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Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America
In a book that is at once deeply personal and intellectually savvy, Homegrown Democrat is a celebration of liberalism as the “politics of kindness.” In his inimitable style, Keillor draws on a lifetime of experience amongst the hardworking, God- fearing people of the Midwest and pays homage to the common code of civic necessities that arose from the left: Protect the social compact. Defend the powerless. Maintain government as a necessary force for good. As Keillor tells it, these are articles of faith that are being attacked by hard-ass Republican tax cutters who believe that human misery is a Dickensian fiction. In a blend of nostalgic reminiscence, humorous meditation, and articulate ire, Keillor asserts the values of his boyhood—the values of Lake Wobegon— that do not square with the ugly narcissistic agenda at work in the country today. A thoughtful, wonderfully written book, Homegrown Democrat is Keillor’s love letter to liberalism, the older generation, John F. Kennedy, the University of Minnesota, and the yellow-dog Democrat city of St. Paul that is sure to amuse and inspire Americans just when they need it most.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published July 15, 2004
43 people are currently reading
612 people want to read
About the author
Garrison Keillor
282 books846 followersGary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion (called Garrison Keillor's Radio Show in some international syndication), which he hosted from 1974 to 2016. Keillor created the fictional Minnesota town Lake Wobegon, the setting of many of his books, including Lake Wobegon Days and Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories. Other creations include Guy Noir, a detective voiced by Keillor who appeared in A Prairie Home Companion comic skits. Keillor is also the creator of the five-minute daily radio/podcast program The Writer's Almanac, which pairs poems of his choice with a script about important literary, historical, and scientific events that coincided with that date in history.
In November 2017, Minnesota Public Radio cut all business ties with Keillor after an allegation of inappropriate behavior with a freelance writer for A Prairie Home Companion. On April 13, 2018, MPR and Keillor announced a settlement that allows archives of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac to be publicly available again, and soon thereafter, Keillor began publishing new episodes of The Writer's Almanac on his website. He also continues to tour a stage version of A Prairie Home Companion, although these shows are not broadcast by MPR or American Public Media.
In November 2017, Minnesota Public Radio cut all business ties with Keillor after an allegation of inappropriate behavior with a freelance writer for A Prairie Home Companion. On April 13, 2018, MPR and Keillor announced a settlement that allows archives of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac to be publicly available again, and soon thereafter, Keillor began publishing new episodes of The Writer's Almanac on his website. He also continues to tour a stage version of A Prairie Home Companion, although these shows are not broadcast by MPR or American Public Media.
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January 3, 2015
Garrison Keillor, I love you.
"The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, see-through fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, hobby cops, misanthropic frat boys, lizardskin cigar monkeys, jerktown romeos, ninja dittoheads, the shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, cheese merchants, cat stranglers, taxi dancers, grab0ass executives, gun fetishists, genteel pornographers, pill pushers, chronic nappers, nihilists in golf pants, backed-up Baptists, Crips and Bloods of the boardroom, panjandrums of Ponzi marketing and the grand pooh-bahs of percodan, censors, spin dentists, Swiss Bankers, hit men, body snatchers, mouth breathers and tongue thrusters, testosterone junkies, oversexed hedgehogs, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, line jumpers, randy preachers, marsupial moms and chirpy news anchors, UFO scholars, johns, shroomheads, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, wizened aliens, aluminum-siding salesmen, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong's moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, braying, smirking, scratching on the national blackboard, Newt's evil spawn and their Etch-a-sketch president with a voice like a dial tone, who for almost four years has looked as if he were just about to say something smart, not much introspection going on here, no inquiring minds eager to learn about the world, not much chance of anyone picking up a book that isn't on the official reading list and hearing a still small voice, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions in general, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk, supported by millions of good folks who do not share the anarchist dream but sleep well with this West Texas sphinx for a nightlight. Republicans: the No. 1 reason why the rest of the world thinks we're deaf, dumb, and dangerous." -- from "Homegrown Democrat."
"The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, see-through fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, hobby cops, misanthropic frat boys, lizardskin cigar monkeys, jerktown romeos, ninja dittoheads, the shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, cheese merchants, cat stranglers, taxi dancers, grab0ass executives, gun fetishists, genteel pornographers, pill pushers, chronic nappers, nihilists in golf pants, backed-up Baptists, Crips and Bloods of the boardroom, panjandrums of Ponzi marketing and the grand pooh-bahs of percodan, censors, spin dentists, Swiss Bankers, hit men, body snatchers, mouth breathers and tongue thrusters, testosterone junkies, oversexed hedgehogs, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, line jumpers, randy preachers, marsupial moms and chirpy news anchors, UFO scholars, johns, shroomheads, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, wizened aliens, aluminum-siding salesmen, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong's moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, braying, smirking, scratching on the national blackboard, Newt's evil spawn and their Etch-a-sketch president with a voice like a dial tone, who for almost four years has looked as if he were just about to say something smart, not much introspection going on here, no inquiring minds eager to learn about the world, not much chance of anyone picking up a book that isn't on the official reading list and hearing a still small voice, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions in general, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk, supported by millions of good folks who do not share the anarchist dream but sleep well with this West Texas sphinx for a nightlight. Republicans: the No. 1 reason why the rest of the world thinks we're deaf, dumb, and dangerous." -- from "Homegrown Democrat."
