Basic Rules of Politics

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Basic Brown: My Life and Times is worth reading for the same reason Machiavelli’s Prince is worth reading: both books explain how politics work.  But the similarities between the two books don’t end there.  For Basic Brown, like The Prince, leaves the reader to work out the corollary to what the author is telling him.  Brown’s description of how campaign finance works is perhaps the classic example of this. 

Campaign Finance

It’s buried in the middle of the book but, in a very real sense, the whole book revolves around the system which Brown frankly outlines for us.  In this system  a politician 1) solicits funds from people who believe in the same things they do; 2) both they and the donor(s) understand that there is no quid pro quo to be had out of the donation; and 3) the donation(s) go to the politician’s Party which then “distributes [all the money] to races where cash is really needed.”

But if you think about this for a second, you realize that this system gives the Party a lot of power.  The Party gets to decide, in effect, whether your re-election campaign will get the funds it needs.  And the Party is often beholden to people who are ideologically committed—on both sides of the aisle.  Could it be that this system, while keeping the members away from temptation (a definite good) also has the effect of making politics so acrimonious; has led to gridlock?  (A gridlock and acrimony that Brown spends much of the book lamenting?)

Useful Knowledge

You don’t have to agree with this system—or even find it admirable—to find the information about it useful.  Just as you don’t have to agree with Machiavelli that the people and the Prince are synonymous and that neither have any use for morality when their interests are at stake.  Whether the message is pretty or not (and neither Brown nor Machiavelli are interested in pretty messages), the information both impart is very useful.

Useful Advice

But Brown (again like Machiavelli) does not stop with describing the system.  He also gives those interested in politics lots of sound advice on everything from what sort of clothes to wear in the TV age (he devotes a full chapter to this) to what really constitutes political power (knowing the rules and paying attention to people’s psychology).  And this, in my opinion is what makes this political “memoir” for all its revisionist history (Brown couldn’t do anything about the ruinous property taxation as Chair of the Revenue and Taxation Committee?) and his obvious need for love and adulation (Brown calls himself talented, alert, learned, smart, and sage) so useful.

Useful Book

As Brown says, if you want to make a difference in politics, you need to know how the system works.  This book (if you read it carefully) tells you what the rules of the political game are.

I recommend it.