Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive For Permanent Power [Hardcover]

Thomas B. Edsall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2006

It's no secret that the Republicans are aiming for a generation-long realignment that will establish them as the majority party for the rest of our lifetimes. But few people outside the far right understand what that means. Any realignment has huge effects on political culture, and this one is more ambitious than any other in our history, including the Democratic takeover in the 1930s. It is the first deliberate realignment. It involves cultural changes--in the media and in the academy--that were never part of previous realignments. And it encompasses institutional changes in areas like foreign policy and the judiciary, whose independence was always respected in the past. Every aspect of society and every office of government is being turned to the purpose of strengthening Republican institutions--businesses, evangelical Protestant churches--and weakening Democratic ones, such as unions and consumer groups. Building Red America will bring home to readers for the first time the true extent of the Republican takeover of American politics, by revealing the chief architects of political revolution. The result is a masterful--and disturbing--work of political journalism that challenges all of us to wake up and take heed before the world has changed beyond recognition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this comprehensive and insightful book, Edsall shows just how much angrier Democrats could be—not least of all at themselves—if only they knew the half of what was going on. A senior political reporter for the Washington Post, he knows the capitol's ins and outs as well as anyone, without the bedfellowism of some other Washington journalists. The book goes a long way to explain why Bush, who ran in 2000 as a "uniter, not a divider," proceeded with an aggressively right-wing strategy once in power. Beginning with the revelation to conservative thinkers in 2000 that the "center of the electorate had collapsed," Edsall assiduously details every aspect of their successful push to galvanize their base and emasculate their opponents. "Without pressure to accommodate the center," he adds, "Republicans in the majority have been, with little cost, relatively unresponsive to criticism." Hence, the administration managed to draw both working-class evangelicals (using classic "wedge issues" like race and outrage over gay rights and abortion) and wealthy K Street lobbyists with little consequence. But he also shows that the Democrats lack salable strategies and have lost "a decisive majority of white voters." With depth and journalistic clarity, Edsall illustrates exactly why, more than ever, Democrats need their own Karl Rove. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Edsall has been reporting the nuts and guts of American politics for decades now, and there is no more reliable guide to infrastructural facts." -- Todd Gitlin

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1St Edition edition (August 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465018157
• ISBN-13: 978-0465018154
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #787,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas Byrne Edsall is an online columnist for the New York Times and a correspondent for The New Republic. He holds the Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at Columbia University. He joined the full-time faculty at Columbia in 2006 after a twenty-five year career at The Washington Post. During that time, he covered all aspects of national politics, including presidential elections, the House and Senate, lobbying, tax policy, demographic trends, social welfare, and the politics of race and ethnicity.

Edsall served in 2006 as a guest columnist for the print edition of the New York Times. Before he came to the Washington Post he reported for The Baltimore Sun and The Providence Journal. He has covered politics for The National Journal, and has contributed TV and radio commentary to CNN, CSPAN, MSNBC, PBS, FOX, and NPR.

Edsall is the author of five books: The Age of Austerity (2012); Building Red America (2006); Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics (2005); Power and Money: Writing About Politics (1988); and The New Politics of Inequality (1984).

He is also the editor of or contributor to a number of other books: Red and Blue Nation? Characteristics and Causes of America's Polarized Politics, contributor (2006); Varieties of Progressivism in America, contributor, 2004; Deadlock: The Inside Story of America's Closest Election (2001); Present Discontents, contributor (1997); The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order 1930-1980, contributor, (1989); The Reagan Legacy, (co-editor and contributor) (1988).

Edsall has written extensively for magazines, with articles appearing in American Prospect, The Atlantic Monthly, Civilization, Dissent, Harper's, The Nation, The National Journal, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, the Washington Monthly.

