Reseña del libro "Sharpton (2018 Expanded Edition): A Demagogue's Rise (en Inglés)"
In this, the age of President Donald Trump, one person may prove the leader in what passes for the political opposition: Reverend Al Sharpton. Well before Trump's election in November 2016, in fact, he had acquired an undeserved reputation as a civil rights and Democratic Party eminence. During the presidency of his close friend Barack Obama, Sharpton, a man with a long history of fomenting riots, ironically became as the White House's point man to achieve peace in the streets. Sharpton, now 63, has been unapologetic from the start. Unfortunately, he has many supporters. And they include people supposedly smart enough to know better. At the start of October 2014, for example, only several weeks after rioting in the wake of a justifiable shooting by a white cop of a youthful black attacker in Ferguson, Missouri, Sharpton's was feted with a 60th birthday dinner at the swank Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan. The event included virtually all of the New York political establishment, plus black celebrities such as singer Aretha Franklin and filmmaker Spike Lee; it would be followed by a two-day conference on race and education at NYU. Corporations including Walmart, Verizon, and McDonald's helped underwrite the tab, as did a number of labor unions. However perversely, Al Sharpton is a significant historical figure. For he epitomizes how demagoguery can be a path to power, whether behind the pulpit, in the streets or in the suites. Through various organizations, especially his Harlem-based nonprofit group, National Action Network, he has demonstrated his mastery of rhetoric that can transform latent fear and loathing into aggressive action. More than once, the consequences have been destructive. Every one of his campaigns to railroad innocent people into prison has rested on lies, distortions and obfuscations. How did this minister of misinformation come to wield so much clout? Many of the answers can be found in Sharpton: A Demagogue's Rise. In this 455-page book, an updated and expanded edition of an earlier version released three years ago, author Carl F. Horowitz traces the history of the man known as "the Rev" from his days as New York's "boy wonder" preacher through his may campaigns to his current incarnation as a Capitol Hill activist and media star (he's been a TV anchorman on MSNBC since 2011). Sharpton shows no signs of slowing down or losing his power of persuasion. For many, he's still the man to see. As he likes to say, "I am not an ambulance chaser. I am the ambulance." Carl Horowitz is a staff director of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a Falls Church, Va.-based nonprofit group that has exposed public corruption with great effectiveness since 1991. It was a series of NLPC complaints, in fact, that prompted the Federal Election Commission to fine Sharpton hundreds of thousands of dollars for violations connected to his longshot presidential campaign during 2003-04. He no doubt wishes he, and not Donald Trump, were president. But he's got some powerful allies working constantly on his behalf. One hopes that success eludes them.
