America: Back on Track

America: Back on Track, by Edward M. Kennedy (2006)

The senior senator from Massachusetts identifies seven challenges for the United States to right its course from recent years. Like many liberals, Kennedy believes that the country is headed in the wrong direction. His goals for the country include protecting national security, creating an economy that works for all and continuing the march of progress toward equal opportunity for all.

Kennedy is one of the more polarizing figures in American politics, and not only for his progressive views. He has often tended toward sharp rhetoric, which speaks to his home base but sometimes alienates voters in other parts of the country, who think him too liberal on social issues and soft on national security. The senator addresses these issues in his short book by praising his older brother’s tough military stance during his short term as president and avoiding the strong and polarizing language that many on the left have issued against the current administration. Overall, his book is a solidly levelheaded assessment of the issues.

The senator is direct with his criticisms however, as he counters the conservative campaign against government. He advances a more expansive role for government through most of the book. Not surprisingly, Kennedy has high praise for Medicare. Citing its low administrative costs and relative stability, he advances this program as a model for covering all Americans with health insurance, not just those over age 65. The senator expresses his view that government will inevitably make mistakes, but he encourages his readers to rally behind those programs that work.

Although he supported the 2002 war in Afghanistan, Kennedy believes the American invasion of Iraq was a grave mistake. He outlines the reasons for his views in his chapter on national security and he is no stronger than when he discusses the difference between a preventive and a preemptive military campaign. He believes that a preemptive strike is justified, such as when Israel attacked those nations whose troops were amassed at its borders in 1967. But by taking action before all of the evidence had been collected, Iraq falls under the former category, he says. It is an error that he believes the country must never repeat.

Kennedy’s calls for increasing the minimum wage and protecting minority rights will surprise few, but he writes directly and passionately about the issues he has chosen for the book. This work is recommended for those interested in recent political debate, particularly those looking ahead to the midterm congressional elections later this year. While there is little new here, Kennedy makes a strong and focused argument for his cause.