat) looks at political issues from a Republican viewpoint and discovers that they have some good points and things are not as clear cut as he had always assumed.  He also takes on the left-wing media bias that infects our newspapers and newsrooms.  If you are interested in understanding why our country is so polarized and what can be done about it, I recommend checking out this interesting book.