July 1, 2013
Back in the late '70s when I was a lad, my father would listen to Prairie Home Companion every Saturday evening without fail. And every Saturday evening if I was around I would sneer at the show for its homey folksiness, its old-timey fiddle and gospel music, its cornball radio skits and of course its "News from Lake Woebegone" recited by the man I thought was probably the biggest dope on the planet. So when my mother showed up the other day with this book by Garrison Keillor and told me I should read it, I sneered a little inside. I couldn't help myself. I took the book rather grudgingly, turned somewhere in the middle and started reading, thinking I could hand it right back to her to take on her merry way. Instead, I was drawn into the book immediately, and I was drawn in by that same folksy voice of Keillor's that I had scorned so intently in my youth.
At this point in my life I'm older than my father was back when he first started listening to Prairie Home Companion, but I don't think it has anything to do with age. Instead, I think I better understand what Keillor is doing now, and how what he does is such an integral part of what it means to be an American, and how he is a part of that tradition of American voices that have delivered homespun wisdom in a folksy and funny down-home way over the years. So now I can put Keillor on that same list as James Thurber, Mark Twain and Will Rogers, but not Mencken because there's nothing cynical in that voice of Keillor's, only an earnestness tinged with an irony that reflects his Minnesota roots that give him so much of his material.
Here in Homegrown Democrat Keillor channels Twain, and maybe even more so Whitman whom he references in a few places throughout the book, as he draws on those Minnesotan roots to reflect on the experiences and influences that developed his political consciousness first as a boy (I am a Democrat, which was nothing I decided for myself but simply the way I was brought up, starting with the idea of Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, which is the basis of the simple social compact by which we live and also You are not so different from other people so don't give yourself airs, which was drummed into us children back in the old days when everyone went to public schools) and later as a young man at the University of Minnesota (John F. Kennedy made a big impression on me, but attending the University was what confirmed me as a Democrat, the thought that the taxpayers of Minnesota really had faith that knowledge and understanding ennoble us. An egalitarian spirit prevailed at the U that truly was noble. There was no rank, no hazing, no freshman beanies, we were all in the same boat. You were Mr. Keillor to your professor and he was Mr. Brown to you. You looked him in the eye. You said, "I don't get this" and he explained it to you. That was his job. Yours was to pay attention). And throughout, from the limericks that begin each chapter to the final chapter about 9/11 (Keillor was in Manhattan in September 2001), Keillor looks at the kindness and generosity of spirit that he sees in Democrats and that he mourns the loss of in Republicans since the days of Richard Nixon.
In fact, Keillor has some kind words for Nixon, the last Republican president "to feel a Christian obligation toward the poor." Since Nixon, he writes, The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, see-through fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, hobby cops, misanthropic frat boys, lizardskin cigar monkeys, jerktown romeos, ninja dittoheads, the shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, cheese merchants, cat stranglers, taxi dancers, grab-ass executives, gun fetishists, genteel pornographers, pill pushers, chronic nappers, nihilists in golf pants and on and on for another page and a half. (Despite all the piss and vinegar here, though, Keillor in 2004 couldn't even imagine what was in store for the country in the Republican primaries of 2012!) Here rather uncharacteristically you can feel Keillor bordering on anger, as if he has begun to channel a little Hunter S. Thompson in place of his more gentle muses, but Keillor is writing in the lead-up to the 2004 election and he's right to be angry at the direction George W. Bush has taken the country. But instead of anger, the predominating emotion throughout the book is a gentle appreciation for all the public institutions that America has built and the goodness that have come to all of us through them. He meditates on the public school, the public university, the public library, and how important each has been in the creation of our citizenry: When you wage war on the public schools, you're attacking the mortar that holds the community together. You're not a conservative, you're a vandal. The sorehead vote is out there. the guys who have a few beers and wonder why the hell they should have to pay taxes for the schools when their kids have graduated. What's the logic there, Joe? and you can rouse them up and elect a school board to take revenge on the teachers and you do your community no favors.
Keillor should add a chapter or two and re-release this excellent little read in the months here leading up to November's election. Everything he is talking about in this book is perfectly embodied in the triumphant apotheosis of that empty greedhead Mitt Romney over the clowns and jackals he ran against in the primaries. As Keillor writes on the final page, Dante said that the hottest place in hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral, so I have spoken my piece, and thank you, dear reader. It's a beautiful world, rain or shine, and there is more to life than winning. The thing that has been is the thing that shall be; and the thing that is done is that which shall be done: there is nothing new under the sun. And the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong nor riches to men of understanding, but time and chance happeneth to them all. Lord, have mercy.
And those fine words can probably be said again this November as well.
At this point in my life I'm older than my father was back when he first started listening to Prairie Home Companion, but I don't think it has anything to do with age. Instead, I think I better understand what Keillor is doing now, and how what he does is such an integral part of what it means to be an American, and how he is a part of that tradition of American voices that have delivered homespun wisdom in a folksy and funny down-home way over the years. So now I can put Keillor on that same list as James Thurber, Mark Twain and Will Rogers, but not Mencken because there's nothing cynical in that voice of Keillor's, only an earnestness tinged with an irony that reflects his Minnesota roots that give him so much of his material.
