I found the writing style to be incredibly dry and that the narrative voice assumed a familiarity with the details of the time-period being described. While I was able to discern what Didion was saying, I did struggle throughout reading this book.

Omnipotent Joan Didion. A lot of the references and nods to political icons were lost on me due to the decades of politics she’s referencing, but the lessons and commentary from this remain eerily relevant, especially amidst the administration turnover. Evangelicals ruining America & the Democrats inability to ever take a stance on the correct issue in order to capture a lead :(

I found this book by chance, perusing the magnetic shelves at Zandbroz, a funky indy store in downtown Fargo, ND. Bought it on a whim and found that I just love Didion's writing style and combining it with this subject matter just leaves me smiling, wanting more. The pictures painted of the political world are revealing, feeding my always-hungry curiosity.

“In the understandably general yearning for ‘change’ in the governing of our country, we might pause to reflect on just what is being changed, and by whom, and for whom.” It’s sad how relevant this remains, but it’s refreshing to hear from someone NOT in the political system why our American systems are failing us, and she doesn’t hold back.

Funny reading a book of political essays from the 90s and realizing the current ‘unprecedented’ era of politics isn’t too unique

Didion’s 2001 book lives up to the title – it’s all politics all the time. The pieces range in date from 1988 to 2000. The first two pieces were also included in her earlier book After Henry but it definitely makes sense to include them in this collection too, in fact the first one “Insider Baseball” develops the theme of the entire collection - that the political establishments together with the media have defined American political life in a way that has almost nothing to do with real issues, real problems and the interests and views of a majority of the populace. Which explains why so many people find current politics and both parties pretty much irrelevant.

My modest review is more a reflection of my lack of political understanding than the brilliance of Joan Didion. Her insights on Reagan's 'performance' as president were fascinating. I learned (again) about the Clinton morality fiasco with Starr leading the charge and Linda Trippe testifying at every turn. The political insiders, press, and campaign strategists were all covered, ending with the religious fever that Bush condoned and is with us still.

Mycket svårläst men intressant såhär 25 år senare om hur faktisk politik reduceras till fiktion. Framställningen och åsikterna om den viktigare än den faktiskt utförda. Nu når vi nya höjder när fiktioner förvandlas till faktisk.
Cirkel sluts för en lovande framtid..!

Reading these essays written between 1988 and 2000 through the lens of 2008 and 2016 is like reading the Old Testament through the lens of the New.

Didion identifies the problem with our politics in the fist paragraph of the first essay, the people she hung out with in high school - average Janes and Joe's - don't vote and are not involved in the "process". Didion's coverage of the 88 Democratic Primary in California predicts both Obama's and Trump's rise.

Jesse Jackson was dangerous for three reasons - First, white people started to vote for him. Obama won Iowa and that's how he won the nomination. Second, Jackson was financed outside the political process. That's Trump. Third he had no political experience - that's basically both of them. "I heard him [Jackson] he didn't sound like a politician."

But the her piece "Clinton Agonistes" just nails Clinton while circling back to the main theme. From the first paragraph (Didion's opening's are her best parts, that goes for Democracy and The Last Thing He Wanted except when when she ends with a killer quote)

"No one who ever passed through an American public high school could have watched William Jefferson Clinton running for office in 1992 and failed to recognize the familiar predatory sexuality of a the provincial adolescent."

"No one could have missed the reservoir of self-pity, the quickness to blame, the narrowing of the eyes, as if in wildlife documentary, when things did not go his way. That famous tendency of the candidate to take a less than forthcoming approach to embarrassing questions that had already been well documented."

"Nothing that is now known about the 42nd President was not known before the New Hampshire primary in 1992."

And then the killer close:

"Who cares about what every adult thinks", said one staffer, "It's totally not germane to the point".

Changed the way I saw politics but some of it is so grounded in a time unfamiliar with me and throws around names I’m not familiar with. The beginning of the book and final essay are the best parts.

One of the reasons I revisit this book is due to Didion’s sharp observational eye and highly analytical prose, coolly communicating truths about the American political system that have, for the most part, remained accurate across time. Using the presidential elections and federal landscape of the 1980s and 1990s, Didion communicates “the ways in which the political process did not reflect but increasingly proceeded from a series of fables about the American experience” (7), underscoring how the political process and landscape had become “perilously remote from the electorate it was meant to represent” (8). A fascinating read that provides critical journalistic context for the political era immediately proceeding the ones in which I grew up…

I can think of few writers who can write with such clarity and incision about the US political classes, and I’ve recommended this to no fewer than four people over the course of reading it.