Outsider in the White House is a 2015 political memoir co-authored by Huck Gutman and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, with an afterword by journalist John Nichols.[1] It was first published as Outsider in the House in 1997.[1][2]
Content
A review in the British magazine Prospect finds Outsider surprisingly au courant for a reprint of a 20-year-old book, asserting that once readers get past the focus on Newt Gingrich era politics, the issues Sanders was addressing in the 90s: the negative impact of free trade on American wages, income inequality, falling working class wages, military overspending, poverty, and the negative impact of big corporation, feel contemporary.[3] In fact, to the British reviewer, Bernie Sanders sounds just like Jeremy Corbyn, unsurprising given that both men are lifelong democratic socialists.[3]
Additionally, the book talks about the Republican Revolution spearheaded by Newt Gingrich.[5] Sanders adds that the Republican Revolution works hand in hand with the Christian Coalition, whose main focus is on "immigrant and gay bashing".[6] The 2015 reedition argues that the Republican Revolution remains relevant because "for Sanders, the only thing that’s changed over the past 20 years is that the bad guys have got worse".[5]
"N-word" controversy
In 2019, a passage from the 1997 book sparked controversy after the Daily Caller surfaced the passage of Sanders mentioning the n-word to critique racism. In addition, it has been reported that Sanders also mentioned the n-word in his 2015 version as well.[7] The Sanders campaign later defended Sanders following the controversy.[8]
^Binelli, Mark (July 9, 2015). "Weekend With Bernie". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on July 11, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2016. Vermont is a pro-gun state, and Sanders, in his 1997 book Outsider in the House, lamented unnecessarily losing the votes of "many working-class men" early in his career because "we handled the gun issue badly."
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