How to Overthrow the Government

By Arianna Huffington

Book Overview

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a people to rise up in protest ...

When a handful of bull-market bullies and corporate profiteers amass vast fortunes while 35 million citizens languish in poverty ...

When average Americans decide they're sick of the burden of credit card-fueled lifestyles, tired of sending their children to violent, decaying schools, and sick and tired of sending corrupt, ineffectual career politicians back to Washington year after year to pander to their richest soft-money contributors . . .

When a majority of registered voters no longer have enough faith in our fat-cat "leaders" and their obsolete parties even to sbow up at the polls to replace them ...

When these truths become self-evident ...

Then the time has come to overthrow the government.

Arianna Huffington has earned a reputation as one of America's best-known and most independent political commentators, but this book will surprise even the most ardent followers of Beltway politics. In its pages she breaks away from the party-line platitudes of cynical Republicans and hypocritical Democrats alike and shines a harsh light on the real crises of contemporary America. Our democratic system has broken down, she contends. The two political parties have become indistinguishable. Their policies are feeble, their motives self-serving, their campaign tactics ruthless and insulting. And, as they kneel at the altar of profit, our nation's foundations are crumbling. Decay is everywhere: The physical decay of our cities and schools is matched by the moral decay of a drug industry that is allowed by politicians to push Prozac on children, a media industry that looks only for the next scandal, and a political industry that hypnotizes its candidates with polls, paralyzes them with smear tactics, and seduces them with carefully camouflaged cash.

How to Overthrow the Government, then, is Huffington's call to arms: a challenge to the average American to seize the government back from the special interests that now hold it hostage and restore control to the people themselves. From campaign finance reform to new voters' rights to grassroots Internet activism and civil disobedience campaigns, she calls for fresh and radical solutions to this national crisis--and offers a directory of local and national activist groups to contact that can help make it happen.

For if we are to preserve and protect our more perfect union, We the People must stand up and fight for our country--before it's too late.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060393319
• ISBN13: 9780060393311
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: HarperEntertainment
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.5" x 1.1" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

How to Overthrow the Plutocracy

This is a book that many people will rate based on their agreement or disagreement with Huffington's politics. Beware of low ratings that people give simply because they don't like the author's record, while some high ratings may have the same problem. These are hardly useful to someone considering a purchase. Certainly this book is political, but it is not necessary to agree with Huffington 100% politically to appreciate her main points. So if you're prone to reducing any piece of public discourse into an archaic (and currently nonsensical) liberal vs. conservative dichotomy, don't bother with this book because you won't get it. What Huffington's talking about here is far beyond left vs. right squabbling. The only problem with this book is that it was written in the middle of the 2000 presidential campaign and was immediately outdated in certain sections. Huffington's opinions on that election's disastrous finish would have given this book some extra kick.Huffington has a great insider's view of the horrendous state of our current political system. She's a Republican but she's got just as much (maybe even more) vitriol for the GOP in its failure to live up to its ideals, as she does for the Democrats. Plus her Centrist ideas reveal her to be one of the most levelheaded and realistic pundits around. For example, her proposal that all corporations and rich people should give 10% of their income to charity sure isn't a Republican-like idea. In her great tongue-in-cheek and slightly sarcastic style, Huffington shows the ineffectiveness of the system, as career politicians on both sides are enslaved to corporate contributions, opinion polls that only ask inane lowest-common-denominator questions, and a lapdog media that convinces people that "character' (actually reputation and personal rumors) is more important than leadership skills. And unlike other books of this type, Huffington's ideas for solutions aren't cheesy platitudes like "take the power back," but real options like politically oriented volunteering, "None of the Above" options on ballots, and local clean finance campaign initiatives. Corporate contributors really spread the money around to all politicians, as a way to latch onto whoever has power regardless of ideology, while politicians utilize this vicious cycle to hold onto power instead of making real decisions or exercising true leadership, and the system looks down its nose at a disillusioned and disenfranchised electorate. This book is about overthrowing this plutocracy, and people of all political persuasions should be concerned, unless you're a slave to the big money.

Wit, truth and vision

Excellent book! Arianna Huffington tells it like it is and doesn't pull any punches. This book is a call to arms of the ordinary citizen. It will help flesh out the details of what you already sense is wrong with our system. Neither party is safe as she discusses the path politics has taken and explores the mire that it now languishes in - "both" parties slaves to big business and special interests. Her plan for much needed reform through true leadership and community activism could have benefitted from more details, but she was right on with her basic description of the necessities for change. If every disenfranchised citizen (based on voter turnout, that would be most of us) read this book, we'd see some pretty fired up folks at the polls this November demanding some changes in 'politics as usual'.

The Truth About Politicians and Corporate Influence

If you have to read one book this year that cuts through the rhetoric of both the Republicans and the Democrats this year, read "How to Overthrow the Government." This book cuts to the chase about how our democracy is being sold out by both the Republican and Democratic parties to the highest corporate and special interest bidders. This book tells it as it is and how predator corporate economics is destroying our democracy including our children. Some may think that happy days are here again but tell that to the one in five children who live below the poverty line in this country or the over 30 million Americans without adequate health insurance. It's nice to see a Republican agreeing on many issues with a liberal Democrat such as Jim Hightower. Maybe there is hope that both Democrats and Republicans are coming together with a common goal - restore a principle-centered leadership in this country with public interest as a number one priority rather than special interests.

Run, do not Walk......

Ms. Huffington has written, from the inside, what REALLY goes on. I have taught my students the very things she discusses for over two years. It is so painfully obvious to the most elementary observer of politics and policy today that it derives not from the needs of society but from the exhange of money between Congressional members and special interests. Ms. Huffington gives relevant, first-hand examples of this and offers advice to those who choose to accept it, the methods by which to take back our process from the elite. While she provides excellent examples to readers how to get involved, there are issues she covers with which I take exception, i.e. term limits. In spite of these short falls, I think this should be mandatory reading for every student of civics! Thank you Ms. Huffington for exposing the dark underbelly and providing yet another reason for us to question the motivation of our representatives!

Take Back Your Country: The Moment is Now!

And we all thought Y2K meant botched computers. This Y2K book is a call to action for citizens to get involved in something much bigger than themselves--self-government through civic participation. Why should we wait for our "enlightened leaders" to call out directions? The answers lie within us: big money has corrupted our two-party system and the solutions aren't in Washington or name-that-state capital; this manifesto provides precise steps to reclaim politics as that sacred public space that makes society better for us all. No one is truly rich when someone, somewhere is poor. Get on this political bandwagon because a political movement and moment is upon us. Oh, and by the way, Arianna Huffington will help you keep your sense of humor as the revolution embarks.