Selling Out

October 21, 2002
Onetime New York mayoral candidate Green lashes out against the government's tradition of selling access to politicians to the highest bidder and pricing practically everyone—besides millionaires—out of the ability to participate in our democracy. Although it's easy to detect the scent of sour grapes in Green's screed (he lost the election to business information tycoon Bloomberg), dismissing his words for that reason alone would be foolish. Fortunately eschewing the pervasive idea that American democracy was once a virginal paradise unsullied by as base a thing as money, Green provides a quick but thorough overview of the history of money and influence in national politics (during the post–Civil War era, most legislators openly sold their votes). After showing how we got ourselves into this mess, Green paints a portrait of how exactly the millions of dollars sloshing around the corridors of power shades and corrupts the system. Green does not cover much new ground, but he admirably collects all the usual jeremiads about this subject into one propulsive narrative. Although a Democratic bias creeps in here and there, for the most part Green blames his own party as much as the Republicans, naming names in plenty of embarrassing instances. (On sale Oct. 8)Forecast:Author appearances in New York and Washington, D.C., a 25-city national radio campaign and a national marketing campaign will raise Democrats' awareness of this title. But there's no guarantee they'll buy, since Green lost his election over a year ago and the public's interest may have moved on.