IT’S MY PARTY

Water-bottle gossip mixes with big-picture philosophizing in this sharp memoir by a Republican Party stalwart—and onetime insider.

Robinson (Snapshots From Hell, 1994), one of the young conservatives who gave Dartmouth administrators fits in the early 1980s and went on to serve as a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and George Bush, is as faithful a Republican as they come. He defends his choice of political persuasions on many grounds: his was, after all, the party of Lincoln, the party of federalism and industrial democracy, the party that he believes best honors the American desire to be left alone to grow rich, fat, and happy. That said, Robinson finds much for which to fault his partisans: "It is easy," he writes, "to find the Republican Party absurd. . . . At times I find myself imaging that the GOP represents the past, its members the last remnants of an America that was once overwhelmingly white and Protestant." Likening his passion for the GOP to a love affair with a slightly dangerous, slightly daft woman—perhaps a silly conceit, but one that works just fine for his purposes—Robinson writes openly of his fellow believers' hidebound sexist and racist tendencies ("The GOP has done almost nothing to appeal to African-Americans or single women, while its efforts to deal with the growing Hispanic population have so far proven perverse"), exposing major flaws of belief and practice on every page. But his gadfly criticism notwithstanding, Robinson argues that the GOP is in every respect preferable to the chief alternative, and he plumps for George W. Bush while acknowledging the attractiveness of John McCain (who, for the Republican Old Guard, appears to be more dangerous than any Democrat).

Writing entertainingly and casually, Robinson tells tales out of school that are guaranteed to tick off his fellow Republicans and delight their foes in this election year. But make no mistake, he's hanging on to his party card.