Edsall's 1992 book Chain Reaction was a Pulitzer finalist in general non-fiction. His awards include the Carey McWilliams Award of the American Political Science Association, the Bill Pryor Award and the Front Page Award of the Newspaper Guild, a yearlong fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and several Media Fellowships at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Edsall attended Brown University and received a B.A. from Boston University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Serious analysis with lots of facts, September 24, 2006

By 

Herbert Gintis (Northampton, MA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive For Permanent Power (Hardcover)

This book has been seriously misrepresented in the press (a stupid review by George Will and a misleading review on Amazon). It is a very serious work of scholarship with a good deal of insight into the problems of the Democratic party. Edsall characterises the Democratic party as (a) an uneasy and unstable alliance of minorities and the poor, who have serious economic issues on the one hand, and liberal, affluent elites with interests in new age values and individual liberation on the other. He charges that Democrats have no coherent economic policy to protect marginal groups in the age of globalization, no coherent policy for rectifying government inefficiency and stifling bureaucracy, and no credibility in dealing with military affairs in particular, and foreign affairs in general. Liberal values, he argues, have led to the election of Republican mayors and governors, as for instance, noting that Dinkins in New York was so ineffective that he was followed by four successive Republican mayors. Democrats, moreover, are in bed with the most venal of feeders at the public trough, organized unions in education (AFT and NEA), whose bread and butter middle class economic issues prevent Democrats from espousing choice programs that would benefit the less well off.

This book is a fine introduction to political demography and recent electoral and social history in the United States, and deserves to be entertained by serious students of politics, not the hacks that have reviewed it so far.

19 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Insightful!, October 23, 2006

By 

Loyd E. Eskildson "Pragmatist" (Phoenix, AZ.) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive For Permanent Power (Hardcover)

Edsall sees that the Republican party has increasingly become a coalition of the dominant (including ascending religious denominations), while the Democrats have become largely an alliance of the socially and economically dominated (including declining religious denominations) and those who identify with them.

Despite Watergate and Vietnam, Republicans have controlled the White House for 20 of the next 28 years, the Senate for 18 of the next 26, and the House for 12 of the next 26. With American businesses firmly in its corner, the Republicans have substantial business acumen (eg. the "K Street Project" and its ability to mobilize all lobbyists to support the entire leadership program), added credibility in debates over taxes and spending, and strong financial backing. Meanwhile, Democrats have become a bifurcated party, with a wide gulf separating the liberal agenda of their leadership elite and the pressing material needs of the party's disadvantaged. To reverse the rightward trend of the electorate, Edsall believes Democrats will have to address gun activists tired of having to get a license, government trying to force integration and affirmative action down people's throats, stop preaching that men and women are the same (men work more hours), increasingly taking people's money, tolerating wrong answers from the IRS and long MVD lines, a never-ending flood of illegals from Mexico, vagrants in the library, etc.

A large number of white males have moved from the Democratic to the Republican party over the issues of affirmative action and equal rights for women (increased job pressures), and busing, and perceived weakness on crime, and welfare - in '04 Kerry lost white voters overall in the $30,000-$75,000 income range by 22 points. The resultant higher proportion of women remaining with the Democrats in turn has led to a greater focus on peace --> another weakness in today's environment. Other structural weaknesses facing the Democrats, per Edsall, include a general perception of government incompetence (why give them MORE money), and ballooning healthcare and Social Security crises.

White, conservative evangelicals produce about 1/3 of Republican votes; their sentiments are reinforced by a dislike by the prevalence of self-destructive behaviors among poor minorities - eg. high illegitimacy, drop-out, and drug and alcohol abuse rates. (Democrats closing theses topics off under the disdainful label of "racist" doesn't help either.)

Early in Bush 43's presidency a staffer concluded the swing voters had shrunk to irrelevancy - eg. 75% of Independents voted a straight ticket for one party or another - thus, the true percentage of swing voters had fallen from 24% ('80) to 6% ('00), and being a "uniter" was no longer needed. Thus, Republicans are more focused on mobilizing the base, focusing on the anger points of their supporters (more motivating than their motivators), demotivating the opposition members, and increasing Republican voter registration. (On the other hand, most experts attribute Republican '06 losses to Rove et al having overplayed their hand by ignoring moderates and Independents.)

The Republican and evangelical focus on morality has an interesting contradiction - the percentage of babies born to single white women is close to 30%. However, since homosexuals make up only 2-4% of the population, both have instead focused on them, upsetting fewer of their members.

