Synopses & Reviews
Politicians beware! A new book is about to hit the shelves that may end your political career. As an emergency response to the current political stupidity, 12 of the most brilliant young political artists and organizers in a generation have come together to create the most important political book of 2004.
How to Get Stupid White Men Out Of Office is going to revolutionize the way young people who don't do electoral politics do electoral politics and how they win.
With an unprecedented 80-city tour focused on key swing states, the 12 co-authors and the League of Pissed Off Voters have built a war chest of creative new online and offline political tools that will capture the imagination of young non-voters just in time for the November 2004 elections. Without question, this book and organization will help swing local elections (the creators of the book and their friends have already done that). And if the presidential election is close, people who read How to Get Stupid White Men Out Of Office in the next few months could wake up on November 3 and realize they have shifted the entire course of world history.
What is the book about?
How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office documents 20 success stories from the past five years of young people who have swung or won elections from city councils to the Senate in 16 states, South Korea, and on the Internet.
- Alisha Thomas, a 24-year-old black woman won a state legislative seat in suburban Cobb County, Georgia, the heart of Newt Gingrich country.
- University of Michigan students leveraged a student government election to catapult themselves into and shift the national debate about affirmative action.
- A 21-year-old city council member in Providence, Rhode Island, and a 25-year-old mayor in New Paltz, NY both Greens.
- Young Native Americans in South Dakota who swung a Senate seat by 528 votes in 2002.
- Ras Baraka, Newark's hip-hop deputy mayor.
- The young Latina campaign manager who beat the Daley machine in Chicago.
How to Get Stupid White Men Out Of Office puts its finger on the pulse of an unprecedented historical moment when the blossoming youth led political movement from Seattle to peace to sweatshops to immigrant rights to hip-hop has awakened and begun to flex its cultural influence and organizing muscle in the nasty new battlefield of electoral politics.
Synopsis
Anyone can rant against the current state of American democracy. Anyone can talk trash about politicians, or bemoan the apathy of the electorate. How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office is a guide to getting off one's cynical duff and actually effecting positive change through the electoral process. Editor William Upski Wimsatt created the League of Youth Voters, a political action committee designed to raise awareness amongst younger demographics and support candidates on a country, state-and city-wide basis. This book tells the stories of how these marginalized voters such as gays, punks, blacks, and Latinos organized to make the winning difference in contested legislative and electoral races across the country. To prepare readers for the 2004 elections, this book lists potentially close races, provides maps of key swing states and districts, lists 800 people under 35 in office, and examines youth voter turnout and impact.
Synopsis
Anyone can write a rant against the state of American democracy today. Anyone can talk trash about politicians, or bemoan the apathy of the electorate, the low turnout, the low attention span, the cynicism. How To Get Stupid White Men... is a guide to getting off ones cynical ass and doing something about it. Over the past six months, William Upski Wimsatt has been working with a group of people who have hitherto engaged in myriad forms of social work and political activism to develop a strategy that will effect positive change on American society through the electoral process. Rather than taking to the streets, rather than "bombing [graffitting] the suburbs," Wimsatt and his colleagues plan to "throw the bums out." This book will tell the story of 19 such cases over the past couple of years and outline all the potential races for 2004, describing the tactics to be utilized in an array of contested races across the country by creating coalitions of gay, enviro, Black, Latino and other young groups of voters. The goal is to make this the most useful politically life-changing book any 15-35 year old could read this election year.