Dated and Prescient at the Same Time

I had the experience of listening to Garrison Keillor's "Homegrown Democrat" twice and thus I'll make the argument that I'm probably very qualified to talk about it (at least as qualified as you get with this sort of thing). I should make mention that my listening(s) of this book took place in two distinct time periods: before and after John Kerry lost everything to the galactic Empire. There is an embattled, pleading tone to Keillor's book that seems tailored for the pre-election period where there were many people who oddly couldn't decide on who to vote for and must have ended up voting the wrong way because they didn't care (it's the only way to explain this particular bit of history.. the only way that makes any sense!). The aftermath of the last few months of the new Bush era has been dark indeed, and listening to this book a second time only clarifies how many hopes were dashed on the rocks of mistruth.

Picture it: I'm driving to Los Angeles with my mother, a new era in my life beckoning with each labored mile endured. My mother, politically moderate, but socially probably a little more right, hadn't really thought about the first 4 years of the bush presidency. I had done my best to give her the dirty details and she wanted more information. Hence Keillor: he's the most unthreatening presence alive and his throat is coated with gold. Just listen to NPR on any given Saturday afternoon and the proof is there: He's the one man liberals and conservatives can agree on. He's got a wholesome heart with a distinctly left wing tongue. My mother, being a native Minnesotan, was already open to the message, especially since most of what Keillor describes about his political beliefs are couched inextricably with where he was brought up. The Minnesota described in Homegrown is the Minnesota my mother grew up in. It is the place of the schools she went to and it is where the people that raised her settled and maintained a more liberal European political tradition. Keillor represents what I like most about my mother's generation and what I wish was more prevalent in my own: a sense of progressivism that cannot be quenched.

So anyway, my mother and I listened happily as Keillor talked about his life and the people that raised him. Keillor bemoans Bush's financial breaks to the rich and proclaims the need for clear headed common sense in government. These are all things my mother responded to. Indeed, her last word on the then-upcoming November 2nd election was "how can I vote for bush after hearing this?". Cut to the aftermath of November 2nd. We all thought about ritual seppuku over here in Los Angeles but thought better of it. Soon Keillor's words were gone, forgotten; lost in a golden past where it seemed something really big was about to happen. So you must see, hearing it again a month ago was torture. It seemed like everything Keillor said magnified how wrong things currently are and how hard the next 4 years will be. Everything addressed the basic, objective and impossibly wrong actions the current president would be happy to admit to (with another spin of course). And here I am thinking about Keillor and what his sequel should be to Homegrown Democrat. I'm sure it would be something about being patient and hopeful. I'm sure I'll get to the point where I can take it, but right now, Homegrown Democrat exists in another time for me. It accomplishes it's job, but exists for a new group to listen to it in another 4 years. In the end, I had a good experience with this book the first time as it was a part of a grander moment with my mother. Now she is talking to me about what Bush has been doing this week and I guess I have to deal with it and hope for a better day.

Seth Anderson
http://www.learnoutloud.com

The US is reminded of where the Democrat spirit comes from

Keillor recalls for us what most of America has forgotten: that the spirit of the true democrat---or, if you prefer, Democrat---actually comes from real living, not just out of the minds of ideologues in Hollywood or faculty lounges at universities.

This was once common knowledge in America: Everyone benefits when everyone pitches in and looks after each other, and no one gets to use their wealth and power as a way to silence others. That's old Democratic values. But that's been drummed out of the public consciousness by the shout of right-wing demagogues and a corporate commercial culture that oozes the message that politics don't mean anything except to politicians.

Keillor reminds us that what gives rise to a Democrat is a childhood and young adulthood that emphasize that we all have to squat down and do the human dirty work; that we all benefit from a kind and just society; that we need to have some room to exercise our lusts and passions at some point in our lives and get familiar with the tug of the social tether as we get reeled back in; that we all need to know that honesty and effort are worth something, and that they're valued more highly than tough-sounding talk and hard cash. Keillor reminds us that Democrats grow out of these conditions and that's how we give entire generations a chance to grow up with a fair shake.

Homegrown Democrat hits hard at the way our culture's been hijacked by the greedy and powerful, and at their media shills' penchant for blaming the weak. Keillor pulls no punches. Maybe it;s true that he's been trying to shake off an old identity as a Minnesota Mr. Milquetoast. Maybe he never bought into that identity from the beginning. In any case, what he shows himself to be is anything but hateful. Angry, maybe, but not hateful. Dismayed that the image of the American Democrat has been repainted by loudmouth bullies to serve as their very own personal whippin' boy.

Working Against ALL Our Stereotypes

Some reviewers below express chagrin (if that's the right word) that Garrison Keillor uses this book as an attack vehicle.

I'd thought so too, especially since this book came out before the 2004 election. Circumstances are such that the "attack" conclusion is inevitable.

But Keillor's been out of the closet for an awful long time. Anyone who's listened to his work knows that he, like his apocryphal neighbors, is a Minnesota populist from 'way back.

We have seen him as so genteel, though, that we do not want to release him from his own built-up stereotype. Garrison Keillor invented Garrison Keillor, then got tired of himself, went away from himself, and then came back to himself. We like his stuff because it's feelgood material, that's true. We also like it because, in a vague way, we feel that we're being mocked.

We are.

Keillor aspired to literary cred from a young age. Read his stuff - it's all there. But he's matured to realize that he cannot escape the self that he's invented.

If Covey's seventh habit - leave a legacy - applies to Keillor, then this book makes sense. Keillor's watched his own best-loved political philosophy rise nationally ascendent in his lifetime (early 1960s), peak, and then begin the decline it's in now. For him to defend it is understandable in that he wants to leave a legacy.

If it's about populist kindness and Christianity, then we can admire and accept it. If it's about saying that all Democrats are unqualifiedly selfless, generous, and altruistic, I'd refer him to the Teamsters union.

Finally, if it's about saying (as he does in his book) that all Republicans are greedy, narrow-minded, bigoted, wrongheaded and suspicious of the best in human nature, he's stereotyping just as invidiously as anyone is and foreclosing reasoned debate on the merits of issues. For that, as his mom would say, he should be ashmed of himself...