By being too timid and too weak, too hesitant and too
confused, Democrats have allowed Republicans to run amok.
Republicans today control everything: the White House, the
Congress, the Supreme Court, the federal bureaucracy, the
military, and the corporate special interests and their
lobbyists. They operate powerful right-wing organizations,
right-wing think tanks, and a conservative media that
serves as an attack dog against Democrats.
Republicans have used their absolute power to corrupt our
democracy, degrade our military, weaken our health care
system, diminish our stature in the world, damage our
environment, reward the rich, hammer the poor, squeeze the
middle class, bankrupt our Treasury, and indenture our
children to foreign debt holders.
In this important book, James Carville and Paul Begala show
Democrats how they can take it back. They offer a clear-
eyed critique of their party's failures and make specific,
concrete recommendations on how Democrats can avoid losing
elections on divisive issues such as abortion, gun control,
gay rights, and moral values and start winning them on
health care, political reform, energy, the environment, tax
reform, and more.
Carville and Begala say that liberal Democrats are right
that too many establishment Democrats kowtow to corporate
interests and shamefully supported George W. Bush's rush to
war. And moderate Democrats are right to complain that too
many Democrats are out of step with middle-class values,
too removed from people of faith, too enthralled with
intellectual and cultural elites.
But the problem with the Democrats, Carville and Begala
argue, is not ideological. It's anatomical. They lack a
backbone. Take It Back is a spinal transplant for Democrats
and an audacious battle plan for victory.