Customer Reviews

Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

This is an interesting book that will probably be very useful to its target audience: "...young people who are considering a life-long commitment to the progressive cause, and for anyone who is curious about how voters make political decisions and what is involved in organizing for change." However, it is also an odd book, to the point of being irritating.

Creamer has, in effect, produced a combination of two books. One is a how-to manual for progressive activists; the other is a rationale for progressive policies and a call to arms for those who favor those policies. Unfortunately, the combination doesn't work particularly well here. One would expect the rationale to come before the how-to manual, but for some unfathomable reason, Creamer does it the other way around. In addition, he really needs some editorial help; the copy design of the book is grotesque, with weird indentation patterns, combinations of bulleted and numbered lists, willy-nilly bold-facing, italics, and underlining-- and sometimes all three together-- and odd rhetorical jumps from chapter to chapter. Finally, the book is too long, at 600+ pages.

In short, this is a book you have to really want to read, or you just won't finish it. That may or may not be a bad thing, depending on your point of view.

Creamer is an unapologetic advocate for the progressive cause. (By the way, as he explains about 500 pages into the book, "progressive" means "liberal"; the "radical conservatives" have successfully made "liberal" a pejorative, so the liberals can't use that word any more.) He's spent his life as a political organizer, and he uses that experience to illustrate the points he's making with interesting anecdotes. The book is based on the a priori assumption that the progressive cause is true, pure, and right. If you can't accept that assumption, you will not like this book at all.

However, even though the progressive cause is true, pure, and right, the task of progressive organizers is to crush any candidates who run against that cause. That's because, obviously, if progressives aren't elected to office, the progressive agenda cannot be enacted into law and financed.

Fair enough, but Creamer clearly believes that those committed to the progressive cause are justified in using any and all means to "frame" the debate and win the election, while those who run against them are by definition radical conservatives who are not justified ipso facto in using any and all means necessary to win. If you cannot accept that point of view, you will not like this book at all.

I thought the book was interesting, but I really didn't like it at all. Its organization and lack of editorial discipline made it a very nearly unreadable mess. In addition, I am an independent, one of the misguided people Creamer is interested in training activists to motivate and manipulate during campaigns, so there really wasn't much here for me.

I'm afraid that the same will be true for anyone else who's not already one of the progressive activists that Creamer is directing the book toward.

I cannot recommend this book. While I enjoyed the conversational style of the author and appreciate the need for the older Dems to communicate some strategic and tactical advice to young people in the party so their campaign efforts are effective, this book doesn't execute on its objective.

Its primary draw back is its length given the format as a book. The author and editor decided to take a conversational style (book) and create an encyclopedic length survey of every little fundamental issue a Democratic campaign should consider in the modern day. First off, the table of contents and the index are sufficient for a book, but not an encyclopedia. So the reader is left with a 600+ page book with very few devices to reference the issues they're interested in researching if they're able to finish it, causing it to fail as an encyclopedia. The hefty length of the book and its conversational tone is like reading a really, really, long blog post - you don't, read it that is.

If Creamer is truly dedicated to the subject matter, I recommend he revise the book, either make it an easy to reference research source, or slash two-thirds of the material and make it a call to arms for a certain style of campaign or agenda, either - not both.

Progressives are finally starting to get their act together, with serious thinkers bringing forth new political strategies and platforms that are dying to be put into action by a new generation of passionate activists. Here Creamer compiles the latest progressive talking points into a fairly serviceable encyclopedia, backed up with many of his own success stories as an activist and consultant. Creamer adds a few good pointers of his own, particularly when it comes to beating the conservatives at their own games of framing, organizing, and coalition building. Near the end of the book, Creamer also puts together outstanding platforms, based on current progressive thought, for health care and foreign policy. However, those new items are pretty rare in this ridiculously padded and repetitive book (though the padding and repetition might be excusable if one uses the book as an activist's encyclopedia). Creamer's basic points keep popping up again and again over nearly 600 pages, with far too much compiling of the ideas of others, adding up to recycling and hindsight rather than synthesis or development.

Creamer spends far too many pages forwarding the prior material of progressive thinkers like sociologist Malcolm Gladwell and linguist George Lakoff. Creamer also delves into other fields to explain modern political behavior, utilizing vast amounts of material from historian Jared Diamond, management expert Clayton Christensen, and even astronomer David Grinspoon, but yet again merely repeats previous works (including more than two entire chapters on Diamond's theories) with which most of this book's readers will already be familiar. Several later chapters destroy a lot of trees by repeating very basic progressive opinions on problems like the environment, war, economics, and justice. With this book Creamer has performed a valuable service in bringing together useful and far-flung progressive thought, and he's got solid strategies for transforming thought into action. But other than compilation, this book doesn't offer enough new inspiration to justify its huge size or the amount of time potential activists will get bogged down in it before taking it to the streets. [~doomsdayer520~]

Haven't read the book; don't plan to. The author is a convicted felon for writing bad checks and ripping off the non-profit organization he was running. I guess I'm not suprised that "Progressive" Democrats would look to some immoral low-life for their game plan.

I would rather eat glass than read this tome. As a convicted felon, invited to the White House State dinner, I really have to judge my president's choice of friends. This is a really scary book.

Bob Creamer has put together the wisdom and experience of 40 years of political and issue organizing on behalf of regular hard working struggling folks in a must have, read, and study book. If one is serious about organizing for social change, or just understanding how the political-electoral "game" is played, one has to get familiar with the tools, the nuts and bolts, the gears and grease that make things happen the way they do. Unless one does they will not be able to change things, make things better. STAND UP STRAIGHT has it all, with examples that make the whys and hows understandable.

