3. The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell
The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell

The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell

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From a dogged political reporter, an investigation into the political education of Mitch McConnell and an argument that this powerful Senator embodies much of this country’s political dysfunction.

Based on interviews with more than seventy-five people who have worked alongside Mitch McConnell or otherwise interacted with him over the course of his career, The Cynic, which will be published as an original ebook, is both a comprehensive biography of one of this country’s most powerful politicians and a damning diagnosis of this country's eroding political will.

Tracing his rise from a pragmatic local official in Kentucky to the leader of the Republican opposition in Washington, the book tracks McConnell’s transformation from a moderate Republican who supported abortion rights and public employee unions to the embodiment of partisan obstructionism and conservative orthodoxy on Capitol Hill. Driven less by a shift in ideological conviction than by a desire to win elections and stay in power at all costs, McConnell’s transformation exemplifies the “permanent campaign” mindset that has come to dominate American government.

From his first race for local office in 1977—when the ad crew working on it nicknamed McConnell “love-me-love-me” for his insecurity and desire to please—to his fraught accommodation of the Tea Party, McConnell’s political career is a story of ideological calcification and a vital mirror for understanding this country’s own political development and what is wrought when politicians serve not at the behest of country, but at the behest of party and personal aggrandizement.

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Title:The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell
ISBN:9781476761077
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    The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell Reviews

  • Tonstant Weader

    I have been wanting to read The Cynic ever since I saw a picture of Mitch McConnell, student activist, organizing a civil rights march to Frankfort and learned he witnessed the signing of the Voting R...

  • Myles

    I really don’t want to believe that politicians at the top of the food chain are nearly as cynical as Alec Macgillis makes out in this brief but riveting biography of Republican Senate Majority Lead...

  • Chris

    The author hates his subject. I'm not sure what more I can say. The author hated his subject before he wrote it. Every fact was filtered through this lens. If you already hate the subject, and want to...

  • Jim Miller

    Assuming that all, or at least most, of the data discussed is true, a very good concise overview of Mitch McConnell. It discusses at length his flip-flopping on key issues, both as he was coming up in...

  • Kathleen

    Thinking about a foray into politics? Insightful read on what's been going on and how it has come to this....

  • Jack Wolfe

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBONa...A 160-page footnote to the President's masterful Correspondents' Dinner joke, and also a fine summary of just "how we got here"...Though the "here" of this book...

  • Martha Kenton

    This is a smart, well researched and short read. I’d give it a full five stars but the tone does lean left. For some people it may put them off to the larger message. Mitch is only out for Mitch usi...

  • Karen

    A fascinating account of Mitch McConnell's rise to power. This narrative does much to explain the man behind the current dysfunction in our government. The desire to win elections and to acquire powe...

  • Lukas Evan

    Apparently the title "The A**hole" was already taken. ...

  • Peter Arnstein

    "The Cynic" helped me fill some details in the Making of Mitch McConnell without spending a lot of time reading a denser and more expansive work. It didn't provide any materially new information. It d...