Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream

“Memo to John McCain: Please, please READ THIS BOOK. It can help you win the election and guide Republicans in shaping the political future.

Memo to Democrats: Dont read this book. It's going to be THE political book of 2008. Republicans will be better off if you choose to ignore it.”

--William Kristol, editor, The Weekly Standard

In a provocative challenge to Republican conventional wisdom, two of the Right's rising young thinkers call upon the GOP to focus on the interests and needs of working-class voters.

Grand New Party lays bare the failures of the conservative revolution and presents a detailed blueprint for building the next Republican majority. Blending history, analysis, and fresh, often controversial recommendations, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam argue that it is time to move beyond the Reagan legacy and the mind-set of the current Republican power structure.

In a concise examination of recent political trends, the authors show that the Democrats' cultural liberalism makes their party inherently hostile to the interests and values of the working class. But on a host of issues, today's Republican Party lacks a message that speaks to their economic aspirations. Grand New Party offers a new directiona conservative vision of a limited-but-active government that tackles the threats to working-class prosperity and to the broader American Dream.

With specific proposals covering such hot-button topics as immigration, health care, and taxes, Grand New Party will shake up the Right, challenge the Left, and force both sides to confront and adapt to the changing political landscape.

"Coauthored by Atlantic Monthly writers Douthat and Salam, this book (like David Frum's Comeback) is part of a movement to reconstruct the Republican Party's core principles and reinvigorate the conservative electorate. The authors' strategy is to win back the working class through a combination of prudent government intervention and entrepreneurship. Relying on a bevy of sociological analysis, class scrutiny and historicism — a style resembling New York Times columnist David Brooks's, but stripped of his literary flair — Douthat and Salam take a nuts-and-bolts approach, perhaps because their book is prescriptive rather than observational, policy advocacy not entertainment. Whether or not readers will agree with the tenor of their arguments, rarely have moderate conservative ideas been so intelligently streamlined and so self-consciously pruned of conservatism's hairier iterations. The real holes in the text are the lack of cogent discussions on immigration and the war against radical Islam — the very issues currently shaping working-class politics in America. Nevertheless, this book is stuffed with fresh and brilliant ideas and presents a solid domestic conservative agenda to win over blue-collar workers. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Blending history, analysis, and fresh, often controversial recommendations, the authors argue that it is time to move beyond the Reagan legacy and the mindset of the current Republican power structure.

GRAND NEW PARTY lays bare the failures of the conservative revolution and presents a detailed agenda of the issues Republicans must address in the upcoming elections in order to ensure victory for the next generation. Blending history, analysis, and fresh, often controversial recommendations, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam argue that it is time to move beyond the Reagan legacy and the mind-set of the current Republican power structure.

In a concise examination of recent political trends, the authors show that Democrats’ emphasis on cultural libertarianism has made the working class feel unsafe, while the Republicans’ embrace of a small government, tax-cutting philosophy undermines New Deal programs they hold sacred. GRAND NEW PARTY establishes a new paradigm for a limited—but not passive—government that speaks directly to these cultural and economic anxieties.

With specific proposals covering such hot-button topics as health care, the future of entitlements, taxes, and immigration policy, GRAND NEW PARTY will shake up the Right, electrify the Left, and force both sides to confront and adapt to the changing political landscape.

ROSS DOUTHAT is the author of Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class and is an associate editor at, and blogger for, The Atlantic Monthly. REIHAN SALAM is an associate editor at The Atlantic Monthly. He was a producer at Hardball with Chris Matthews and an editor for The New York Times op-ed page. Both live in Washington, D.C.