Here in Homegrown Democrat Keillor channels Twain, and maybe even more so Whitman whom he references in a few places throughout the book, as he draws on those Minnesotan roots to reflect on the experiences and influences that developed his political consciousness first as a boy (I am a Democrat, which was nothing I decided for myself but simply the way I was brought up, starting with the idea of Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, which is the basis of the simple social compact by which we live and also You are not so different from other people so don't give yourself airs, which was drummed into us children back in the old days when everyone went to public schools) and later as a young man at the University of Minnesota (John F. Kennedy made a big impression on me, but attending the University was what confirmed me as a Democrat, the thought that the taxpayers of Minnesota really had faith that knowledge and understanding ennoble us. An egalitarian spirit prevailed at the U that truly was noble. There was no rank, no hazing, no freshman beanies, we were all in the same boat. You were Mr. Keillor to your professor and he was Mr. Brown to you. You looked him in the eye. You said, "I don't get this" and he explained it to you. That was his job. Yours was to pay attention). And throughout, from the limericks that begin each chapter to the final chapter about 9/11 (Keillor was in Manhattan in September 2001), Keillor looks at the kindness and generosity of spirit that he sees in Democrats and that he mourns the loss of in Republicans since the days of Richard Nixon.
In fact, Keillor has some kind words for Nixon, the last Republican president "to feel a Christian obligation toward the poor." Since Nixon, he writes, The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, see-through fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, hobby cops, misanthropic frat boys, lizardskin cigar monkeys, jerktown romeos, ninja dittoheads, the shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, cheese merchants, cat stranglers, taxi dancers, grab-ass executives, gun fetishists, genteel pornographers, pill pushers, chronic nappers, nihilists in golf pants and on and on for another page and a half. (Despite all the piss and vinegar here, though, Keillor in 2004 couldn't even imagine what was in store for the country in the Republican primaries of 2012!) Here rather uncharacteristically you can feel Keillor bordering on anger, as if he has begun to channel a little Hunter S. Thompson in place of his more gentle muses, but Keillor is writing in the lead-up to the 2004 election and he's right to be angry at the direction George W. Bush has taken the country. But instead of anger, the predominating emotion throughout the book is a gentle appreciation for all the public institutions that America has built and the goodness that have come to all of us through them. He meditates on the public school, the public university, the public library, and how important each has been in the creation of our citizenry: When you wage war on the public schools, you're attacking the mortar that holds the community together. You're not a conservative, you're a vandal. The sorehead vote is out there. the guys who have a few beers and wonder why the hell they should have to pay taxes for the schools when their kids have graduated. What's the logic there, Joe? and you can rouse them up and elect a school board to take revenge on the teachers and you do your community no favors.
Keillor should add a chapter or two and re-release this excellent little read in the months here leading up to November's election. Everything he is talking about in this book is perfectly embodied in the triumphant apotheosis of that empty greedhead Mitt Romney over the clowns and jackals he ran against in the primaries. As Keillor writes on the final page, Dante said that the hottest place in hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral, so I have spoken my piece, and thank you, dear reader. It's a beautiful world, rain or shine, and there is more to life than winning. The thing that has been is the thing that shall be; and the thing that is done is that which shall be done: there is nothing new under the sun. And the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong nor riches to men of understanding, but time and chance happeneth to them all. Lord, have mercy.
And those fine words can probably be said again this November as well.
May 17, 2012
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.
"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.
June 16, 2017
Part memoir, part polemic, this book is Keillor's entertaining albeit somewhat rambling explanation for why his roots in small-town Minnesota shaped him into being a Democrat, and why being a Democrat is the only option for decent folks.
Keillor has an engaging, story-telling style, and listening to him read the audiobook version was kind of like an extended version of the Lake Wobegon segment of Prairie Home Companion. Colorful, engaging, opinionated, sometimes exasperatingly repetitive: to Keillor, the essence of being a Democrat is kindness towards others, and as Hillel would say, the rest is explanation. I liked it - but then again, I'm a Democrat.
Perhaps most interesting to me is his perspective on Kennedy, who campaigned for President (and who beat the local boy in the primary) when Keillor was 18. Listening to him describe how he felt, that for the first time there was a candidate who wasn't a "jowly old man," who quoted Dante and "wasn't afraid to let you know that he had books in his house, and even read them" - these are the terms in which we liberals have been celebrating the campaign (and the election) of Barack Obama. Though this book was written in the days before the 2004 election, before Obama was anything other than the bright, up-and-coming junior senator who had given a spectacular speech at the DNC, it's still relevant. And although in his radio shows Keillor gently pokes fun at all political sides, his partisan perspective clear but not emphasized, I can tell from this book that he is exulting in the 2008 election result just as much as I am.
Keillor has an engaging, story-telling style, and listening to him read the audiobook version was kind of like an extended version of the Lake Wobegon segment of Prairie Home Companion. Colorful, engaging, opinionated, sometimes exasperatingly repetitive: to Keillor, the essence of being a Democrat is kindness towards others, and as Hillel would say, the rest is explanation. I liked it - but then again, I'm a Democrat.
