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    Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America
    Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America
    Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America
    Audiobook4 hours

    Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America

    Written by Garrison Keillor

    Narrated by Garrison Keillor

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In this thoughtful, deeply personal work, one of the nation's best-loved voices takes the plunge into politics and comes up with a book that has had all of America talking. Here, with great heart, supple wit, and a dash of anger, Garrison Keillor describes the simple democratic values-the Golden Rule, the obligation to defend the weak against the powerful, and others-that define his hard-working Midwestern neighbors and that today's Republicans seem determined to subvert.

    A reminiscence, a political tract, and a humorous meditation, Homegrown Democrat is an entertaining, refreshing addition to today's rancorous political debate.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateAug 9, 2004
    ISBN9781598879636
    Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America
    Author

    Garrison Keillor

    Garrison Keillor, born in Anoka, Minnesota, in 1942, is an essayist, columnist, blogger, and writer of sonnets, songs, and limericks, whose novel Pontoon the New York Times said was “a tough-minded book . . . full of wistfulness and futility yet somehow spangled with hope”—no easy matter, especially the spangling. Garrison Keillor wrote and hosted the radio show A Prairie Home Companion for more than forty years, all thanks to kind aunts and good teachers and a very high threshold of boredom. In his retirement, he’s written a memoir and a novel. He and his wife, Jenny Lind Nilsson, live in Minneapolis and New York.

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    Reviews for Homegrown Democrat

    3.5/5

    113 ratings8 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I enjoy Garrison so much. He’s funny and articulate. A soothing and interesting listen
    • 1/5
      This idiot lives on the upper east side of Manhattan. Tell us more about how the common man thinks.
    • 3/5
      I have mixed feelings about this book which someone left in my own Little Free Library. I had always seen many books by this author but never felt compelled to read any of them. I noticed the word Democrat in the title so I started to browse through it. It seemed interesting enough so I started reading it. Then I got a creepy feeling when I learned that the author was one of those men who was recently accused of sexual harassment. I decided to finish reading the book anyway.Basically the book glorifies Democrats and bashes Republicans. I was surprised at the hateful rhetoric used in this book against Republicans because this book was published in 2004. The venom is just the same as now (2018) regardless of which side of the fence one stands on. I did not know this partisan hatred had been so deep for so long. I felt depressed after reading this book, not relieved.One thing that did surprise me, however, was that the author, who is from rural Minnesota, is such a staunch Democrat. So much for stereotypes (although I personally don't believe in them). I probably would not recommend this book, more because it is dated than anything else. However, I'm glad I had the chance to read it.
    • 4/5
      So, from now on, when people in the Bible Belt and Southern California ask me how I can possibly be a Democrat (capital 'D'), I will hand them a copy of this book. It does no good for me to tell them simply that I am a Democrat (capital "D') because I went to church and read the bible. When I quote that Jesus instructed us to 1) love God above all else, and 2) love your neighbor as yourself and that 3) these two sum up the teachings of the whole, I get blank stares from righteous, bible-thumping, redneck, blowhards. It doesn't compute. Thank the Lord there is Garrison Keillor who just plain gets me.

      "This is Democratic bedrock: we don't let people lie in the ditch and drive past and pretend not to see them dying" (Keillor, 2004, p. 137)...The child's suffering has nothing to do with them. So the kid goes to relatives who also have a history of abuse. It's no skin off the redneck's nose. He's got a giant TV, 99 channels of cable, a snowmobile, a Hummer, a collection of guns, a boat, Jet Skis, he's sitting pretty. The demise of somebody else's kid at the hands of a drunken uncle is nothing but roadkill to him. This is the screw-you philosophy that festers under cover of modern Republicanism" (Keillor, 2004, p. 138).

      One reviewer stated that this book is part polemic. I beg to differ. It is a full polemic. Keillor had some things to get off his chest, and being a writer, he took recourse through the gift given him: he wrote a book. What a comfort to see what is rolling around in my head set down in print. Keillor offers gems of sardonic entertainment at the expense of Republicans. But, let's face it, Republicans deserve it. Republicans enjoy the fruits of the government Democrats created...from public education to public roads, from freedom of religion to capitalism, but they refuse to foster the principles and tools that keep these things functioning. I have lived outside the U.S. in places where security is privatized because the local police cannot be trusted...where it's every man for himself and screw you otherwise, where a person lying dying in the road is a curiosity to pass the lunch hour instead of the loss of a precious human life that deserves help and urgency. I do not want America to be that type of place. ((God help us.)) As long as there are people like Keillor and myself...plus a multitude of other fair-minded, hard-working, Democrats (capital 'D')...we just might be able to combat the arrogance, selfishness, dystopian incivility that hallmarks the modern Republican (capital 'R') party.
    • 5/5
      I love Garrison Keillor's wry sense of humor. He does an admirable job tempering his disdain for neo-con politics, delivering a very common sense description of his upbringing and why he believes as he does. Hearing his melodic voice in the audio-book was a much calmer experience than watching, say, a Michael Moore film.I recommend hearing him out on this book. His mid-western honesty is refreshing and encouraging. It renewed my party non-affiliation. While I agreed with his attack on typical Republican politics, I see many of the same errors in Obama's lack of action. He proudly discusses the local coffee shop and does indicate that it is supporting local small business over corporate interests that he holds close to his heart. My viewpoints align very much with his. I guess I would have just tried not to exclude so many readers with the title he chose.
    • 5/5
      I love Keillor, the way he writes, what hehas to say, and this book didn't disappoint. It's completely unlike hisother books, though. He's written novels, anthologies, poetry, essays,columns and articles, and I've read all of them (I think) but this onewas different. This one came from his heart and you could tell it.The book was written before the 2004 election, but that hardly matters. Thisisn't a diatribe against Republicans or against Bush, so it is prettymuch timeless, I think. Keillor's upbringing was a lot like mine, froma place and time where people who worked hard for a living and believedin helping their neighbors were all Democrats because that's whoDemocrats ARE. Keillor spends about half the book discussing the basicphilosophical differences between Democrats and Republicans with adirectness and great insight into what it is, exactly, that makes themtick. Personally, I feel he nailed it right on the head. He tells itin such a way that the reader discovers that the label "liberal" isn'tsomething to be ashamed of at all.A lot of the book is spent in his own personal memories of the 1950sthrough the 1980s as this country went through massive changes and youngadults of the baby boomer generation formed their own politicalopinions. I found this interesting because I'd had a lot of the samethoughts and reactions to things like Kennedy's assassination, the warin Vietnam, Nixon's resignation, etc.I enjoyed this book a bunch and my only complaint is that it was far tooshort. Like any other Keillor work, I was sorry to see it end. I giveit a 5.
    • 4/5
      There is no doubt that Keillor is a talented writer. His nostalgia for the Midwest of his youth tended to remind me of the writing of Bill Bryson in The Lost Continent. But I had hoped that Keillor would have more to contribute to the political dialogue. Instead, he too often resorted to name-calling rather than reasoning. While fun to read, it ended up feeling sort of like political comfort food for Democrats. Enjoyable, but definitely not particularly meaningful.
    • 3/5
      Prairie Home Companion creator shares his view of the current war between Republicans and Democrats, and liberalism and conservatism in this quick read. Sometimes he gets downright cranky, but always there is that midwestern sensibility in his prose. I enjoyed it.