Audiobook9 hours
Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes that Run Our Government
Written by Dana Milbank
Narrated by Johnny Heller
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Washington's most acerbic (and feared) columnist, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, skewers the peculiar and alien tribal culture of politics.
Deep within the forbidding land encircled by the Washington Beltway lives the tribe known as Homo politicus. Their ways are strange, even repulsive, to civilized human beings; their arcane rites often impenetrable; their language coded and obscure. Violating their complex taboos can lead to sudden, harsh, and irrevocable punishment. Normal Americans have long feared Homo politicus, with good reason. But fearless anthropologist Dana Milbank has spent many years immersed in the dark heart of Washington, D.C., and has produced this indispensable portrait of a bizarre culture whose tribal ways are as hilarious as they are outrageous.
Milbank's anthropological lens is highly illuminating, whether examining the mating rituals of Homo politicus (which have little to do with traditional concepts of romantic love), demonstrating how status is displayed in the Beltway's rigid caste system (such as displaying a wooden egg from the White House Easter Egg Roll), or detailing the precise ritual sequence of human sacrifice whenever a scandal erupts (the human sacrificed does not have to be the guiltiest party, just the lower ranked). Milbank's lacerating wit mows down the pompous, the stupid, and the corrupt among Democrats, Republicans, reporters, and bureaucrats by naming names. Every appalling anecdote in this book is, alas, true.
Deep within the forbidding land encircled by the Washington Beltway lives the tribe known as Homo politicus. Their ways are strange, even repulsive, to civilized human beings; their arcane rites often impenetrable; their language coded and obscure. Violating their complex taboos can lead to sudden, harsh, and irrevocable punishment. Normal Americans have long feared Homo politicus, with good reason. But fearless anthropologist Dana Milbank has spent many years immersed in the dark heart of Washington, D.C., and has produced this indispensable portrait of a bizarre culture whose tribal ways are as hilarious as they are outrageous.
Milbank's anthropological lens is highly illuminating, whether examining the mating rituals of Homo politicus (which have little to do with traditional concepts of romantic love), demonstrating how status is displayed in the Beltway's rigid caste system (such as displaying a wooden egg from the White House Easter Egg Roll), or detailing the precise ritual sequence of human sacrifice whenever a scandal erupts (the human sacrificed does not have to be the guiltiest party, just the lower ranked). Milbank's lacerating wit mows down the pompous, the stupid, and the corrupt among Democrats, Republicans, reporters, and bureaucrats by naming names. Every appalling anecdote in this book is, alas, true.
Related to Homo Politicus
Related audiobooks
Grounded: A Senator’s Lessons on Winning Back Rural America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Realigners: Partisan Hacks, Political Visionaries, and the Struggle to Rule American Democracy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautiful Country Burn Again: Democracy, Rebellion, and Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Manifesto: Saving Democracy from Villains, Vandals, and Ourselves Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Demagogue's Playbook: The Battle for American Democracy from the Founders to Trump Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dark Quadrant: Organized Crime, Big Business, and the Corruption of American Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBoss Rove: Inside Karl Rove's Secret Kingdom of Power Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5American Fascism: How the GOP is Subverting Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gilded Rage: A Wild Ride Through Donald Trump's America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Desk 88: Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Confirmation Bias: Inside Washington's War Over the Supreme Court, from Scalia's Death to Justice Kavanaugh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond War: Reimagining American Influence in a New Middle East Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5What Liberal Media?: The Truth About Bias and the News Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unmaking the Presidency: Donald Trump's War on the World's Most Powerful Office Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in An Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5F.U.B.A.R. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Kill the Messangers: Stephen Harper's Assault on Your Right to Know Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Political Ideologies For You
While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Will Own Nothing: Your War with a New Financial World Order and How to Fight Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marriage Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vision of the Anointed: Self-congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right-Wing (And How I Got Out) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Democrat Party Hates America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascism: A Warning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Marxism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Communist Manifesto (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We're Polarized Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emergent Strategy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Long Slide: Thirty Years in American Journalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Anti-Communist Manifesto Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Homo Politicus
Rating: 3.789473573684211 out of 5 stars
4/5
19 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An enjoyable look, albeit a somewhat disturbing one at times, at the bunch of loons we entrust to run our nation. Somewhat skewed in its skewering, it looks at more Republican misdeeds and oddnesses, but then my admittedly-biased opinion is that there are more misdeeds and oddnesses on that side of the aisle. YMMV.