Perhaps most interesting to me is his perspective on Kennedy, who campaigned for President (and who beat the local boy in the primary) when Keillor was 18. Listening to him describe how he felt, that for the first time there was a candidate who wasn't a "jowly old man," who quoted Dante and "wasn't afraid to let you know that he had books in his house, and even read them" - these are the terms in which we liberals have been celebrating the campaign (and the election) of Barack Obama. Though this book was written in the days before the 2004 election, before Obama was anything other than the bright, up-and-coming junior senator who had given a spectacular speech at the DNC, it's still relevant. And although in his radio shows Keillor gently pokes fun at all political sides, his partisan perspective clear but not emphasized, I can tell from this book that he is exulting in the 2008 election result just as much as I am.
April 22, 2011
Garrison Keillor does a nice job defending the ideals of liberalism and contrasting them with those of the Republican party. Although the book was written in 2004, it is just as relevant, if not more so, today than when it was written.
Though not without flaws, core liberal ideals include the right to clean air, water, food and healthcare, establishment of a social safety net, fairness, decency and access to higher education. Contrast this with the screw you, I’ve got mine, kick grandma to the curb if she can’t cut it, attitude of present day Republicans and you have a compelling contrast as to the future of the US.
Where Keillor misses the boat is in thinking that the Democratic Party shares his values. Today’s Democrats are wholly owned subsidiaries of moneyed interests. Though preferable to the mean spirited, bat-sh*t crazy tea-baggers on the right, it would be unwise to assume that they have our best interest at heart.
Though not without flaws, core liberal ideals include the right to clean air, water, food and healthcare, establishment of a social safety net, fairness, decency and access to higher education. Contrast this with the screw you, I’ve got mine, kick grandma to the curb if she can’t cut it, attitude of present day Republicans and you have a compelling contrast as to the future of the US.
Where Keillor misses the boat is in thinking that the Democratic Party shares his values. Today’s Democrats are wholly owned subsidiaries of moneyed interests. Though preferable to the mean spirited, bat-sh*t crazy tea-baggers on the right, it would be unwise to assume that they have our best interest at heart.
November 7, 2024
Garrison Keillor is a better person than you. That could have been the title for this book. I'm a democrat from Wisconsin, not that far from Keillor's St. Paul, MN, so you'd think we'd share some ideals and experiences. But this felt like a cranky old man lecturing me about why nothing is as good as growing up in a Protestant household in Minnesota and going to the U of M in the 60's. Everyone should be as humble as him, talking about his world travels, successful radio and writing careers, and living in Copenhagen and New York City. Everyone should be the exact same kind of democrat as him, extremely religious and hateful of any republican. I know plenty of republicans, and I don't think they're actually demons in hiding. I don't think their intention is to destroy the Earth and all of human society. But that's what I got from this book. I'm sick of both sides digging in and demonizing the other side, and Keillor is one of the worst offenders I've seen.
11/6/24 edit - How naive I was. Now I definitely think republicans are demons in hiding trying to destroy the Earth. But I still hate this book.
11/6/24 edit - How naive I was. Now I definitely think republicans are demons in hiding trying to destroy the Earth. But I still hate this book.
August 23, 2007
Through a series of self-examining essays, Garrison Keillor writes about the experiences in his life that led him to his progressive-liberal politics.
He methodically and sensibly reminds us that the core values of America, of hard work, dignity, and looking out for our neighbor have somehow been lost in politics, but seem to only remain in the Democratic party.
Even as he states his reasons for being a Democrat, he skillfully challenges us all, regardless of party affiliation, to return to those core values.
Reading this, I was proud to have been a Minnesotan for fifteen years.
In what is perhaps the best thing he has written, Garrison Keillor captures the spirit and feeling of all that is good about the Heartland. It is as close to a transcript of the brilliance of extemporany he presents each week on "A Prairie Home Companion."
He methodically and sensibly reminds us that the core values of America, of hard work, dignity, and looking out for our neighbor have somehow been lost in politics, but seem to only remain in the Democratic party.
Even as he states his reasons for being a Democrat, he skillfully challenges us all, regardless of party affiliation, to return to those core values.
Reading this, I was proud to have been a Minnesotan for fifteen years.
In what is perhaps the best thing he has written, Garrison Keillor captures the spirit and feeling of all that is good about the Heartland. It is as close to a transcript of the brilliance of extemporany he presents each week on "A Prairie Home Companion."
June 17, 2017
Keillor's prose is essentially a stream of consciousness, full of wry humor and insightful truths. Figures of speech abound (simile, metaphor, oxymoron, hyperbole, etc.), so much so that he sometimes overwhelms. He lauds Democrats their open-mindedness and compassion, castigates Republicans for their mean-spiritedness and arrogance. I found myself many times responding, "Yes, Yes, Right On!" as he recites how the University of Minnesota nourished his liberal proclivities. The same for me, though he was an undergrad student and I a grad student. While I never met him, no doubt we figuratively rubbed elbows in Murphy Hall, the journalism building. Also I remember hearing him read the news, in his laid-back delivery style, on KUOM, the university's radio station. I continue to read and love his wry humor and insightful truths via his weekly syndicated column (online Denver Post).
