Albert Gore, Jr.

Flipping through these pages can be tragic when you read the level of intelligence behind the words and begin to wonder what the world would be like today if Al Gore had served George W. Bush’s two terms in office. Would there be milk chocolate fairies delivering candy and fountain-style root beer floats to children throughout the heartland of America? No, absolutely not. Yet I would wage a healthy amount of money that the U.S.A. would not have been in the geopolitical crapper as it was show more when George W. Bush finally walked out of those hallowed doors with one of the lowest approval ratings in history. His one-time opponent, Al Gore, tries to explain and extol on the reasons things went so badly off the rails.

The Assault on Reason is written by former Vice President Al Gore and details chapter after chapter the numerous areas where the Bush years, and some of those before, have displayed an incredible and frightening trend replacing science and reason with faith and narrow-mindedness. The government we once knew, the one begun all those years back, has been systematically dismantled, pulling the power from the people as a whole and concentrating it into an increasingly small number of hands. Those chosen few have since done everything in their power to eliminate reason and intellectual debate in favor of religious rhetoric and cowboy posturing in face of any and all opposing evidence. In essence, readers feel the true power of the American people slip further and further away with each turn of the page.

Before even opening the book, it must be noted the context in which these words live. Al Gore lost the Presidential election back in 2000 in one of the most contentious, and in some minds demonstrably corrupted, rulings in history. This man was a single breath away from the oval office and seven years later he writes a book about how terrible a job his former opponent is doing. So it is impossible to view this book without a small sense of bias on the part of the author. Yet, although the book does sometimes fall too far into “political slam-book” territory and reaches a slight whiny tone, Gore checks himself and within a few pages brings it back to a place where he backs up each and every criticism with solid, reasonable and irrefutable facts. In those passages when he cites source after source and charts out the trends which we should be so afraid of, that is when Gore is at his most effective.

The real power of the book is not as a weapon against the Bush-era style of politics and power grabbing, but the entire political system hierarchy and its continued growth away from the general public. Gore points out numerous occasions, pre-Bush, that also helped lead to the dangerous place we are today with so much control centralized into the office of President and not spread out amongst the three co-equal branches of the government as intended by those who set it up all those years ago. Yet, Gore even expands on this to the rest of the planet as well when talking about nuclear proliferation, detailing other nations and how they followed the missteps of the American powerhouse. In one of his most eloquent moments in the book, Gore writes:

“As a world community, we must prove that we are wise enough to control what we have been smart enough to create.”

In my mind, that is the central thesis to his entire argument. His textual intent is to warn us of the danger of nuclear arms being in the hands of people who block out reason in favor of belief, religious or otherwise, but sub-textually I believe the statement also shines lights on the creation of our government. Power should never be wielded only by one man alone; that is the antithesis of our democratic style of government. The balance between the three branches has been slowly ebbing away and the person sitting in the oval office has been the silent beneficiary of it all. Both sides have played their parts in the dismantling of that balance, but the Republicans took more giant steps on that march towards an iron-fist government between 2001-2008 than ever before in history.

What we can learn from this book is how to regain that balance, if you can filter out Gore’s “I wouldn’t have done it that way” tone in various portions. Science, reason and factual proof are slowly making their way back into governing politics, but there is a long way to go and more people who live by that credo need to find their way into the hallowed halls of the capital buildings. I’m not suggesting no one of any faith should be in government, just that they no longer turn a blind eye to anything that doesn’t follow in lockstep with that belief. Important choices should only be made after the most rigorous of debate and unfortunately, as you will see in these pages, our last President was not a huge fan of differing points of view. Even though this was written while Bush was still in office, many of the policies and laws enacted during that time are still in effect and Obama has yet to find the spare time to return some of that balance the government so desperately needs. Let’s help remind him.

This is a well written and well researched book on the state of our government and the dangerous path it is on. Although not exactly a page turner and it gets randomly embroiled in mudslinging and overly scientific terminology, the final result is still impactful and important. show less

This is, hands down, the best modern civics treatise in print and should be mandatory reading for every junior high school student. There is Constitutional exegesis, historical context, and policy analysis. The edition I listened to had an updated introduction and afterword covering the 2016 presidential election and the orange menace. This is one to re-read multiple times as Gore takes on all the major troubles of our modern age, not the least of which is the atrophying of our Democratic show more muscles.

Highly Recommended!!!!!
5 bones!!!!! show less

First let me say that I don’t read books about U.S. politics anymore. I love to read nonfiction on just about any topic, including world politics, but I’ve given up on U.S. politics. I’ve become resigned to passive powerlessness and hopelessness.

So why did I read Assault on Reason by Al Gore? I read it because I, like the vast majority of U.S. citizens today, feel strongly that the United States is going in the wrong direction and I wanted to know why. I’d heard that this book took a show more wise, well-reasoned, and non-biased elder statesman’s view on what was wrong and why. Naturally, I was skeptical. Before reading this book, I no more trusted Al Gore than I trusted any other politician. But unlike other politicians, I have grown to respect Gore’s active role in bringing the issues of global warming to the forefront of U.S. politics—so it must be, I reasoned, that underneath all that distasteful past impassioned political posturing, was in fact, a highly intelligent and experienced statesman with a strong moral compass.

Once I picked up the book, I could honestly hardly put it down. It kept me fully intellectually engaged (and yes, even entertained!) throughout. I felt like the fog had lifted and I was finally able to see clearly where I was. I was in a country that was quickly slipping the moorings of democracy that our Founding Fathers had set so steadfastly over 230 years ago.

Here was Gore, of all people, keeping me on the edge of my seat while deftly explaining, in unusually clear, statesman-like prose, what was wrong and why. Here were reasoned arguments backed up by well-researched examples and facts. I kept asking myself: Did Al Gore really write this? The prose was so articulate—it showed a true love for the beauty of well-constructed, well-reasoned argument. I was astounded. I did not know Gore had all this in him!

I’m not going to summarize what Gore says in this book. Others have done that here far better than I can. What I do want to stress is that this book is not only very readable, but for this reader at least, an absolute joy to read! Whatever you think about Gore, please put that aside, pick up this book and see if you are not captivated by it after reading the first chapter. And if you finish it, see if you don’t come away with a clearer view of why we are headed in the wrong direction and what is needed from all of us to bring our government back on course. show less

Only Al Gore could make such a distasteful subject so palatable. This is not an easy book to read, yet it certainly is well written. Several times I put it down in disgust. Even if he has engaged in a bit of hyperbole, and I desperately hope he has, Gore paints a striking picture of a republic in jeopardy, and a presidency interested primarily in the accrual of power.

Is there a way for us to bail off this handcart headed for you-know-where? Al Gore believes there is. After enumerating the show more Bush administration’s numerous shortcomings, and outright crimes against humanity, Gore iterates a doable if difficult recipe for reversing the dangerous path we’re on. For the sake of my children, I hope he’s right.

This is a must-read for anyone who plans to vote in the next U.S. presidential election. show less