Another important Edsall observation is that Republicans' share of Mexican voters is not bad (53-44% - mostly through their membership in evangelical movements).

Bottom Line: Edsall sees the Republicans building a permanent power base, despite scandals and the Iraq War; their efforts are greatly assisted by unhappiness with Democrats' two main constituencies - minorities, and the elite. The only contradictory evidence I see is the growing number of jobs outsourced or paying less due to outsourcing or illegals immigrants. On the other hand, the Democratic party fails to help itself even here with its original base - backing both illegals and free trade.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Political Strategy to Control America, March 25, 2007

By 

Bryan Carey "Bryan Carey" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive For Permanent Power (Hardcover)

American political thought and the policies adopted by the Republicans and Democrats have always been in a constant state of change, with each of the two parties scrambling to adapt to an ever- changing world with new concerns and new opportunities. In different decades, Democrats had the upper hand and were perceived as being in step with a large percentage of voters. This trend continued through much of the 1960's and 1970's and Democrats enjoyed either control of the White House or, at least, control of the Senate and House of Representatives.

But things began to change in the 1980's when voters- many of them lifetime supporters of the Democratic Party- began to switch to the Republican camp. How this happened, and what Republicans did to make it happen, are the main subjects of this book. It breaks down, piece by piece, the Republican strategy that began in the 1980's and continues today. It is a multi- faceted strategy that capitalizes on the general support of big business; the importance of religion to many American families; the economic independence and classical economic approach favored by a growing number of Americans; and the general backlash of many voters against what they perceive as an unfair and/or immoral advantage given to certain groups based on minority or "oppressed" status.

Author Thomas Edsall writes this book in an informative way and he refrains from making judgments or criticizing the strategies used by Republicans. All he wants to do is point out what his research (and the research of others) has confirmed and offer a few talking points on what Democrats can do to win back some of its disgruntled voters. This lack of opinion will suit some readers just fine, but it will irritate others who prefer a more scrutinizing approach. I like the book and I agree that it is an invaluable resource for understanding the tactics used by Republicans to reshape politics, but I would like it even more if it spent at least a little time talking about the deceptions used by Republicans. Like, for example, the Republican strategy to "Starve the Beast": Reduce taxes to cut government revenues to the point that government will have to become leaner and more efficient. As anyone knows with minimal research, this claim/strategy is utter nonsense. Republicans have indeed reduced some taxes, but they have continued to grow government regardless of the revenue stream; making up the difference by borrowing and exploding the size of the federal deficit. Edsall talks about this strategy like it is true. But most anyone can look at the data on government spending and clearly see the totals soaring skyward, regardless of the amount of tax revenue. Also, little discussion is made of the Republican tendency to increase the scope of government; making government more intrusive into private lives and attempting to legislate the Republican Party's own (im)morality on the public at large. Edsall mentions this fact only briefly when he talks about the dissatisfaction felt by many over the Republican tendency to try to control what goes on in one's bedroom. But he doesn't say much else about this; again, leading readers to believe the false Republican claim of working toward smaller government.

Edsall does spend some time at the end of the book talking about Democratic Party strengths and weaknesses and this part of the book would be very good for those who are actively working to revive the Democratic Party and win back the confidence of the voting public. But there is one important fact about this book that is worth noting: It was published in August, 2006, three months before the midterm elections. During these elections, Democrats took control of both houses of Congress. Does this invalidate the material in Edsall's book? No, it does not, because the basic strategies of Republicans as they are described in this book are accurate and well- known. It was the war against Iraq and a few other issues that won the Congress for the Democrats. This victory could prove to be short- lived if the Democratic Party returns to its political strategies of the recent past.

Overall, Building Red America is a very good book about the political roadmap of the United States and the tactics used by Republicans to win over more voters and squeeze out victories in spite of its failure to deliver on its own promises. There is little analysis of these strategies in the book and Edsall avoids criticizing these tactics. But his book is very informative and flawlessly written and while it might be a little too factual and dry for some readers, it offers a very good synopsis of the Republican strategy to realign voters into the conservative camp.