The Secret Lives of Citizens: Pursuing the Promise of American Life

In the post-welfare reform, booming economic era of the 1990s, what's a liberal to do? Thomas Geoghegan offers an answer in The Secret Lives of Citizens, a breathy, confessional, stream of consciousness tale that is part diary, part chronicle of civic involvement at the end of the 20th century. In the book, Geoghegan begins as an intern at The New Republic and an Energy Department functionary in the Carter administration. But he is dissatisfied; he feels disconnected. So he moves to Chicago in search of surviving traces of the New Deal. He contemplates running for office, then becomes involved in Harold Washington's mayoral campaign, then files several lawsuits on behalf of the poor. But he remains discontented--and that, more than anything else, seems to be his theme.

Liberals who feel let-down by Bill Clinton's shift towards ideological centrism may find some solace in The Secret Lives of Citizens. Geoghegan is concerned about the collapse of the labor union movement, the demise of cities, and the rise of state and local government control. He is terrified of the growth in population and stature of the South: "I could go down to the Potomac River, along Ohio Drive, on a hot August night, and hear it growing in the dark." He also hates the West: "The Senate, then and now, overrepresents: 1. Small states; 2. Deserts; 3. Republicans; 4. Babies." (By babies, he does not mean infants, but westerners who whine about Washington interfering with the use of western lands.)

He even decries the unfairness of Chicago's resident parking rules: "As I circle and circle it hits me: Bad enough to lose the New Deal. Bad enough to lose planning. Bad enough that even our mayor lives now in a private complex, and we can't see him. But my God, can't there be a place to park?" Towards the end of the book, he discusses the ever-growing wage gap between rich and poor. "And the key is that our democracy lets it happen," he laments, "people don't vote, they think the government can do nothing about this. But a necessary condition of the American model that we boast about in Europe is that less than half the country votes. No majority rule: that's how we can downsize, etc. That's the new American model." And that is an outrage. --Linda Killian