I wrote The Art of Tough to tell the everyday, behind-the-scene struggles that move our nation toward “a more perfect union.” After ten years as a member of the House of Representatives and almost twenty-four years as a senator, my experience has proven that even though the days of duels and fistfights on the Senate floor are over, we still engage in a different form of hand-to-hand combat.
I never planned a life in elected office. It wasn’t even possible for women when I was a girl. But as I came of age as a worker, wife, and mother, my increasing sense of indignation and sometimes outrage about the issues I saw around me—racial prejudice, war, women’s inequality, the neglect of our children and our environment—compelled me to jump full tilt into the battle.
So here’s my book: a no-punches-pulled personal memoir about the personalities and shenanigans of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I want to show you that what these folks do (or don’t!) has a direct, powerful impact on your lives. It breaks my heart when I hear people say, “Why should I vote… all politicians are the same… it won’t make a difference… nothing changes.” Oh, my God, how wrong, how mistaken that is. The men and women whom you elect to office make a critical difference in whether or not that dream of “a more perfect union,” so eloquently written in the Preamble to our Constitution, is achieved.
How can we become a nation “of, by and for the people” if we don’t vote? This book connects the dots and it does it in a way that I think is different—through the eyes of an ordinary person who grew up in the middle class with a fierce sense of right and wrong from parents who had that compass. And it shows how important it is to have a sense of humor to get through the heartbreak that comes to all of us in our lives.
I hope to inspire you to engage in your own life with a spirit of determination to fight for change. It’s what I call the “art of tough” and I’ve had to do it myself all my life.
“The art of tough” is a way of approaching all the challenges of life with techniques that can apply to everyone. Whether you’re in politics like me, or hustling to get an education, running a small business, raising a kid while holding down a job, bootstrapping a career under difficult circumstances—the values, beliefs, and sense of purpose are the same.
Each of us has to take charge of his or her own battles and even get more involved politically, particularly after seeing what happens in the political back rooms and how it matters to each of us. One person inside those rooms—or someone purposely left out of those rooms—can make a difference.