Blue Grit: Making Impossible, Improbable, and Inspirational Political Change in America

Blue Grit: Making Impossible, Improbable, and Inspirational Political Change in America | Laura Flanders | This American Life: Flanders is a Political Ira Glass

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Blue Grit: Making ...

	Blue Grit: Making Impossible, Improbable, and Inspirational Political Change in America Laura Flanders Penguin (Non-Classics), 2008 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Noted political commentator Laura Flanders investigates the state of American politics from the bottom up

With her trademark wit and indefatigable reporting, Laura Flanders, host of RadioNation and bestselling author of Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species, reveals as only she can the state of progressive America today. All over the country, grassroots organizations are making a difference, and democrats of all stripes are doing what the national party has failed to do: engage new voters, advance progressive issues, and even run their own candidates for office?and win?in some of the most unlikely places. With a fiery polemic, assured narrative, and acute political commentary, Blue Grit is crucial reading for anyone interested in the future of the Democrats?and this country.

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Campaigns not Candidates

Blue Grit is what the Democratic Party needs. It's a little bit like soul it's a lot like grits. Whether they get it or whether they will ever get it is another story.

The story that Laura Flanders tells in her prescient book is one that the fourth estate--fawning over Barack Obama's rout in Iowa--would have been well advised to read. They might have learned a thing or two: That progressive movements are not built over night and that they are not built on the backs of candidates, no matter how inspiring they are. Flanders is not a conventional campaign correspondent--conventional campaign correspondents don't actually cover campaigns; they cover candidates--and that is why Blue Grit, which chronicles progressive change in unlikely places, is much more valuable than the daily dose (often mind numbing) of political reportage. For a good example, see Flanders' recent stories in the Nation magazine on why the current campaign is not about Obama and why the real battle is not between Obama and Clinton but between the suites (the penthouse party) and the streets.

Flanders is more attuned to the people who make political change, often against great odds, than anyone else writing today. Thus her book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the current moment, a field guide to a more promising political future.

What is happening and what will happen in '08? As Flanders points out, the Democratic gains in '06 "didn't usher in new power for a new agenda." But the political shift is taking place at a different level. "The top of the ticket is not where the action is. Political change, as opposed to personnel change, works from the bottom up..." Will we see political change in the next election or just another changing of the guards?

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This American Life: Flanders is a Political Ira Glass

I loved this book, I simply didn't want it to end. Another volume maybe, Laura?

Flanders is a top-notch storyteller, social observer and enthusiastic cheerleader for progressive social change. Her style is refreshing and human; she's tough on all the right assholes, gentle with the good guys and emphatic as she bursts many a bubble of disinformation, misinformation and outright deception. But more than anything, her stories of the courage and committment of small "d" democratic activists across the country make you want to jump into the fray and make a difference in the ways her heroes did.

It's easy living in a progressive city (Flanders reminds us that every metropolis with a population above 500k went for Kerry--take note DNC) to feel defeated by the inability to make real change that matters. For a year following the disastrous 2004 election, Flanders crossed the country, from New Orleans to Utah, from Montana to the Vegas Strip. And while the post-election pundits chastised the Democrats for not being mainstream and centrist enough, Flanders tells us the real decisive victories happened on the progressive left. In union halls. On Indian reservations. With young people. All of whom pounded the pavement to wrack up historic numbers in terms of voter registration and Democratic votes. And yet the Democratic Party infrastructure, ever the gang that couldn't shoot straight, under-appreciated, misunderstood and outright negated these victories time and time again. Flanders talks about the union rep who remarked that "Republicans reward their friends, Democrats reward their enemies."

Flanders' frontline reportage is biting and witty, acerbic and generous. Here she is on the lack of grassroots infrastructure to support change long term: "What the [Democrats] built was a Penthouse Party: all top-floor suites, no load bearing walls, no foundations, no functioning stairway to the street." Time and time again she nails it. What I loved is that like Ira Glass on an episode of This American Life, you find the dramatic, detailed account of regular folks fighting the good fight inspiring and memorable. More, more, more.

