Synopses & Reviews
Crashing the Gate is a shot across the bow at the political establishment in Washington, DC and a call to re-democratize politics in America.
This book lays bare, with passion and precision, how ineffective, incompetent, and antiquated the Democratic Party establishment has become, and how it has failed to adapt and respond to new realities and challenges. The authors save their sharpest knives to go for the jugular in their critique of Republican ideologues who are now running--and ruining--our country.
Written by two of the most popular political bloggers in America, the book hails the new movement--of the netroots, the grassroots, the unorthodox labor unions, the maverick big donors--that is the antidote to old-school politics as usual. Fueled by advances in technology and a hunger for a more authentic and populist democracy, this broad-based movement is changing the way political campaigns are waged and managed.
A must-read book for anyone with an interest in the future of American democracy.
About the Author
Markos Moulitsas Zºniga served in the U.S. Army for three years and later earned two bachelors degrees from Northern Illinois University and a law degree from Boston University. After moving to California to work in the tech industry, Markos started DailyKos.com in May 2002. His blog has had a meteoric rise and now gets more than a million unique visitors each day, making it one of the most popular blogs in the nation. Markos lives in Berkeley, California. Jerome Armstrong, a pioneer of the political blogosphere, founded one of the first political blogs, MyDD.com, in 2001. The person behind the netroots strategy that used blogs and meetups for Howard Dean's campaign, Jerome works as an internet strategist for advocay organizations and political campaigns. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.
Table of Contents
FOREWORD
PREFACE
AMERICAN REALITY, CIRCA 2006
The Corporate Cons • The Theocons • The Neocons • The Paleocons • The Katrina Tragedy • How Did We Get Here? • Backlash Insurance • No Time to Lose
THIS AIN'T NO PARTY
Divided We Fall • "The Death of Environmentalism" • The Decline of Labor • A Woman's Right to Lose? • New Campaigns, New Movement
THE GRAVY TRAIN
The Beltway Mafia • The Commission Racket • Old Ads, New Age • The Changing Media Landscape • Information-Age Campaigns • The Cost of Failure
LAYING THE GROUNDWORK
The Conspiracy Gap • The Idea Factories • The Noise Machine • No Investment, No Return • Real Income vs. Psychic Income • Seed Money
CIVIL WAR
The Dean Machine • The Resistance • The Rise of the Netroots
INSIDE THE GATE
Challenge Every Republican • The State Trenches • Taking Over • People- Powered Politics • Parting Line • Revolution and Reformation
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
INDEX