Simon & Schuster
The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell
Key Metrics
- Alec Macgillis
- Simon & Schuster
- Paperback
- 9781501112034
- 8.3 X 5.6 X 0.3 inches
- 0.3 pounds
- Biography & Autobiography > Political
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
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 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.
Author Bio
Alec MacGillis covers politics and government for ProPublica. MacGillis previously reported for The New Republic, The Washington Post, and the Baltimore Sun. He won the 2016 Robin Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, the 2017 Polk Award for National Reporting, and the 2017 Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic, New York, Harper's, and New York Times Magazine, among other publications.
A resident of Baltimore, MacGillis is the author of The Cynic, a 2014 biography of Sen. Mitch McConnell, and the forthcoming Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America.
Source: www.propublica.org
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