Over the last few weeks, I have been contemplating how best to keep contributing to the political debate over the course of the next year. In that time, many of you have sent me terrific suggestions and ideas, and recently, many have been asking me what I'm going to be up to next year. The answer is that from the great input I've received during the last few months, I've decided to go ahead and write another book - one that is a natural follow up to my first book. Hostile Takeover analyzed how our government has been bought and paid for and what policies will help restore our democracy. My next book, which today I formally signed on to write for Crown Publishers, will be about how the hostile of our government that I described in the first book has fostered very real anger across the country; how that anger is manifesting itself in all different ways across this nation; and what dangers and opportunities could arise from this very justifiable outrage at a government that has stopped even pretending to represent ordinary people.
This book, which is targeted for release in the Spring of 2008, is a big project that will draw on many of my firsthand experiences both in Washington and out here in the heartland. It will not be one of those books that condescendingly approaches America as a country of partisan automatons - and it will not be a book that focuses on one political party or another because while that kind of outlook dominates the political debate, the vast majority of Americans do not look at the world through red or blue lenses. Similarly, this project will take me into different political and cultural arenas all too often ignored by the "national" opinionmaking machine. I expect to be calling on many of you for help, contacts, information and guidance.
My ride through the politics over the last decade has been an enjoyable, exhausting and altogether exciting experience. That goes for the good times - such as successfully getting the Progressive States Network off the ground, or helping Brian Schweitzer become governor of Montana against the odds, or working for progressive leaders in the U.S. House - and it goes for the bad times - such as losing a race against Joe Lieberman. But it has only been such an enriching ride because I have tried as much as possible to focus on what's actually going on and what actually matters to regular people rather than focusing on the fake debates that don't relate to most Americans, the faux "centrism" that dominates the Beltway, the politics-as-sport mentality that infects the highest reaches of politics, and the substance-free celebrity-obsessed culture that has taken over our democracy at the federal level, even as war and economic desperation intensifies. Had it been any other way with any other focus, I probably would regret all the work I've put in - but I feel the opposite of regret: I feel proud of being part of something bigger than just me.
This book will continue to focus on the real issues, the real facts - and most importantly, the real, on-the-ground action that is bubbling up all over the country. Because what's clear from the last election is that this nation has finally rejected the flood of Establishment propaganda that in all sorts of ways encourages subservience to power. The country has finally woken up to the fact that it's OK - no, it is our duty as citizens - to be outraged at the direction that this country is going in, and that out of that outrage can emerge something new, something productive and something powerful.
P.S. This will be my last post for the next two weeks, as I am taking a much-needed vacation with my family. Matt Singer from the Progressive States Network and Left in the West will be taking over at Sirotablog for the next week, and then the week after that (Christmas to New Years) blogging there will cease until the first week of 2007. Everyone needs to take a breather - happy holidays! - D