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Let's Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again
St. Martin's Press
August 2011
On Sale: August 16, 2011
368 pages ISBN: 0312643055 EAN: 9780312643058 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
From the moment she upset a heavily-favored incumbent in the
primary for the special election to fill the Senate seat
vacated by Joe Biden, Christine O’Donnell made headlines.
Though she didn't win the general election, O’Donnell did
win the designation of 2010’s Most Covered Candidate. And
what people were talking about wasn't just gossip: they
responded to a fresh, unencumbered voice that appealed to
voter frustration with politics—and politicians—as usual. America’s strength lies in its government “by the people,
for the people”, but too many of those people feel they are
now just labeled featureless residents of “flyover country”,
told what to think and what they can and cannot do by an
entrenched, reigning class of elites. O’Donnell’s candidacy
gave hope that the voices of real people—the people—not only
can be heard but can also become a force. Part of this hope
is invested in the nascent Tea Party, but most of it is
invested in individual voters who are willing to work hard
and make sacrifices for what they believe in, not what
backroom dealing and a bloated federal government has
mandated is good for them. Troublemaker is about where O’Donnell comes from—the
Philadelphia suburbs with five kids to a room—and what she
weathered in the 2010 election. But the core of the book is
a clear, straightforward discussion of an America that
yearns to embrace freedom and opportunity through personal
responsibility, and how it is hamstrung and stymied by
excessive regulation, taxation, and the sanctimony of a
“nanny state.” And Troublemaker will deliver an important,
rousing message about what we do with the quiet anger in
America today: where we can go, and how strong we can be,
from here. Warning readers that challenging the status quo
makes the political establishment push back, O'Donnell wants
to build a movement that will continue to goad it. It's practical, too, since O'Donnell believes in power
through participation: it's not enough to grumble about how
things are going; pitch in and try to change things if you
care. O'Donnell details how she participated by running for
high office as an everywoman, but also shows how attending
town council meetings, organizing a petition drive, making
an effort to meet a staffer in your local representative's
office, or simply reading the minutes from your community
board can make a difference.
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