House on Fire: Fighting for Democracy in the Age of Political Arson

by David N. Cicilline

Overview

Congressman David Cicilline offers his provocative takes on Republicans, Democrats, and the world of politics in the wake of Donald Trump. 

The rioters were still in the Capitol, shattering the door to the House Chamber and bellowing “Hang Mike Pence,” when David Cicilline, safely locked inside his office, began writing the articles of impeachment that would lead to Donald Trump’s second Senate trial. He helped prosecute the case, earning admiration from his fellow progressives and a national following. But by summer he would be calling out some of those same colleagues for caving to special interests and attempting to block his plan to rein in the Big Tech companies like Facebook and Google.
 
Beyond sounding an alarm, House on Fire identifies the key threat to our democracy—that the GOP has become a Trumpist authoritarian cult—and outlines how we fight back. A response that must include both citizen opposition and practical reforms, including an end to the Senate filibuster, discarding the Electoral College, expanding the Supreme Court, and requiring that justices adhere to a code of ethics.
 
Cicilline actually believes in politics and the system. He used them both to deliver for the people in a once-corrupt city he ran as mayor and in Washington, where he has risen to help lead the Democratic Party in Congress. In HOUSE ON FIRE, Cicilline spares no one from criticism as he argues for a politics that produces results and warns that without it Trump, or someone worse, will take power in 2024 and make us wish for the days when the only thing we complained about was gridlock.    

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538722596
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	08/30/2022
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	625,479
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

David N. Cicilline serves Rhode Island’s First Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Cicilline is a leader in Congress on issues of core American values, serving as Chairman of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, Chair of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, and Vice Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Prior to his election to Congress, Cicilline served two terms as Mayor of Providence where he rooted out the corruption of his notorious—and imprisoned—predecessor Buddy Cianci. He is a graduate of Brown University and the Georgetown University Law Center and resides today in Providence.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Part I Conflagration

1 House on Fire 3

2 The Cowards' Response 12

3 The GOP Origins of Trump's Tribalism 17

4 Let's All Hate the Government 28

5 Now Let's Hate Each Other 34

6 Hatred's Little Helpers 38

7 The Inevitable Result 41

Part II The Good, the Bad, and the Real

8 Hope, but Also Crime 57

9 Justice 65

10 What Do You Stand For? 77

11 The Real World: Rhode Island 1986 93

12 Buddy Returns 106

13 Into Politics. And Yes, I'm "Openly" Gay 117

14 Under the Dome 132

15 Beyond Beanbag 146

16 Queen for (Only) a Day 152

17 Democracy Delivers 156

Part III Looneyville

18 It's Much Worse Under This Dome 175

19 Minority Rule 199

20 Neither Symptom nor Cause 208

21 Is He Worth It? 217

22 The Playing-Nice Impeachment 228

23 The Less Nice Impeachment 245

24 Proof Is Not Enough 255

25 State of Emergency 278

Acknowledgments 309

Editorial Reviews

06/27/2022

Rhode Island congressman Cicilline debuts with a fiery if somewhat self-aggrandizing account of his efforts to fight “corruption and self-dealing” in government. A former mayor of Providence, R.I., Cicilline forcefully critiques his predecessor, Vincent “Buddy” Cianci (“the municipal version of a petty dictator”), who served from 1975 to 1984 and then again from 1991 to 2002 and was forced out of office on both occasions by felony convictions. Cicilline draws on his experience as a criminal defense attorney in 1980s Providence to share colorful if disturbing stories of mob violence, police misconduct, and political favoritism, and details how he reformed corrupt practices when he was elected mayor. (In one amusing anecdote, a local restaurateur is shocked to learn that a liquor license cost just a couple hundred dollars, not the $35,000 he had previously paid.) This background, Cicilline argues, prepared him to serve as comanager of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. Cicilline offers informative, behind-the-scenes details about disagreements within the Democratic Party over how best to fight Trump, but veers into campaign mode when detailing his work on antitrust legislation and President Biden’s infrastructure bill. This political memoir loses steam the further the author’s career advances. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2022-06-08
A Rhode Island congressman charts an American democracy falling apart at the seams.

“In retrospect one might say that the most surprising thing about January 6, 2021, was that we were surprised by it,” writes Cicilline. With a solid political pedigree, including two terms as the first openly gay mayor of Providence, Cicilline is a student of changing cultural mores, battle lines in the culture wars, and long-standing prejudices and stereotypes. In the last instance, he recalls his Italian American father, a noted lawyer, with a rhetorical question: “This guy Cicilline wants us to believe he hated the corruption in Rhode Island, but his own father represented the top mob guy. How can he square these two things?” As the author writes, his father also pushed for civil rights, public school integration, anti-poverty programs, and more. Cicilline has spent significant energy warring against legislators at home who have pushed an anti–LGBTQ+ platform, “a very un–Rhode Island thing to do,” given founder Roger Williams’ devotion to “liberty of conscience.” Conscience is in short supply among Republicans on the Hill, Cicilline argues persuasively. Even though Mitch McConnell despised Donald Trump and said, after Jan. 6, that he would vote to impeach Trump (Cicilline was a House impeachment manager), McConnell instead held up the proceedings. If Trump, who “actively abused his office while neglecting his duties,” is Cicilline’s chief bête noire, there’s a whole host of enablers who draw his scorn. They actively threaten democracy even as Democrats tread water, “making detailed proposals for addressing complex problems and failing to sell them in the way Republicans sell their program of tax cuts and obstruction.” To counter this weakness, Cicilline proposes an aggressive response to combat Republican attacks on voting rights, abolish the filibuster, and expand pro-democracy initiatives.

A robust political memoir that affords the White nationalist element in Congress no quarter.

Kirkus Reviews

"The country got to know David Cicilline as a fiery manager in the second impeachment of Donald Trump but he has long helped lead the effort to make democracy deliver for Americans. In HOUSE OF FIRE he sounds an alarm about our system's very survival. We ignore him at our peril."—Jennifer Palmieri, former communications director of the Obama White House and co-host of Showtime's The Circus

"David Cicilline is a rare political figure who is entirely devoted to public service and would always speak the truth, even if it might cost him his position. In HOUSE ON FIRE, he offers a clear-eyed, and terrifying view of the extremist Right-wing movement that arose from the GOP’s anti-government crusade and points to the pathway we must follow to save our democracy. Read this book and be frightened, inspired, and moved to action."—Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal

“When future generations look back to see how democratic government was saved in our time, the name of one New England Congressman will reappear in every critical struggle and fight: David Cicilline. Read his irresistible personal account of the battle against authoritarianism in America.”—Congressman Jamie Raskin

“A robust political memoir that affords the White nationalist element in Congress no quarter.”—Kirkus Review

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