A majority of Americans tell pollsters they want more government intervention to reduce the gap between high- and lower-income citizens, and less than one-third consider high taxes to be a problem. Yet conservative Republicanism currently controls the political discourse. Why?

Rick Perlstein probes this central paradox of today’s political scene in his penetrating pamphlet. Perlstein explains how the Democrats’ obsessive short-term focus on winning swing voters, instead of cultivating loyal party-liners, has relegated Democrats to political stagnation. Perlstein offers a vigorous critique and far-reaching vision that is a thirty-year plan for Democratic victory.

Contributors: William A. Galston Adolph Reed, Jr. Ruy Teixeira Dan Carol Daniel Cantor Robert B. Reich Michael C. Dawson Elaine Kamarck Richard Delgado Stanley Aronowitz Philip Klinkner Larry M. Bartels