Anyone who’s paid attention to American politics for the last forty years will likely grant Barry Eisler’s central premise: the Republican party is, as a whole, superb at communicating its message, and the Democratic party is, as a whole, terrible at it. Eisler, a Democrat himself, is apoplectically frustrated with this state of affairs. It has, he argues, a crippling effect on the Democrats’ ability to win elections and – when they do win – to build and maintain support for their policies. Here again, politically astute readers will (regardless of party affiliation) likely agree with him.

Eisler does not, of course, take that agreement for granted. He enumerates the Democrats’ rhetorical sins and the Republicans’ strengths – with compelling and (for Democrats) cringe-inducing examples – as a prelude to explaining how, by adopting a handful of simple strategies, the Democrats could do better. The great strength of The Ass is a Poor Receptacle . . . is its laser-like focus on those rhetorical strategies. He’s interested in teaching Democratic politicians and their supporters how to win arguments, and discusses individual policies like the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act not to advocate for them, but to use them as illustrative examples. Despite its Democrat-centric message, therefore, The Ass is a Poor Receptacle . . . makes a very effective (if highly informal) primer on how anyone can learn to argue their case for any socio-political position more effectively.

The Ass is a Poor Receptacle . . . is, at 40 pages, a digital-age example of a once-flourishing non-fiction form: the pamphlet. Inexpensively priced and easily read in a sitting or two, it delivers a tightly focused argument in a length somewhere between a long magazine article and a short book. It is, regardless of your politics, well worth both your time and your money. ( )