Official Review: Chairman of the Party by William Osborne

[Craigable]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Chairman of the Party" by William Osborne.]

Chairman of the Party is a full-length self-published work of political analysis by William Osborne. The author served as chairman of the Rockingham County (NC) Democratic Party and also ran as a candidate for the North Carolina State House. Rockingham is a rural county (directly north of Greensboro, on the Virginia border) with a population of approximately 93,000. As Osborne describes it, the county is experiencing a prolonged economic downturn thanks to the demise of local industry which, in turn, fosters the flight of younger residents.

Osborne is a model of modern political disenchantment. In the book’s “Forward” [sic] he indicates his chief concern when writing Chairman of the Party was determining “if democracy was nothing more than an illusion.” While this is perhaps the bleakest (and therefore potentially most compelling) of political questions, the author’s assertion that Americans lack the will “to regain our principles of democracy” mitigates the need to read beyond the foreword to assess the outcome of Osborne’s prolonged thought exercise.

Chairman of the Party is not an autobiographical account of the author’s experience as an unlikely political operative and candidate. It is instead an examination of “the process of how we make decisions.” To this end Osborne uses his experience within the Democratic party to analyze attitudes, actions, and language relating to (among other topics): same-sex marriage; religion in politics; selection of political candidates; voting behavior; the political-industrial complex; role of government; abortion; American exceptionalism; the Affordable Care Act; birthers; government regulation; intolerance; and selection of good leaders. Key to this analysis is the “keep it simple, stupid” principle, which, the author demonstrates, serves to prevent political discussion from rising above the hollowness and inanity of well-worn talking points.

For the political neophyte, Osborne’s analysis of these hot-button issues may well be instructive. And while his discussion is not wholly free of partisan interpretation, he makes a concerted effort to paint all parties—politicians, political operatives, and voters—with the same damning brush. For the average adult reader who follows political news and commentary with even modest earnestness on an ongoing basis, Osborne’s book is less likely to satisfy. Despite his insider status, the author fails to supply any truly unique insight. Moreover, since his writing is intended “not to change public policy or opinion,” the work is essentially a philippic in which all the usual suspects are marched out for an all-too-familiar public scourging: politicians are bad . . . voters are indifferent and uninformed . . . special interests are abhorrent . . . etc. Osborne’s dismay is genuine, his disappointment real, and his fears well founded, but the overall value of his work is greatly diminished by the simple fact that he has, in essence, nothing new to say. If his goal with this work is to “try to make America a better place for our children,” it is difficult to see how such can be accomplished with what amounts to a prolonged exercise in rhetorical redundancy. Truthfully, he would better serve his reading constituency by simply recommending exemplary works by other authors.

Chairman of the Party serves, as do so many self-published works, as a cautionary tale for aspiring writers and wary readers. First, the text needs a thorough proofreading by a qualified and capable individual. Second, while the book is competently (though sometimes awkwardly) written, it lacks the polish of a traditionally vetted manuscript. Third, it remains an open question as to whether this book needed to be written at all. In chapter ten Osborne examines what he terms the “because we can” mindset, an opportunistic interior justification facilitating oftentimes unwarranted actions that the “normal social regulatory mechanism” does not effectively curb. The Internet has, for good or ill, eroded the traditional regulatory mechanism exercised by the publishing industry, making the World Wide Web a veritable wild West of because we can-ism with respect to self-publication. Chairman of the Party exists not because it needs to (most assuredly it does not) but rather because its author, flush with good intentions, wants it to. Blessings of freedom of expression notwithstanding, Chairman of the Party is a poster child for because we can-ism. It is not a bad book, to be sure, but it seems ultimately to serve no purpose beyond satisfying the author’s need to shout into the wilderness.

Rating: 2 out of 4 stars

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