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Has A Winning Strategy

This book hits the nail on the head as to why the Republican party has been more successful than our Democratic party. According to Flanders, the Democratic Party organizes from the top down and only pays attention to it's strongholds. The party traditionally has little or no organization in the so-called Red States. Flanders shows that there are disenchanted voters in Red States and Red areas of Blue States. They are putting forth grass roots efforts and winning local elections.
The book also goes on to say that the party needs to stay true to it's ideals. This is where I disagree in many instances. In some cases Democratic Candidates do not share all of her Liberal views. However, I think that her criticism of the so-called New Democrats and specifically, the Democratic Leadership Conference (DLC)is right on. I definitely agree with DNC Chair Howard Dean's 50 state strategy.
As a political activist, I am going to recommend this to my fellow Democrats.

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More like Blue Snit.

I just finished reading this book, and my take-away impression is that half the book is about brave individuals working alone or together in little three-or-four-letter-acronym political activist groups to advance "progressive" causes, and the other half is about what is wrong with the Democratic Party.

The book is half blue grit, and half blue snit. It seems there's a split in the Democratic Party these days, and in this book Laura Flanders explains in detail why and how this came about. This would be interesting reading, I would think, to anyone who's into politics, be they on the right or the left.

I don't consider myself a "progressive", but I enjoyed this book mainly due to the detailed accounts of the inner workings of politics, at least on the Democrat side. I also enjoyed Laura's fun, upbeat, not preachy and not mean writing style. I don't agree much with her politics, but I'm reviewing her book not her politics, and it's fun to read.

My one major criticism of the book in general has to do with the order in which material is presented. We start out with detailed accounts of people and activist groups I've never heard of in states where I don't live (Utah, Nevada and Montana) and the one-little-story-after-another just got quite tedious after a while. I almost stopped reading the book after the first two chapters. I suppose a "progressive" would just love this stuff but not being one I found it boring after a while. It would have worked better for me to start with the national stuff that I've been watching in the news for the past few years and then work into the local stories.

One thing this book did for me is confirm what a "progressive" is for me. According to Laura on page 9, "Those on the Left, to a greater or lesser degree, hold to a belief that this whole society is set up to serve those with power and wealth, and oppress all those without." And that's why I don't call myself a "progressive" because this sounds like good old-fashioned 19th century Marxism. Are we still in the South before the Civil War? Do we live in Russia in 1916? How cynical can you get? I would never be confused with someone wealthy or powerful, but a lot of the way our society is set up does serve me, and I don't feel particularly oppressed by anyone or anything. Perhaps I'm just not enlightened enough.

Another thing I would have appreciated is a real bibliography. There are "notes" in the back, and just enough for me to realize that someone who worked on this book understood the concept, and then did just little enough so that it looked like they didn't care.

Then there's the stuff I found downright funny.

On page 178, Ms. Flanders writes, "Much as I love my listeners on Air America Radio, for example, it worries me how little they like to hear from anyone with an opposing point of view." That kind of honesty is as unusual as it is refreshing.

On page 158, she writes about the Fairness Doctrine and says, "The elimination of the doctrine, by the Federal Communications Commission under Reagan, opened the door for Rush Limbaugh and around-the-clock, one-note, wingnut talk radio." The irony of that coming from an Air America personality is beyond words.

On page 186, Ms. Flanders is writing about why the rich out vote the poor. She writes, "In contrast to most advanced democracies, the right to vote in the United States isn't conveyed automatically with citizenship and coming of age. Voters have to prove themselves and always have, and the challenges related to registering, qualifying, and having one's vote be counted have always worked to help manipulate or suppress votes." Really? I can't even remember what, if anything, I had to do to get my voters' registration card. I haven't had to do anything since. My biggest problem with voting is forgetting to do it.

Anyway, this is a fun book to read regardless of the author's politics. And, unlike preachy pundit books, even someone on the other political side from the author can learn something.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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