"Robert A. Heinlein - Take back your Government" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

should be doing something to preserve our freedoms and to protect and
improve our way of life but have been held back by lack of time, lack of
money, or die helpless feeling that you individually could not do enough to
make the effort worthwhile, then this book was written for you.
The individual, unpaid and inexperienced volunteer citizen in politics, who
is short on both time and money, can take this country away from the
machine politicians and run it to suit himself- if he knows how to go about it.
This book is a discussion of how to go about it, with no reference to
particular political issues. I have my own set of political opinions and some of
them are almost bitter in their intensity, but, still more strongly, I have an
abiding faith in the good sense and decency of the American people. Many
are urging you daily as to what you should do politically; I hope only to show
some of the details of how you can do it-the mechanics of the art
There are thousands of books for the citizen interested in public affairs,
books on city planning, economics, political history, civics, Washington
gossip, foreign affairs, sociology, political science, and the like. There are
many books by or about major figures in public life, such as James A.
Parley's instructive and interesting autobiography, or that inspiring life of Mr.
Justice Holmes, the Yankee from Olympus. I have even seen a clever,
sardonic book about machine politicians called How to Take a Bribe. But I
have never seen a book intended to show a private citizen, with limited time
and money, how he can be a major force in politics.
This book is the result of my own mistakes and sad experiences and is
written in the hope that you may thereby be saved some of them. If it
accomplishes that purpose, I hope that you will be tolerant of its
shortcomings. A decent respect for your opinions requires that I show my
credentials for writing this book. A plumber has his license; a doctor hangs up
his diploma; a politician can only cite his record - I have done the things I
discuss.
4
 I have been a precinct worker, punching doorbells for my ticket. I have
organized political clubs, managed campaigns, run for office, been a county
committeeman, a state committeeman, attended conventions including
national conventions, been a county organizer, published political
newspapers, made speeches, posted signs, raised campaign funds, licked
stamps, dispensed patronage, run headquarters, cluttered up "smoke-filled
rooms," and have had my telephone tapped.
I suppose that makes me a politician. I do know that it has proved to me
that a single citizen, possessed of the right to speak and the right to vote, can
make himself felt whenever he takes the trouble to exercise those twin rights.
- Robert A. Heinlein April, 1946



Chapter I
Why Touch the Dirty Business?
"He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith - "- Ecclesiastes XI11: l
And the Pharisees asked Jesus: "Why do you eat and drink with the
publicans and sinners'?"- Luke V: 30
This book is on the mechanics and techniques of practical politics, and is