In case you haven't noticed, we're living in a very politically charged moment. Not only are President Bush's performance ratings at an all-time low just as midterm elections are coming up, but you know something serious is going on when even Karl Rove gets demoted. After years of smug Republicanism, the mood of the country might just be starting to shift, at least a bit.
It's the perfect time, in other words, for publishers to trot out titles that tout a Democratic ideology and/or introduce some Democratic contenders for leadership.
So what are the big Democrat books coming out this spring? America Back on Track by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and An Inconvenient Truth, about global warming, by former vice president Al Gore. Neither, obviously, is introducing a new name to the American people, and neither seems to introduce much else that's new, either. While Kennedy takes some predictable shots at the current administration, his book is less a call to specific action than an attempt to reawaken the spirit of the Kennedyesque '60s. An Inconvenient Truth—to judge from a brief conversation with Gore—is passionate about its subject and gets down to specifics, but it is, he says, less about politics than about moral, ethical and even spiritual decisions. You don't have to be a registered anything to profess to care about the environment; it's a bit like speaking up against child abuse.
Both of these titles look to be intelligent and learned and interesting, if in a wonky sort of way. (PW was respectful, rather than enthusiastic, about Kennedy's book. Gore's was unavailable at press time, but to quote from the publicity materials, it has an "accessible, entertaining style" and benefits from the author's "humor"). But for all their good intentions, I have a hard time believing that either title will make news or careers, or even much of a peep in the political discourse. And I'd bet my campaign contributions that they're not going to sell through all that well, either.
Say what you will about the right-wing publishing elite, they know how to make books. They find an Ann Coulter, say, or (horrors) a Bill O'Reilly or even a John McCain, and they turn them into authors or, at least, self-promoting political machines. And what does the left side do? Except for the occasional book by an Al Franken, a Michael Moore, a Barack Obama or a John Edwards (though it's unclear whether his forthcoming Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives is old or new think), the left looks in the opposite direction. To the past. To the warhorses of yore.
Publishing has long been accused of being backward and change-resistant and old-think, well-worn adjectives that are also often applied to the Democratic Party itself. In this way, at least, I'm afraid the old saw about publishing and liberalism being inextricably connected is still very true. But here's a question: if we creative book people are so tied up with the liberal left, isn't it time we looked beyond the obvious authors and ideas? Respect it or not, Regnery arguably won Bush the 2004 election with its publication of the Kerry-attacking Unfit for Command. So what has publishing done for the left lately?
Agree? Disagree? Tell us at www.publishersweekly.com/saranelson
