The Fighting Soul
On the Road with Bernie Sanders
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
“[Rabin-Havt] offers an intimate portrait of his cranky boss, writing about everything from Sanders’s famous mittens, to his love of picket lines and Motown songs, to his distaste for ‘the inane droning of cable news commentators,’ to his prescient fear that Donald Trump was ‘nuts’ and would upend democracy.” —Maureen Dowd, New York Times
The Fighting Soul is an unforgettable chronicle of life on the road with Bernie Sanders and the first in-depth portrait of this fiercely independent, and famously private, left-wing firebrand. As a close advisor and deputy campaign manager on Sanders’s most recent presidential campaign, the tireless Ari Rabin-Havt spent more hours between 2017 and 2020 with the Vermont senator than anyone else. The Fighting Soul is a behind-the-scenes account of Sanders’s run, including his heart attack in Las Vegas, his notorious debate encounter with fellow progressive Elizabeth Warren, and a momentous private conversation between Sanders and Barack Obama. Revelatory and heartfelt, The Fighting Soul depicts the rare politician motivated by principle, not power.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The maverick socialist senator from Vermont flouts the norms of presidential politics in this rollicking campaign memoir. Rabin-Havt (Lies Incorporated), deputy manager of Bernie Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign, catalogues the ways in which Sanders defied the rules: he disdained polls; eschewed big-money fund-raising; avoided schmoozing with Democratic potentates (though he embraced ideological soulmate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez); remained clueless about celebrity culture; and was "genuinely confused and uncomfortable" about his own late-in-life fame. What Sanders did do, tirelessly, was talk about inequality, injustice, and progressive policies—especially Medicare for All—to audiences large and small, in any and every situation. (Riding in an ambulance to the hospital during a heart attack, Rabin-Havt reports, Sanders questioned the paramedics about their insurance status and views on the healthcare system.) Rabin-Havt's account of the Democratic primary race is breezy, colorful, and often insightful, but also evasive in blaming Sanders's defeat on the Democratic Party establishment's animus toward him without considering whether his left-wing politics were acceptable to most voters. Still, the portrait of Sanders as a crusty but caring man, passionately committed to principles and the interests of working-class people, vividly shows why he is one of America's most influential politicians. Photos.
