Elected at thirty-one years of age, Ron Wyden is the second-most senior Democrat in the Senate. The child of Holocaust survivors, Wyden has spent his career dedicated to progressive values, informed by Jewish values. In It Takes Chutzpah, Senator Wyden explores this intersection and outlines his twelve rules for success in public life, what the Senator calls the “12 Ron Rules of Chutzpah.” The author credits these rules for service as the guidelines that have allowed him to be a leader in advocating for health care, the environment, civil rights, and innovation.
In his introduction, Wyden encourages us to rethink our typical understanding of chutzpah; instead of meaning brash, inappropriately outspoken, and self-aggrandizing, it can be a “learned skill that allows its practitioners to self-confidently embrace the possible, despite the odds.” This will allow those ready for a struggle to “absorb the sass, accept the challenges to [one’s] intelligence, deal with bullies, and combat hidden agendas…to pursue goals that might not resonate with everyone, that might make [one] unpopular.”
In the chapters that follow his introduction, Wyden shares stories behind his work, and how his chutzpah and the Jewish ideas and ideals with which he grew up have informed it. Each chapter is dedicated to one of the author’s twelve rules. In chapter two, titled “The Long Game, Part 1,” Wyden shares his dedication to the creation of a subcommittee of the House Committee on Small Business. It was through this subcommittee that the fight to allow RU-486 into the United States would be born. RU-486, also known as mifepristone, had been banned from entry into the United States for fear it would be used “off-label” to terminate pregnancy. However, RU-486 has recognized medical benefits including treatment for breast cancer and Cushing’s disease. In a struggle that lasted close to two decades, Senator Wyden’s work would lead to the RU-486’s approval in the United States, to the disappointment of conservative voices both within and outside the halls of the United States government.
The book concludes with a call to action. Wyden addresses what he understands to be the biggest issues facing the United States in the years ahead. He identifies carbon neutrality, the fight to protect social security, the right to affordable healthcare, and the danger of unregulated technology in the hands of authoritarian regimes, rouge actors, and unscrupulous business as the largest threats. The author suggests that by using his “chutzpah rules,” we can defeat these challenges.
It Takes Chutzpah: How to Fight Fearlessly for Progressive makes clear the author’s thinking on how each of us is obligated to work against the forces that undermine the freedoms upon which the United States were founded, no matter how unpopular that position is in an age of increasing opposition from authoritarian voices.
