government

Keillor does a competent job of sharing his views (which some may find too "liberal" for their taste).

Most impressive was the sincerity and honesty which came through in his writing.

The book comes across as having been written, not for shock value, nor to necessarily convince anyone that the author is correct in his views. Rather, Keillor seems to have written this one to, as he puts it, "speak his mind."

Bravo.

To say this book is about why President Bush should be defeated is a little like saying that Moby Dick is a book about a whale. True enough,as far as it goes. No, the book is really an extended mediation on citizenship---what it means(we all hang together or we all hang separately), how we lost it(lack of courage by both parties), how we get it back(civility).
But civility for Keillor is not the same as passivity. No, he believes that the idea of citizeship is in mortal peril and like a mother protecting its offspring(come to think of it he does write about his newborn) he attacks what he thinks wants to kill it: intolerance(he muses over why many Republicans can't figure out how not to think about homosexuality), lack of authenticity( he ridicules the Democracts for failing to be true to themselves in Vietnam and the drug war), and arrogance(the belief by many of both parties that they owe nothing to the past, believing themselves sprung full blown without a context ).
And, like the best poets, he takes the personal---how he grew up, where he was raised, those who nutured him---and makes it universal.
Now,make no mistake, he wants President Bush defeated and talks at length about it. Yet I think that he'd like nothing better than to talk to a fellow citizen about being a citizen and thinks,like the Stevie Ray Vaughn song, that there is only one allegiance we have and it's to freedom. Take him up on his offer. Have a dialogue. Be a citizen.

I stopped having anything to do with Garrison Keillor after he used his early morning poets corner on NPR to share vulgarities with Amarica's commuters. I didn't know if he was a Democrat or a Republican or neither. However, after almost driving my kindergartner off the road in a mad effort to save my baby from this man's coarse expressions, I needn't have waited for the title of this book to direct me to his political leanings. It figures!