New Review: It's My Party Too

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

The 2006 midterm elections and 2008 presidential election will hopefully become known as the “Years of the Moderates.” 2005 has given us the Terry Schiavo fiasco, filibuster-palooza, the potential deconstruction of Social Security, and any other number of partisan scandals. What I, along with many other people in America, really want is someone in a position of power who is a moderate. We want somebody who is liberal on some issues (like choice/abortion) and conservative on other issues (like the deficit). We certainly don’t want leftwing-fringe lunatic Communists in power, nor do we want evangelical-rightwing tyrannical fascists. We are a country that dines on happy mediums and to date, as both parties race to their respective fringes, we have been starved.

Just in time, however, comes a book that spells out our collective needs and desires in a neat format. Former New Jersey Governor and EPA Administrator, Christine Todd Whitman, has written a call to arms for all rational individuals currently invested in the future of American government. “It’s My Party Too: The Battle For the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America,” is one part political platform and one part autobiography. Whitman intertwines her life as the daughter of a prominent political figure, dark horse candidate, and eventual governor of New Jersey and EPA administrator, with her thoughts about how the GOP should conduct itself going forward in the political arena.

Though the book covers many topics related to how the GOP should operate, the central theme is that the GOP is somewhat in crisis. Whitman writes that those with a narrow view of Republican principles and those who remember the days of the GOP being a “big tent” party are ripping her party asunder from the inside. The biggest misconception about the Republican Party is that it is filled with evangelical, bigoted, social Darwinists who communicate with fire and brimstone rather than good old common sense. The purpose of the book is to re-establish that there are members of the Republican Party who do not belong to the “Taliban wing” or the “CEO/anti-FDR wing” of the GOP and are rather thoughtful and engaging personalities. (More)