August 09th, 2006

Book Review – Crashing the Gate

This week’s book review is a great one and for anyone interested in progressive politics it is worth a read (or 2). I just finished Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics by Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. This has got to be one of the best political strategy books I have read in a long time, and its written for the normal person like myself who wants to know more about how the Democrats and Progressives can take back the White House and Congress. The writers both run very popular political blogs; Jerome runs mydd.com and Markos runs dailykos.com, both of which have been mentioned in my blog at various times. They explain why it is that Democrats keep losing elections even though their policies and ideas are in line with most Americans, and how Republicans are so good at the marketing machine that it makes them hard to beat. Walking through the last batch of elections, they show how and why different candidates lost when they should have had an easy win, and how the Democrats are using tired old campaign ideas that are no longer working or relevant.

Every day I visit the two blogs run by the authors of this book, and I always learn something new or get involved in a conversation with many other readers. If you are curious about how the “behind the scenes” political system operates, and you want to get involved in solving our political problems, I highly recommend this book. Our Democratic political leaders are all too comfortable in their role as losers, as long as they maintain their own jobs, and something has to give. Crashing the Gate sets out to change that mentality, and I think they did a great job of both explaining it and encouraging people to get involved. I think a quote from The Nation says it all: “…a provocative new book that offers a perceptive analysis of progressive politics and proposes to revolutionize the Democratic Party…”

Be sure to pick up a copy of Crashing the Gate soon and enjoy!

technorati tags:democrats progressive daily kos book review mydd politics