I am a die hard liberal. I’m not a registered Democrat in Idaho, because my area is so conservative, my vote is irrelevant. So, it may be surprising that I listened to the audio book of John McCain’s daughter. In the summary, I saw that Meghan McCain is critical of the direction the Republican party is headed, and so I thought I’d give the book a listen to see what she had to say. Ultimately, the book had three themes: 1) Problems with the Republican Party, 2) Meghan’s story about the campaign and how she disliked many of her dad’s advisors, 3) Meghan McCain idolizes her dad.
The book is essentially a memoir of the two years following Meghan’s graduation from Columbia with an Art History degree. Essentially, she graduated from Columbia in 2007 and immediately started working on her dad’s presidential campaign. She had the idea to create a blog to try to reach young Republican and moderate voters. She was granted access, provided she financed the entire project. During her times, her youth and lack of media savvy got her into a lot of trouble with her dad’s advisors.
The first thing I will say is that this book probably would have read better than it was as a listen. Meghan McCain’s voice sounds, well, stupid. Part of the reason for this because the tone of her voice, primarily due to youth, sounded like a valley girl. The other reason, though, is because she mispronounces a ton of words. I’m sorry, an Ivy League graduate who cannot properly pronounce the word “tyranny” should give her degree back.
At the start of the book, I actually agreed with a lot of what Meghan was saying about the Republican party. She describes the party as an insider’s club and very exclusive. She starts to describe the exclusions based on philosophy. However, after listening to the book, I think her bigger concerns are with the fact that she is viewed as an outsider because of her appearance. The only ideological issue that she challenges is Gay Marriage, but that’s because of the gay friends she probably made in New York. Other than that, she really seems to tout the party line.
Ultimately, the book was interesting, but it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as I had hoped it would be. In the end, it reminded me why I am a Democrat.
3/5