This book would have been very interesting to me during the 30+ years I was actively involved in political campaigns. At my age (68), I don't have enough energy left to put all the ideas and suggestions to work.

This book is bad for the environment since it was a waste of the paper it is written on!!!! The author wrote it while in prison for tax evasion. He is married to an Illinois legislator who is a liberal fascist that wants to actually do away with all private insurance companies and have all health insurance provided by the federal government. You know, the same government who cannot even get enough H1N1 vaccine and who has bankrupt Medicare. The Progressive Party failed 100 years ago and it will fail again because "Progressive" is an oxymoron when it comes to this political ideaology since it is anything but progressive. It is a repressive, totalinarian movement that wants nothing other than to control the lives of every man, woman and child not only in America but the World!!!

As a former director of a political statewide nonprofit and as someone who has worked on a Congressional campaign, lobbied Congress, etc. I was intrigued to see what Robert Creamer had to say about how progressives can win.

"Stand Up Straight" is a massive tome in explaining political tactics and message. As others have indicated, it's a virtual encyclopedia. It covers everything from the current political environment to how to motivate citizens to act to specific tactics one can use to convey a message. And this is only scratching the surface.

I couldn't help wondering as soon as I saw the book's girth, just who is the intended reader of this book? Does the author expect anyone to read it cover to cover? As pertinent and accurate as Creamer might be in his points, the only people I see reading this entire book would be those considering running for office and anyone wanting to play a leadership role in a campaign.

I was very disappointed by the lack of vision statement or singular concise argument about how progressives can win. The book answers the question with a thousand points - in over 600 pages! - but I couldn't find a single sentence or paragraph that just said what Creamer was trying to say. This is one of the biggest complaints about Democrats: They can't seem to articulate a simple message as to what they're about.

From my own political experiences I've concluded that the biggest problem progressives face is connecting to middle America, people who aren't that politically active but can be swayed to our cause through effective tactics. So for me that's where the "How progressives can win" needed to start. Instead, the book starts with a message by MoveOn.org and then an explanation of the current political environment. Not a good start.

I was disheartened to see the MoveOn introduction. They're active, vocal and, despite their popularity in the Dem grassroots, rather undemocratic in practice. This is a top down organization that only makes itself appear to be democratic. MoveOn frequently organizes local actions with zero consultation with the progressive organizations already on the ground. They swoop in, announce an action will take place, and ignore the local leaders and organizations.

Then there's the issue of public perception. The right uses MoveOn all the time as an example of extremism. There's a reason they do this - they know that many middle Americans don't particularly like MoveOn and its tactics. Which goes back to my earlier point - I wanted a statement about how to win the middle while maintaining our ideals. Working with MoveOn does NOT help that goal.

Despite my disappointment with Creamer's book, there are definitely nuggets of wisdom. His chapter "Controlling the Dialogue" was for me one of the best in the book. Be positive, use humor and use jujitsu when necessary to counter the negative attacks from the opposing side. If there's one thing liberals have failed to do is respond to negative attacks effectively. E.g. John Kerry getting Swift boated and failing to respond.

Creamer does acknowledge the fact that political activists are not like everyone else. This was a refreshing statement which indicates he at least understands that progressives need to alter their message and tactics in order to convince middle America to support the cause.

But at the same time, Creamer also includes arguments on how to demoralize the right as if that in itself should be a progressive goal. Don't get me wrong, progressives do need to demoralize the right. But having that as a side effect of doing our jobs (winning) and actually planning and using specific tactics to bring that about are two different things.

At the risk of sounding like Bambi, I found this to be disheartening. It's just more politics as usual. It resembles what's being used against progressives by conservatives, especially talk radio and Fox News. Progressives say these things are wrong, but if we copy the opposition we just become like them. And, again, this just alienates us further from those in the middle.

Creamer is no beginner at politics. He has ten times more practical experience than I do. However, I do see his vision, his book, as fitting within a certain paradigm. While I respect Dems like Creamer more than I do "win at any cost" DLC types, I'm still frustrated by the lack of concise argument and attraction to middle America.

This is a book intended for all of those who are waiting for a positive liberal voice to speak clearly to the American spirit. There are many who are watching the current campaign longing for a clear call that will say, without weaseling, that the United States does not take away the right of habeas corpus from anybody, that it does not imprison people without recourse, nor torture prisoners, nor turn the government over to the corporations, nor invade other countries that have not attacked us or our allies, nor spy on its own citizens without being able to show some reason for thinking they have broken the law. None of the leading candidates are doing that; they speak about how "We must have change," or "We have to provide for the children," or "We have to do more for the people." Their speeches could be interchangeable. The definite voice of a person who has had enough and more than enough and speaks out about it is not there.

And all that missing content is here, and more. Too much more, in fact. This is a rambling, catch-all tome which, for all its good intentions and meaningful program, is almost unreadable, a veritable portmanteau of every political thought in the author's mind. It encompasses what a progressive should believe, how a progressive should work for these ideals, and even what he should do on election day. It's so much that it's overwhelming; it's more than enough to make one cry. Anyone who cherishes the Constitution, who has watched for the last seven years as the American ideal of a government of secular law offering even-handed justice for all has been flushed down the toilet, is in a state of despair, experiencing a very real fear that the United States we hoped we lived in has been forever changed for the worse.

I would have given it five stars for its content alone, but I can't because of the bloated nature of the book, the poor proofreading, and the lack of proper organization. Robert Creamer seems to be a brilliant man, overflowing with ideas and ways to implement them; I wish he had made a better book from the material he has.