Rereading this again since the first time I read it when I was just 14, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it was the first book related to politics that I read in it's entirety, but looking back on it so many years later, I'm frightened by now much I feel like the foundation of my attitude on politics was formed by this book, as well as Truth (With Jokes) that I read a year later.
Yes, blah blah, it's Al Franken, but throughout the entire book, Franken places a very serious importance on telling the truth, on basing your arguments in fact, and responding to untruths with empirical truth. It's a very very simple concept, but it's also a very important one that our politics, especially in the last decade+ has forgotten. Politics is serious, and it matters a whole lot, and it shouldn't be treated like a game. The issues we debate are serious, and if we deserve anything, it's that the issues should be debated genuinely and honestly in good faith.
I very very strongly believe that. And it's the foundation for almost everything
else that I believe in.
Near the end of the book, Franken writes this, which I think is the take-away from the book, even though it focuses on right-wing figures or particular lies from the Bush Administration:
He's right. It only depresses me that, since writing this book 7 years ago-ish, the other side has only gone further down the rabbit hole. One side of American politics earnestly wants to govern and treat politics as a system for doing good. The other side, does not. And they do not value empirical truth the way that we do.
Those who treat politics and elections as a game are not serious people. And they should not be
treated as serious people. That's essentially the message of the book. Don't lie about stuff that matters, and if someone does, go after them with everything you've got.
