The Great Game of Politics
Why We Elect, Whom We Elect
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From our nation's inception there has been a constant dynamic of tension between those political philosophies that we have labeled the left and the right, despite the fact that the vast majority of American voters really fall into the category of moderates. During the early years, the shifts between the two were dramatic and frequent: the Federalists on one side, the Jeffersonians on the other, as the young democracy came to grips with the two opposing political forces that were to mold the new nation. On one hand we have the concerned with business, conservatism, and the development of capital and wealth. They want the government to provide security that will protect the nation's interest while allowing free-market forces to increase prosperity. On the other hand we have the left, concerned with personal rights, equality, and the fostering of prosperity for all citizens through an active and involved federal government.
By explicating the Presidency from George Washington to George W. Bush,
The Great Game of Politics examines the American Presidency as a cyclic reflection of the concerns of the electorate vis à vis the excitation of the ideologies of our two major parties in a constant left-right swing where the will of the people sets the pendulum in motion and determines the direction the country will take for another four years. From the early years, where the dynamic tension that forged the nation initially required numerous shifts to establish an acceptable political equilibrium, to the revered legacies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, whose presidencies not only initiated major political shifts but also instituted fundamental changes in the apparatus of government that would prove to be integral to the administrations that followed them, both Democratic and Republican.
They seized the reins of government and made a lasting mark. Indeed the truly great presidents¾Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Reagan¾shaped the course of history for our nation and in doing so proved themselves to be masters of The Great Game of Politics.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Stoken's view, American history is not a "patternless swirl of events," but rather follows a very simple pattern: a continual shifting back and forth between liberal and conservative philosophies in nine eras, or paradigms, whose agendas were set by the nine presidents Stoken considers to have been great (the inclusion of Washington and Lincoln won't surprise anyone; that of Coolidge might).For instance, the New Deal/Great Society era initiated by Franklin Roosevelt was followed by the current conservative era of the New Economy, whose agenda was set by Ronald Reagan. Beginning with the battle between Alexander Hamilton's Federalists and Thomas Jefferson's democrats, Stoken sees a political battle between those who want to limit government and provide wealth (conservatives) and those who want to use government in order to secure equality and individual rights (liberals). It's a creative approach that allows for framing American history in nice, neat windows perhaps a bit too neat. These paradigms are based on the current Republican and Democratic parties, and as Stoken himself admits, they don't always fit the past so well. Serious students of the American presidency will find Stoken's thinking a bit simplistic as well as present-minded. And Stoken, an investor who has written several investment books (The Great Cycle; Strategic Investment Timing), writes more like a motivational speaker he's prone to exclamation points than a historian. But less-schooled readers may find some help in thinking about the approaching 2004 election.