May 23, 2021
"Homegrown Democrat" feels just as relevant in 2021 as it was when it was written 17 years ago in the run-up to the 2004 Presidential election. While this book was intended as a campaign book, filled with reasons that we should not have re-elected George W. Bush, Keillor also hits on what is at the heart of the Democratic party. In many ways, this is a love story about the modern Democratic party. Through his superb writing abilities he shows that we are a party of people who are patriotic and belive that the best way to show that isn't by wrapping ourselves in the flag, but by fighting for every single person in this country.
January 23, 2025
A passionate paean on what it means to be a Democrat. Keillor writes with a healthy amount of self-awareness, a rye sense of humor, and also a clear sense of what would come, some 20 years later... Albeit at times quite heavy-handedly.
November 15, 2012
Nobody in the history of time had a better childhood that Garrison Keillor. It's not because of any particular details, but it's because he makes it sound like he was raised in the golden white fluffy plains of Heaven. But it wasn't. It was Minnesota, which he makes sound like the promise land. Keillor makes the entire state of Minnesota has a crime rate of 0% and free cupcake delivery or some shit is through the roof. His ability to wax poetic about the simple things in life with a epic sense of the humdrum that comes along with oral history is unmatched. He's the best at just jivin' about youth in the way that it could work in the 1800s, the 1900s, this century, the next century. Who knows when the Midwest will ever change? But he might as well be the best paid government employee of Minnesota's tourism department. Keillor is a serious idealist, which I think brings about trouble in some narratives, especially in a book about politics.
Keillor generalizes, which makes sense, since that's the only way you could write a book about democrats vs. republicans. The problem there is that every argument is easily flawed. He makes sweeping generalizations about democrats being the best and the same for republicans being the worst. I understand that he's using party platforms, but he talks about them as people. I believe in the two-party system, though I'd be very interested to have more political parties. And, even though I'm a registered democrat, I had trouble going with the whole idea that democrats aren't without terrible bullshit sins. I do think that the Democratic Party is more for the middle class and the little guy than the GOP, but I don't think we always jump at the chance to do the right thing. More often than not, as a whole, sure, but Keillor makes it sound like democrats came from Heaven/Minnesota just to save this goddamn country.
Keillor's a heck of a writer, even when his prose gets so wishy-washy, you think you could swim through it. He's all over the place, but it works in the way your grandpa used to tell you stories about the world long before you. Oh, this place, Minnesota, it has cafes and everyone's super nice and nobody ever hurts anybody and we have picnics and the only crime ever committed was caring too much and it reminds of democrats who really are the best and they just want the world to hug itself and everyone to be happy and nobody will ever be sad and everything should just be like Minnesota. I enjoyed the book quite a bit, as he can slide in a joke in the middle of some poetry that's supposed to be a memoir, so mad kudos there. I just want him to acknowledge more flaws in the Democratic party and just one (JUST ONE FUCKING) flaw about his home state.
Keillor generalizes, which makes sense, since that's the only way you could write a book about democrats vs. republicans. The problem there is that every argument is easily flawed. He makes sweeping generalizations about democrats being the best and the same for republicans being the worst. I understand that he's using party platforms, but he talks about them as people. I believe in the two-party system, though I'd be very interested to have more political parties. And, even though I'm a registered democrat, I had trouble going with the whole idea that democrats aren't without terrible bullshit sins. I do think that the Democratic Party is more for the middle class and the little guy than the GOP, but I don't think we always jump at the chance to do the right thing. More often than not, as a whole, sure, but Keillor makes it sound like democrats came from Heaven/Minnesota just to save this goddamn country.
Keillor's a heck of a writer, even when his prose gets so wishy-washy, you think you could swim through it. He's all over the place, but it works in the way your grandpa used to tell you stories about the world long before you. Oh, this place, Minnesota, it has cafes and everyone's super nice and nobody ever hurts anybody and we have picnics and the only crime ever committed was caring too much and it reminds of democrats who really are the best and they just want the world to hug itself and everyone to be happy and nobody will ever be sad and everything should just be like Minnesota. I enjoyed the book quite a bit, as he can slide in a joke in the middle of some poetry that's supposed to be a memoir, so mad kudos there. I just want him to acknowledge more flaws in the Democratic party and just one (JUST ONE FUCKING) flaw about his home state.
July 19, 2011
I am a great fan of this author. I feel he has the values and the psyche of the people of the midwest down pat. His tales from Lake Woebegone are both humorous and thought provoking. This book is a departure from his usual genre. In the spirit of full disclosure, I must confess that I am a Democrat from the midwest. This is not so much a rant against the Republicans but an essay of what Democrats stand for. I know it gace me pause for reflection and I think that was his goal. I can be a very partisan person, but after reading this I have come to realize that not everything is strictly black and white. That is not to say I agree with anything Republican but now I am more open to listen, to be rational. So many political books today are so strident and filled with venom and it was refreshing to read a book that was thoughtful and informative without excessively demonizing the other side.
