Also in Politics & Social Justice

Crashing the Gate

Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics

by Jerome Armstrong, Markos Moulitsas

Foreword by Simon Rosenberg

Praise

[Markos] is the left's own Kurt Cobain and Che Guevera rolled into one.

—Time Magazine

Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga... have written a provocative new book that offers a perceptive analysis of progressive politics and proposes to revolutionize the Democratic Party through a 'bloodless coup.'

—The Nation

Crashing the Gate is a refreshing, bold exposé of the status quo party politics that are threatening to make Democrats the permanent minority party. Whether or not readers agree with the authors' assessment of Democratic Party leadership, it is certain that the energy and creativity of the emerging netroots will be essential to future election victories.

—Donna L. Brazile, Chair of the Democratic National Committee Voting Rights Institute and former campaign manager for Gore for President 2000

Armstrong and Moulitsas may well be right that the next great partisan transformation will be theirs. In Crashing the Gate they have written an insightful guide to how the Democratic Party can retake power.

—New York Times Book Review

We have a Republican Party that can't govern, a Democratic Party that can't get elected, and little doubt that a great nation is suffering as a result...

—New York Times Book Review

Power to the people with a political takeover plan.

—The New York Times

Crashing the Gate is the start of a conversation. It will unleash a torrent of stories about how badly the party has been managed, who's at fault, and why the Democratic Party keeps losing...Any number of people within the party could have written a book like this years ago; it is a testament to the blogosphere that the people who did write it were bloggers.

—Matt Stoller, founder of Blogging the President

The next generation of progressives are desperate for a more democratic and aspirational political process that appeals to our common American values, not our narrow issue interests. Markos and Jerome have crafted a book that impels us to leave behind the hollow comfort of our individual organizations and unite to build the people-powered movement that our democracy so desperately needs. Let the reformation begin!

—Jared Duval, National Director, Sierra Student Coalition

No one is spared in this lively, pointed book—and that makes it a lot of fun. Democrats should read Crashing the Gate to find their way out of the political wilderness. Republicans should read it to understand what their opponents might do if they get smart. Independents should read it to see what vigorous, two-party competition will really look like.

—Dr. Larry J. Sabato, author of Divided States of America

The political status quo isn't working, and Markos and Jerome finally tell it like it is. More importantly they offer every frustrated citizen a way out. Calling on 'regular people' to become 'the financial backbone of the Democratic Party,' Crashing the Gate offers both the historical perspective needed to recognize that each of us must rise to this challenge to build a political future we can live with and the path to do it.

—Kirstin Falk, Executive Director of the New Progressive Coalition

True to their calling, Armstrong and Moulitsas — masters of the blog — provide a no-holds-barred overview of the political landscape. If you want to know why blogs have become crucial to the re-establishment of American democracy, read this book.

—George Lakoff, author of DonÂ’t Think of an Elephant!

There is a reason why Markos and Jerome's writing dominates the progressive blogosphere: they believe that politics is a battle of ideas and they wield the keyboard like a sword. And this is what we want from our leaders—passion and positions that come from the heart, not from the pollsters. The power and wisdom of the grassroots will elect leaders with these qualities and our democracy will once again be vibrant

—Joan Blades, co-author of The Motherhood Manifesto

Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga are pioneers of a new politics that empowers people—the Democratic establishment ignores Crashing the Gate and its insights at its peril. For everyone who believes that the Party must reform itself and return power to the grassroots, this book is a must read

—Joe Trippi, author of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Money is fucking up the Democratic Party and money can save it. Finally, a plan to make the party more responsive to its roots and its beginnings.

—Sam Seder, host of Majority Report, Air America Radio

There is a new politics being born in America that isn't beholden to the rich, the dishonest and the corrupt. Crashing the Gate shows how that politics has emerged, and how it is bringing power back to the people. This is a book that the political establishment will likely fear—but only because it proves that ordinary citizens are ready to take back their government.

—David Sirota, author of Hostile Takeover --How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government & How We Take It Back

In a political culture dominated by corporate money and conservative ideology, the revival of progressive citizen politics is American democracy's best hope. From the beginning, Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga have been in the vanguard of the "netroots" movement—and now, in their tough, insightful and forthright book, these pioneering activists explain how progressive patriots can win.

—Joe Conason, journalist and author of Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth

Two of the hottest Democratic bloggers—Daily Kos's Markos Zuniga and MyDD's Jerome Armstrong—prove with this book that they are also two of the sharpest and most insightful voices in the progressive movement. Crashing the Gate is an urgent and powerfully-written look both at what ails our democracy and what can heal it. Ultimately, they show that the fuel to reform our politics will not come from party insiders but from 'the netroots, grassroots, and the rise of people powered politics.'

—Arianna Huffington, Editor, The Huffington Post

Crashing the Gate is a breath of fresh air for the progressive movement.

—NW Progressive Institute

Markos and Jerome have it right in Crashing the Gate. Progressives need to change the way we do business if we want to confront and destroy the daily right wing assault on our values. And that's exactly what we're doing: empowering local activists, unabashedly articulating our values and recognizing that our movement is bigger than any one person or group. The future of people-powered politics looks bright.

—Gerald W. McEntee, International President, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees

...this book could be the most important political work of 2006.

—MediaChannel.org

...this "simple" book may be one of the most important that has come out of the progressive movement in over a decade.

—ePluribus Media

If you are high on the possibilities for the Internet transforming progressive politics, then this is the book of the moment to read.

—Buzzflash

In fact, there's something remarkably bracing about the authors' approach. The Unified Theory of Progressive Revival may remain the Holy Grail, but while pursuing it, why not start attacking the small systemic dysfunctions that cripple the movement's effectiveness?

—In These Times

Crashing the Gate could have degenerated into a rambling, insular, self-congratulatory testimonial about how liberal blogs have changed politics. Instead, Moulitsas and Armstrong have written a lucid, concise, and deeply insightful book that exposes the Democratic Party as a moribund Beltway-centered apparatus stuck in neutral with greedy consultants, old campaigning tactics that no longer work, and party elites who grasp their ever-shrinking fiefdom and resist anyone who dares to challenge their authority.

—BeyondChron

What Crashing the Gate advocates is essentially a bloodless coup inside the Democratic party.

—The Stranger

Markos is Moses leading Democrats to the Promised Land

—Eleanor Clift, Newsweek

True to form, [Markos and Jerome take] direct aim at the structural flaws, strategic failings, and ideological timidity of the Democratic establishment. It isn't a blanket condemnation - several courageous Dems are praised - but it is an unflinching look at the Party through the eyes of two netroots visionaries. While Republicans are by no means spared, it's the brutally honest look at the Democratic establishment and progressive infrastructure (if such a thing exists) that makes Crashing the Gate an essential read.

—Peter Daou, Salon.com

It is one of the two best books I've read in years about the Democratic Party, its myriad problems and challenges.

—Charlie Cook, National Journal Review

It's an indictment of how the Democratic Party does business, and a vision of a new politics rising out of keyboards all across the country.

—The Oregonian