Political Liberalism

In Soul of a Democrat, listeners take a journey through the history of the Democratic Party, learning of the successes and failures of its greatest figures, from Thomas Jefferson to Harry Truman. These great men knew that a successful political party needs solid ideological roots, a relatable message, and solidarity in its ranks. This audiobook shows modern Democrats how to learn from the past, craft a new approach to politics, and once again become the party of the people.

John Dean's last New York Times best seller, Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, offered the former White House insider's unique and telling perspective on George W. Bush's presidency. Once again, Dean employs his distinctive knowledge and understanding of Washington politics and process to examine the conservative movement's current inner circle of radical Republican leaders, from Capitol Hill to Pennsylvania Avenue to K Street and beyond.

In this incisive, personal account, David Brock disarms the major tentacles of the Republican Leviathan: the Koch Brothers, the Clinton haters, and the Fox noise machine. With the acumen of a seasoned political player, Brock takes listeners inside his Democratic war rooms and their 24/7 battles with right-wing forces for control of the story lines and messages that will decide the 2016 election. And he chronicles his own evolution from lead Clinton attack dog to one of Hillary Clinton's fiercest defenders as he knocks down the conservative case against her.

At this defining moment in our history, Americans are hungry for change. After years of failed policies and a failed politics from Washington, this is our chance to reclaim the American dream. Barack Obama has proven to be a new kind of leader - one who can bring people together, be honest about the challenges we face, and move this nation forward. Change We Can Believe In outlines his vision for America.

DC politicians ship our friends and family overseas to fight in wars we shouldn't be fighting. They monitor our emails, record our phone calls, and peer into our snail mail. They spend our hard-earned cash on things no disciplined family would buy. They tell us who we can marry and what we can put in our bodies. They throw us in overcrowded prisons for smoking pot. They take lavish trips around the world, staying in five-star hotels...and it comes straight out of our paychecks.

Are Tea Party supporters merely a group of conservative citizens concerned about government spending? Or are they racists who refuse to accept Barack Obama as their president because he's not white? Change They Can't Believe In offers an alternative argument--that the Tea Party is driven by the reemergence of a reactionary movement in American politics that is fueled by a fear that America has changed for the worse.

To save both democracy and a decent economy, here's why it's crucial that Americans elect a truly progressive president. The 2020 presidential election will be pivotal for the credibility of government and for democracy itself, argues Robert Kuttner in this brief and compelling call to arms. Either we continue the twin slides into corrupt autocracy and corporate plutocracy - the course set in the past half century by Republican and Democratic presidents alike - or we elect a progressive Democrat in the mold of FDR.

There is a well-worn image and phrase for libertarianism: "atomized individualism". This hobgoblin has spread so thoroughly that even some libertarians think their philosophy unreservedly supports private persons, whatever the situation, whatever their behavior. Smith's Self-Interest and Social Order in Classical Liberalism, corrects this misrepresentation with careful intellectual surveys of Hume, Smith, Hobbes, Butler, Mandeville, and Hutcheson and their respective contributions to political philosophy.

As a progressive commentator on Fox News and now CNN, Sally Kohn has made a career out of bridging intractable political differences, learning how to talk civilly to people whose views she disagrees with passionately. Famously "nice", she even gave a TED Talk about what she termed emotional correctness. But these days, even Kohn has found herself wanting to breathe fire at her enemies. It was time, she decided, to look into the ugliness erupting all around us.

In this provocative book, Mugambi Jouet describes why Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sex, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war.

Conservatives often find themselves in discussions with liberals who relentlessly hammer conservatives with insults, accusations, and unfounded assumptions about conservatism. The question is: What is a proud and informed conservative to do? The answer is 13 1/2 Reasons Why Not to Be a Liberal: And How to Enlighten Others, the conservative playbook to persuasive facts and arguments that detail the policies, accomplishments, and often-ignored compassionate nature of the conservative philosophy.

The chaotic events leading up to Mitt Romney's defeat in the 2012 election indicated how far the Republican Party had rocketed rightward away from the center of public opinion. Republicans in Congress threatened to shut down the government and force a U.S. debt default. Tea Party activists mounted primary challenges against Republican officeholders who appeared to exhibit too much pragmatism or independence. Moderation and compromise were dirty words in the Republican presidential debates. The GOP, it seemed, had suddenly become a party of ideological purity. Except this development is not new at all.

The "Great Replacement" narrative, which imagines that historic white majorities are being intentionally replaced through immigration policies crafted by global elites, has effectively mobilized racist, nationalist, and nativist movements in the United States and Europe. The Rage of Replacement tracks how this narrative has shaped the politics and worldview of the far right, binding its various camps into a community of rage obsessed with nostalgia for a white-supremacist past.

America is at a crucial turning point in its history, and Republicans have been losing ground to Democrats for too long. In Take No Prisoners, Horowitz sounds a clarion call for conservatives to use liberals' take-no-prisoners playbook against them. From his days as a founder of the radical New Left movement in the 1960s to his storied career as a leading conservative activist, Horowitz has a lifetime of experience in battleground politics. Now he lays out a winning political strategy for the Right that can save the country from sliding into economic and social ruin.

The 2012 presidential election demonstrated once again that Florida may be the most purple state in the Union. Northwest Florida, however, remains staunchly Republican. Barbara Olschner believes in her party's founding principles: lower taxes, less regulation, limited government, and individual accountability. But she also believes in governing through compromise, in respectfully listening to opponents' viewpoints, and in the possibility that a Republican can be fiscally but not socially conservative.

Boiling Mad is Kate Zernike's eye-opening look inside the Tea Party, introducing us to a cast of unlikely activists and the philosophy that animates them. She shows how the Tea Party movement emerged from an unusual alliance of young Internet-savvy conservatives and older people alarmed at a country they no longer recognize. The movement is the latest manifestation of a long history of conservative discontent in America, breeding on a distrust of government that is older than the nation itself.

Mike Huckabee's run for the Republican presidential nomination was truly amazing. But beyond the headlines, few understand his transformation from a long-shot Evangelical candidate into a viable contender. Huckabee now presents the inside story of his low-budget, grassroots campaign. He treated middle-class and working-class voters with respect and spoke to their concerns about the economy, society, and the way our country is run.

Meghan McCain came to prominence as the straight-talking, progressive daughter of the 2008 Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain. And her profile has only risen since the election ended in favor of the other guy. What makes Meghan so appealing? As a new role model for young, creative, and vocal members of the GOP, she’s unafraid to mix it up and speak her mind. She doesn’t shy away from serious issues and her raucous humor and down-to-earth style keep her positions accessible.

In 2008, Democrats won a sweeping victory, seizing the White House and the majority in both houses of Congress. We knew this meant liberals would be in charge of the federal government—but what many Americans didn’t anticipate was that they would use this supposed “mandate” as an excuse to try and run every single part of our lives.

The struggle between the main political parties has been reduced to an unpopularity contest, in which voters hold their noses and sigh as they trudge to the polls. Peter Hitchens explains how and why British politics has sunk to this dreary level - the takeover of the parties and the media by conventional left-wing dogmas which then call themselves 'the centre ground'. The Tory party under David Cameron has become a pale-blue twin of New Labour, offering change without alteration.