January 17, 2012
This little gem couldn't have come at a better time to firm up my sagging politics, especially under assault by the ridiculous collection of Republican candidates as they squabble and debate and hurl nasty ads at one another, to reaffirm some of my core beliefs as expressed so much better than I could, and give me a little grin in the telling. I would love to see GK invited to speak to a young Republicans gathering (hoping he would at least receive a respectful hearing) and wouldn't be surprised if half the assembled disavowed their fealty to the party of the Elephant. Repeatedly I smiled at devastating riffs against privilege and pomposity and thoughtful explanations for his promotion of Democratic ideals. I often have come to the same conclusions, but with rising anger and irritation, and Keillor instead seems to put down the thoughts in such a calm, yet forceful, way. I wish I had that ability.
June 12, 2015
Part memoir, part democratic call to action/celebration of what it means to be a Democrat, all Garrison Keillor.
This was great. I could see myself reading this every couple of years to remind me that the Democratic party has been the source of so much national good beginning with Woodrow Wilson up through the modern day. He also goes through what is the matter with the Republican party post Teddy Roosevelt. Keillor clearly knows what he's talking about and his mixture of intelligence, common sense, and subtle and fantastic burns was so much fun to read.
I recommend the audio book because it is read by Keillor and as all NPR fans know, that's where he excels.
If I had one criticism it is that sometimes he confuses Minnesotan for Democrat. I'm sure there's plenty of overlap but I tend to think the tent is larger than that. Although, Keillor makes that same point in the book so what do I know?
This was great. I could see myself reading this every couple of years to remind me that the Democratic party has been the source of so much national good beginning with Woodrow Wilson up through the modern day. He also goes through what is the matter with the Republican party post Teddy Roosevelt. Keillor clearly knows what he's talking about and his mixture of intelligence, common sense, and subtle and fantastic burns was so much fun to read.
I recommend the audio book because it is read by Keillor and as all NPR fans know, that's where he excels.
If I had one criticism it is that sometimes he confuses Minnesotan for Democrat. I'm sure there's plenty of overlap but I tend to think the tent is larger than that. Although, Keillor makes that same point in the book so what do I know?
November 21, 2008
I started reading this right around the election, and pardon me, but my politics will be showing. I really enjoyed this book, as Keillor clearly states how he feels that the Democrats serve all the American people, taking care of the poor, education, and healthcare. He believes that the Republicans of 2004 only tried to serve each other. I like the way Keillor writes, and agree with much of what he wrote. My only quibbles were that Keillor is fond of run-on sentences, and believes that the people of Minnesota are the best examples of Democrats in the country. I cannot argue about the people of Minnesota, as I have never lived there, but I'm sure there are many clusters of Democrats scattered throughout the other forty-nine states. I recommend this to readers who are Democrats, and who don't mind reading books that are slightly out of date.
July 7, 2008
This was a great book that had me laughing right out loud in certain places--
"The Respublicans and their etch-a-sketch president with a voice like a dial tone who for years has looked as if he were just about to say someting smart"
and in other places was inspired--
"What unites us is our moral duty to bequeath our great country to our grandchildren in better shape than we found it. We have a long way to go and we're not getting any younger."
Keillor's powerful prose speaks of pride, Americans, and the problems facing us all. It was a quick read, but it packs a wallop.
"The strategists draw the lines and issue orders and have lunch in the officer's mess under the chandeliers and the soldiers move into the rain and die in the dark."
"The Respublicans and their etch-a-sketch president with a voice like a dial tone who for years has looked as if he were just about to say someting smart"
and in other places was inspired--
"What unites us is our moral duty to bequeath our great country to our grandchildren in better shape than we found it. We have a long way to go and we're not getting any younger."
Keillor's powerful prose speaks of pride, Americans, and the problems facing us all. It was a quick read, but it packs a wallop.
"The strategists draw the lines and issue orders and have lunch in the officer's mess under the chandeliers and the soldiers move into the rain and die in the dark."
July 27, 2008
Garrison Keillor quotes Dante as the reason for writing this short, delightful book: "Dante says the hottest place in hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral, so I have spoken my piece, and thank you, dear reader." I don't usually like Keillor's written work--I prefer hearing him tell stories--but his honesty, good will and hopes for the country that he loves shine so strongly in Homegrown Democrat that it is almost like hearing him talk out loud. I appreciate the fact that he is willing to challenge liberals as well as conservatives and his observations about 9/11 and Homeland Security are quite valid. Homegrown Democrat is a valuable reminder of where we have come from and where we are headed as a country.
March 11, 2011
I never STOP reading this warm reflection on the Democratic Party and what it means to be just a plain, hard-working American.
"You drive... into the Republican suburbs and see what the New Deal and Fair Deal and Great Society have accomplished: they enabled people of modest means to get a leg up in the world and eventually become right-wing reactionaries and pretend that they sprang fully formed from their own ambitions with no help from anybody. And vote to deny to others what they themselves were freely given. Bless their hearts, they are some of the meanest you'd ever want not to live next to, and they legacy will be a rat's nest of problems."
Like I said, I never STOP reading this little book -- it keeps me sane and makes me hopeful.
