Reasons to Vote for Democrats: A Comprehensive Guide is a self-published[1] satirical book by Michael J. Knowles. It comprises 266 pages, with the majority of it being blank. It was a best-selling book on Amazon.com in March 2017.[1][2]
 | |
| Author | Michael J. Knowles |
|---|---|
| Genre | Satire |
| Publisher | CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |
Publication date | February 8, 2017 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 266 |
| ISBN | 978-1-5430-2497-5 |
Summary and background
editThe book was divided into 10 "chapters": Economics, Foreign Policy, Civil Rights, Education, Homeland Security, Energy, Jobs, Crime, Immigration, and Values and Principles, all of which are blank. The book contains a quote from Thucydides. The end of the book is a bibliography of where Knowles obtained the supposed "information" from. Knowles, in the book, called it the "most exhaustively researched and coherently argued Democrat Party apologia to date."[3]
Concerning the lack of content, Knowles said via Fox News that he has been "observing the Democratic Party for at least 10 years now, and when I observed their record and reasons to vote for them — on reasons of economics or foreign policy or homeland security or civil rights and so on — I realized it was probably best to just leave all the pages blank."[4] Knowles said in the book that to be able to be qualified for distribution, "Lefty lawyers require that we state the book is mostly blank and contains precisely 1,235 words."[5]
Reception
editReasons to Vote for Democrats ranked number 85 in Amazon as of April 2017 as quoted by the Los Angeles Times,[5] and was briefly at the top of Amazon's bestseller list in March of that year.[6]
Conservative commentators, including art critic Roger Kimball in The Weekly Standard, reviewed the book favorably, stating that "Knowles has matched matter and message with rare economy" and that "it is for the substance of his analysis that Knowles's study will be remembered."[7]
In The Guardian, Danuta Kean called it "a product worthy of Reggie Perrin's Grot shop – the store opened to sell tat in David Nobbs's magnificent satire of modern life", going on to say that "the real joke is that readers are prepared to pay for what is essentially a sketchpad with a funny jacket."[8]
On April 17, 2017, US President Donald Trump mentioned the book on Twitter, calling it "a great book for your reading enjoyment".[9] Knowles responded by stating, "I'm honored that President Trump enjoyed this important work of scholarship."[10] Business Insider reported that "critics complained that the president was violating ethics rules by endorsing" the book.[6]
References
edit- ^ a b "Reasons to vote for Democrats tops Amazon bestseller list". BBC News. March 10, 2017. Archived from the original on June 20, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
- ^ Concha, Joe (March 9, 2017). "Amazon bestseller 'Reasons to Vote for Democrats' is a book of empty pages". The Hill. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
- ^ Andrews, Travis (May 10, 2017). "'Reasons to Vote for Democrats' jumps to the top of Amazon's bestseller list. But its pages are blank". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
- ^ Sommer, Will (March 9, 2017). "Amazon bestseller 'Reasons to Vote for Democrats' is a book of empty pages". The Hill. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- ^ a b Schaub, Michael (April 17, 2017). "Donald Trump plugs a book called 'Reasons to Vote for Democrats' on Twitter. But there's a catch". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- ^ a b Tani, Maxwell. "Trump trolls Democrats, promoting a book with 260 blank pages called 'Reasons to Vote for Democrats'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
- ^ Kimball, Roger (April 16, 2017). "Shooting Blanks". The Weekly Standard. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
- ^ Kean, Danuta (April 18, 2017). "Empty satire: the regrettable rise of blank-paged books in the Trump era". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- ^ Tani, Maxwell (April 17, 2017). "Trump trolls Democrats, promoting a book with 260 blank pages called 'Reasons to Vote for Democrats'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on April 17, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
- ^ Ha, Thu-Huong (April 17, 2017). "Donald Trump is really excited about this book with no words in it". Quartz. Archived from the original on June 11, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2021.