Patriot

by Gary Hart

Overview

Reflecting the experience and wisdom Gary Hart has accumulated during a lifetime of public service, The Patriot addresses the fundamental challenges to democratic leadership posed by a new century and a new millennium.

Written as a handbook of advice to an aspiring younger politician in the tradition of Machiavelli's The Prince, Hart's compact and incisive book identifies the primary challenge facing American leaders today as the restoration of trust between the people and their government.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780684863764
Publisher:	Free Press
Publication date:	10/01/1998
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Gary Warren Hart is a politician, diplomat, and lawyer. He was the front-runner for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination until he dropped out amid revelations of extramarital affairs.

Editorial Reviews

Using the model of Machiavelli's The Prince, Hart, a former Colorado Democratic senator who has long been active in national politics, has constructed a work that offers advice to an unnamed American "patriot"an aspiring younger politicianon ways to revitalize our nation. The Italian political philosopher, who said he wrote about men as they are, not as they should be, was certainly no idealist, so it seems paradoxical that Hart should invite a comparison. For Machiavelli, politics and ethics had nothing to do with each other, while Hart's politics are profoundly ethical. Nonetheless, this book abounds in insights (Nixon was "uncertain of his presence even in his own skin") and contains an impressive analysis of our national malaise. What Hart wants is "liberal nationalism" under a leader who has purity of heart, an expansive spirit and a great soul; he urges that we make a start toward that goal by driving out the "barbarians" who "corrode the spirit of national unity and civility," just as Machiavelli urged Cesare Borgia to drive barbarians out of the Italy of the Renaissance. A thoughtful work, perhaps too idealistic for our time. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In 1513 Niccolo Machiavelli wrote a short booklet entitled The Prince. In it Machiavelli offered what he considered to be practical advice for political leaders. Using Machiavelli's now classic work as a model, Hart, the former senator and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has written this book of advice for the modern aspiring political leader in the United States. His premise is an intriguing one, but the book is flawed in execution. Hart calls for a "new liberal nationalism'' and for "patrimonial" political leaders who recognize their responsibilities to future generations by working for a "quality-based culture." Unfortunately these concepts and others are inadequately explicated and developed. Thus, Hart's advice is of limited value. His book brings to mind a question posed to Hart by rival Democratic candidate Walter Mondale in 1984: "Where's the beef?" An optional purchase.-Thomas H. Ferrell, Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette

Library Journal

Hart, former senator and sometime candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, returns to lecture a paradigmatic (albeit nonexistent) seeker of high national office, in what he clearly believes is the manner of the 16th-century Florentine master Machiavelli, on what must be done to restore trust in America's government and renew a national sense of purpose.

The arguable righteousness of the source apart, Hart's (The Good Fight, 1993, etc.) grandiloquent pronouncements, which range from the self-serving through the self-evident, amount to little more than a mawkish and pretentious rehash of the neoliberal agenda. In 26 short chapters driven by an abiding hatred of the media (notably its putative bent for making and breaking celebrities, which he blames for his own fall from grace), Hart offers superficial guidance on affairs of state. Early on, he cautions the aspiring chief executive to be wary of elite groups who care more for their own selfish interests than for the common good. He urges him to trust the people. Hart then touches without dwelling on the supranational agencies or institutions that could be created not only to spread the creed of democracy throughout the Global Village but also to deal with the manifold problems that have emerged in the wake of the Cold War's end. Considered as well (albeit with appreciably more piety than wit) are such issues as the limits of US influence on newly independent states, equipping the military for the battlefields of the future (on a greatly reduced budget), setting an inspiring example for the electorate, breaking the "degrading mold" of empty campaign promises, and encouraging the domestic populace to make quality, not quantity, its principal focus.

Derivative, utopian precepts from an inch-deep political observer who bears precious little resemblance to the subtle intellectual heavyweight he recklessly chose as a model.

Kirkus Reviews