"You drive... into the Republican suburbs and see what the New Deal and Fair Deal and Great Society have accomplished: they enabled people of modest means to get a leg up in the world and eventually become right-wing reactionaries and pretend that they sprang fully formed from their own ambitions with no help from anybody. And vote to deny to others what they themselves were freely given. Bless their hearts, they are some of the meanest you'd ever want not to live next to, and they legacy will be a rat's nest of problems."
Like I said, I never STOP reading this little book -- it keeps me sane and makes me hopeful.
July 31, 2007
Garrison is awfully nostalgic in this book, but at a time when I couldn't believe how bizarre our values felt, somebody was talking about his feelings. And I was stunned to discover it was Garrison. I can hear Prairie Home Companion for only so long before I get the schtick. But I had no idea he cared about policy in a way that embodied a whole region in Minneapolis. I practically discovered the northeast with this book, but I was also comforted that it was ok to have values that were at once progressive and idealistic. I didn't feel like I was a generation apart at all from his thoughts. In fact, I felt invited to the table.
August 18, 2007
The author has a refreshing perspective on subjects like civic responsibility and what he calls the social compact of the Common Good. He argues that our society has been encouraged to discard these things in favor of self-centered, bullying individualism. I am always pleased to stumble upon A Prairie Home Companion on the radio and this book has shown me that while the show is a bit satirical, it is also a bit prescriptive - there are bedrock principles of American democracy alive in that town.
The book is a bit disjointed but that didn't keep me from seeing the picture he was trying to create. It was definitely a bonus to hear him reading his own book, too.
The book is a bit disjointed but that didn't keep me from seeing the picture he was trying to create. It was definitely a bonus to hear him reading his own book, too.
November 23, 2011
Keillor discusses, in his understated and wry way, how his upbringing in the Lutheran church and the basic Midwestern values he grew up with, have led him to become a solidly liberal Democrat. This book is the counter-argument to the right-wing attacks on "liberal elites" and the conservative assumption that the people in "real America" hold conservative, Republican principals. From that perspective, I would recommend it.
The caveat is that, while Keillor is always respectful of Republicans as individuals, he does somewhat fall into the same "what I believe is the only right way to look at the world" bias that we are all prone to.
The caveat is that, while Keillor is always respectful of Republicans as individuals, he does somewhat fall into the same "what I believe is the only right way to look at the world" bias that we are all prone to.
August 17, 2013
I wish I could talk like Keillor writes whenever I discuss politics with "right"-wing conservatives. Of course, I'm the choir he is preaching to, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed the book, but I'm thrilled that he has enunciated so eloquently the many reasons I'm in the choir of Democrats. I wish more people had read this book prior to the 2004 elections. Even today, it's worth reading for anyone who is thinking about visiting a voting booth in any future election.
Read
November 10, 2013Keillor is an engaging commentator and Homegrown Democrat is an insightful read. I've often wondered why Minnesota tends Democrat. Any person of any political view will find insight on the art of Garrison Keillor, find understanding of the heritage of Minnesota, and seek understanding of the origins of their own politics; all of this packed in an easy and pleasurable read.
June 27, 2016
I am a Democrat, though not a Prairie Home Companion fan. Would have given this book four stars if it wasn't so black and white. Democrats = good, Republicans = bad. I wish it was this simple. There are decent people in both parties.
Chapter 12, "Republicans I Have Known", is worth 5 stars, though, and summarizes many of the problems that I have with the extreme-right-wing Republicans.
Chapter 12, "Republicans I Have Known", is worth 5 stars, though, and summarizes many of the problems that I have with the extreme-right-wing Republicans.
June 8, 2009
Loved reading and setting this book. . . not just for the wise and well presented political content, but for Keillor's reminiscences of growing up in Minnesota (as I hail from the Twin Cities myself).
May 24, 2010
Keillor has a great sense of humour, a real knack for language, and values I identify with. However ... a whole BOOK on Democrat - Republican bickering? This is asking a lot of even an American reader, but for those of us in the rest of the world ... as the Beatles sang - It's all too much!
December 6, 2018
So much of what Keillor claims to hate about the Republicans, the Democrats have embraced with passion (I’m not a Republican). I think he would squirm uncomfortably if he decided to read this book now.
August 11, 2011
Keillor takes a common sense view of things and it is much appreciated in in these times of hard line partisan biases.
March 31, 2015
If half of us could explain ourselves as eloquently as Keillor, the other half might understand why being liberal seems like the most American choice we can make.
September 7, 2023
3.5 stars, rounded to 4
This book was part biography / memoir and part political essay. Garrison Keillor was familiar to me as the host of Prairie Home Companion, but I really didn't know much about him other than that. Over the course of 14 essays, the reader gets to know a little more about Keillor, Minnesota, and the Democratic Party. Written in the early 2000s, much of the book discusses two party politics. Yes, the book is somewhat harsh on the GOP and he definitely promotes the democrats, but his statements seen about 20 years later seem very prescient.
Thoughts / quotes to remember:
In Republican America, you will not enjoy public life period. The public library, that great democratic temple, will become a waiting room for desperate and broken people, the alkies, the wacked-out, the unemployables, and the public schools will become holding tanks for children whose parents were too unresourceful to find good schools for them, and politics will be so ugly and rancid that decent people will avoid expressing an opinion for fear of being screeched at and hectored and spat on.
