Jesse Ventura Tells It Like It Is: America's Most Outspoken Governor Speaks Out about Government

In this fascinating little book, Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, sets out to explain the American system of government, warts and all, to the young reader. He starts out with an interesting autobiography, focusing mainly on his political career, and then he launches into an examination of how our system works. Along the way, the reader is treated to many colorful pictures and highly informative sidebars.Governor Ventura is widely known for his outspokenness, and this book contains quite a few of his opinions. But, in spite of that (or perhaps because of that), this is a great book, a passionate look at American government. If you are looking for an interesting introduction to the American form of government, then I highly recommend this book to you.

As the sub-title of "Jesse Ventura Tells It Like It Is," this is a book in which "America's Most Outspoken Governor Speaks out About Government." Now, at first look this title might suggest that Ventura is going to engage in his patented rants about what is wrong with the government. But the book is actually more of a primer about government for young readers, albeit based on Ventura's unique personal experiences in and out of office. Co-written with journalist and children's author Heron Marquez, this book certainly plays on Ventura's notoriety. The book's introduction starts with a picture of Jesse "The Body" Ventura in action in the wrestling ring and campaigning for governor in jeans, a Timberwolves jacket, and baseball cap. Ventura's explanation for his surprising gubernatorial victory is simple: he had a key issue (returning Minnesota's $4 billion tax surplus to the taxpayers), a pair of "boring" opponents, and an electorate looking for alternatives to the Republicans and Democrats. He also inspired a lot of people to register and vote who had given up on politics or never gotten excited in the first place. But the main part of this book does not look at Ventura's time in office, but rather at the government itself. In doing so, Ventura's political philosophy comes through: (1) What is Government? traces the development of the concept from family groups forming tribes to the complicated systems that exist today. Clearly Ventura favors the informal governments humans first created to fulfill these needs over the bureaucratic entities that exist today. (2) Freedom and the Constitution tells the story of how the Founding Fathers came to write the Constitution, which is based on the simple idea of freedom, and the Bill of Rights, emphasizing that the latter protects people from too much government. Sidebars in this chapter talking about how the Constitution can be Changed and some of Ventura's dealings with other countries as governor. (3) The Many Levels of Government uses the metaphor of the pyramid to explain how government works on the local, state and federal level. Ventura looks at September 11th and floods as examples of how the different levels of government function in an emergency. (4) Voting and Election Campaigns is the most autobiographical of these chapters, since Ventura talks about his own experiences running for governor and provides some of his most telling critiques of the current system (e.g., "I'll be you dollars to doughnuts, five or every six days are spent on political fund-raising. But if the candidates are raising money, they aren't talking issues"). (5) Cutting up the Pie talks about how we are taxed and what the government does with the money. A side bar allows Ventura to attack Special-Interest Groups, who he believes "control our government today, point-blank, no doubt about it." Consequently, Ventura emphasizes that his independence from such groups allowed him to "govern with no strings attached.