They [Republicans] are a party that is all about perceptions, the Christian party that conceals enormous glittering malice and is led by brilliant bandits who are dividing and conquering the sweet land I grew up in.
Rich ironies abound! Lies pop up like toadstools in the forest!...Outrageous gerrymandering!...Pocket lining on a massive scale! Paid lobbyists sit in the committee rooms and write legislation to alleviate the suffering of billionaires!
...the Republicans have turned into the Screw You Party. They tore into the progressive income tax, raked the IRS over the coals for chasing down deadbeats, and succeeded in convincing the American people that they are overtaxed...to the extent that 17% of Americans now believe it is justified to cheat on your income tax.
The top 1% holds nearly half of the financial wealth, the greatest concentration of wealth of any industrialized nation...Since 1980, the rich have been getting richer fast and furiously and hard-working people in the middle are sliding down the greasy slope who never imagined that this could happen to them. The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few is the death knell of democracy. No republic in the history of humankind has survived this.
...to oppose abortion, as they [GOP] do, and also promote low wages and harass welfare mothers and hack away at public services - this is moral dishonesty that staggers the mind. This is stepping on the drowning woman's hand as she grabs onto the gunwale.
Make fun of p.c. to your heart's content, but there is less outright cruelty toward the vulnerable in everyday life.
...the leaf turns and in the human comedy we are one day spectators and the next day performers. The gains in life come slowly and the losses come on suddenly.
Defending the powerless against the powerful is a basic task of government, an article of faith in the America that I grew up in.
Sympathy is the barometer of our humanity; to the extent that we share each other's griefs and joys, we are fully alive.
The goal of Democrats has been to make this a nation of the middle class - educated people who own property and have a stake in the community and aren't easily bullied.
When you try to find the love of Christ at work in the Republican Party, it may take you awhile. The Christian Coalition was a Republican front with about as much to do with the Christian faith as the Elks Club has to do with large hoofed animals.
America is not a religious country, no matter how many Americans say they believe in God. I've been in religious countries and this is not one of them. There is no Sabbath, no fasting or prohibitions, every day is a feast day.
This book was part biography / memoir and part political essay. Garrison Keillor was familiar to me as the host of Prairie Home Companion, but I really didn't know much about him other than that. Over the course of 14 essays, the reader gets to know a little more about Keillor, Minnesota, and the Democratic Party. Written in the early 2000s, much of the book discusses two party politics. Yes, the book is somewhat harsh on the GOP and he definitely promotes the democrats, but his statements seen about 20 years later seem very prescient.
Thoughts / quotes to remember:
In Republican America, you will not enjoy public life period. The public library, that great democratic temple, will become a waiting room for desperate and broken people, the alkies, the wacked-out, the unemployables, and the public schools will become holding tanks for children whose parents were too unresourceful to find good schools for them, and politics will be so ugly and rancid that decent people will avoid expressing an opinion for fear of being screeched at and hectored and spat on.
They [Republicans] are a party that is all about perceptions, the Christian party that conceals enormous glittering malice and is led by brilliant bandits who are dividing and conquering the sweet land I grew up in.
Rich ironies abound! Lies pop up like toadstools in the forest!...Outrageous gerrymandering!...Pocket lining on a massive scale! Paid lobbyists sit in the committee rooms and write legislation to alleviate the suffering of billionaires!
...the Republicans have turned into the Screw You Party. They tore into the progressive income tax, raked the IRS over the coals for chasing down deadbeats, and succeeded in convincing the American people that they are overtaxed...to the extent that 17% of Americans now believe it is justified to cheat on your income tax.
The top 1% holds nearly half of the financial wealth, the greatest concentration of wealth of any industrialized nation...Since 1980, the rich have been getting richer fast and furiously and hard-working people in the middle are sliding down the greasy slope who never imagined that this could happen to them. The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few is the death knell of democracy. No republic in the history of humankind has survived this.
...to oppose abortion, as they [GOP] do, and also promote low wages and harass welfare mothers and hack away at public services - this is moral dishonesty that staggers the mind. This is stepping on the drowning woman's hand as she grabs onto the gunwale.
Make fun of p.c. to your heart's content, but there is less outright cruelty toward the vulnerable in everyday life.
...the leaf turns and in the human comedy we are one day spectators and the next day performers. The gains in life come slowly and the losses come on suddenly.
Defending the powerless against the powerful is a basic task of government, an article of faith in the America that I grew up in.
Sympathy is the barometer of our humanity; to the extent that we share each other's griefs and joys, we are fully alive.
The goal of Democrats has been to make this a nation of the middle class - educated people who own property and have a stake in the community and aren't easily bullied.
When you try to find the love of Christ at work in the Republican Party, it may take you awhile. The Christian Coalition was a Republican front with about as much to do with the Christian faith as the Elks Club has to do with large hoofed animals.
America is not a religious country, no matter how many Americans say they believe in God. I've been in religious countries and this is not one of them. There is no Sabbath, no fasting or prohibitions, every day is a feast day.
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