Blue in a Red State

Blue in a Red State
Author: Justin Krebs
Publisher: New Press, The
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2016-03-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1595589694

Imagine if you felt out of step with every other member of the parent association at your kid's school, your quilting circle, or even your workout group. What if casual conversations revolved around Fox News and the decline of American values? How would you feel if you were afraid to put a political bumper sticker on your car or had to think twice about what liberal posts you liked on Facebook? These are just some of the experiences shared by liberals across twenty states and five time zones who tell their stories with honesty, warmth, and humor. Most of us have to “talk across the aisle” once or twice a year—when we're seated next to our conservative out-of-town uncle at Thanksgiving, say. But millions of self- identified liberals live in cities and towns—particularly away from the East and West Coasts—where they are regularly outnumbered and outvoted by conservatives. In this uplifting and completely original book, Justin Krebs, the founder of the national Living Liberally network, speaks with and tells the stories of atheists, vegetarians, environmentalists, pacifists, and old-fashioned liberals—a term he is intent on rehabilitating—from Texas to Idaho, South Carolina to Alaska. Krebs weaves these stories together to create a provocative and rollicking taxonomy of strategies for living in a diverse society, with lessons for every participant in our great democratic experiment.

Blue-Collar Conservatism

Blue-Collar Conservatism
Author: Timothy J. Lombardo
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2021-05-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812224833

Blue-Collar Conservatism examines the blue-collar, white supporters of Frank Rizzo—Philadelphia's police commissioner turned mayor—and shows how the intersection of law enforcement and urban politics created one of the least understood but most consequential political developments in recent American history.

Red and Blue Nation?

Red and Blue Nation?
Author: Pietro S. Nivola
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2008-04-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0815760787

A Brookings Institution Press and the Hoover Institution publication America's polarized politics are largely disconnected from mainstream public preferences. This disconnect poses fundamental dangers for the representativeness and accountability of government, as well as the already withering public trust in it. As the 2008 presidential race kicks into gear, the political climate certainly will not become less polarized. With important issues to address—including immigration policy, health care, and the funding of the Iraq war—it is critical that essential policies not be hostage to partisan political battles. Building upon the findings of the first volume of Red and Blue Nation? (Brookings, 2006), which explored the extent of political polarization and its potential causes, this new volume delves into the consequences of the gulf between "red states" and "blue states." The authors examine the impact of these political divisions on voter behavior, Congressional law-making, judicial selection, and foreign policy formation. They shed light on hotly debated institutional reform proposals—including changes to the electoral system and the congressional rules of engagement—and ultimately present research-supported policies and reforms for alleviating the underlying causes of political polarization. While most discussion of polarization takes place in separate spheres of journalism and academia, Red and Blue Nation? brings together a unique set of voices with a wide variety of perspectives to enrich our understanding of the issue. Written in a broad, accessible style, it is a resource for anyone interested in the future of electoral politics in America. Contributors include Marc Hetherington and John G. Geer (Vanderbilt University), Deborah Jordan Brooks (Dartmouth College), Martin P. Wattenberg (University of California, Irvine), Barbara Sinclair and Joel D. Aberbach (UCLA), Christopher H. Foreman (University of Maryland), Keith Krehbiel (Stanford University), Sarah A. Binder, Benjamin Wittes, Jonathan Rauch, and William A. Ga

Blue Labour

Blue Labour
Author: Maurice Glasman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 103
Release: 2022-08-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1509528881

Labour has been on a wild ride over the past thirty years. New Labour argued that we had no choice but to accept a globalized free market economy in which the race was to the swift, the open and the flexible. Corbynism reacted against this with a jumble of old school statism and identity politics. Both ultimately failed. In this book, Maurice Glasman takes the axe to the soulless utilitarianism and ‘progressive’ intolerance of both Blair and Corbyn. Human beings, he contends, are not calculating machines, but faithful, relational beings who yearn for meaning and belonging. Rooted in their homes, families and traditions, they seek to resist the revolutionary upheaval of markets and states, which try to commodify and dominate their lives and homes, by the practice of democracy, mutuality and pluralism. This is the true Labour tradition, which is paradoxically both radical and conservative – and more relevant than ever in a post-COVID world. This crisp statement of the real politics of Blue Labour – rather than the absurd caricature of its detractors – is Glasman’s love letter to the left-conservatism that provides Labour’s best chance of moral – and indeed electoral – redemption.

Red Fighting Blue

Red Fighting Blue
Author: David A. Hopkins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2017-09-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108127533

The national electoral map has split into warring regional bastions of Republican red and Democratic blue, producing a deep and enduring partisan divide in American politics. In Red Fighting Blue, David A. Hopkins places the current partisan and electoral era in historical context, explains how the increased salience of social issues since the 1980s has redefined the parties' geographic bases of support, and reveals the critical role that American political institutions play in intermediating between the behavior of citizens and the outcome of public policy-making. The widening geographic gap in voters' partisan preferences, as magnified further by winner-take-all electoral rules, has rendered most of the nation safe territory for either Democratic or Republican candidates in both presidential and congressional elections - with significant consequences for party competition, candidate strategy, and the operation of government.

Rednecks & Bluenecks

Rednecks & Bluenecks
Author: Chris Willman
Publisher: Rednecks & Bluenecks
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2005
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9781595580177

Willman looks at the way country music's increasing popularity and conservative drift parallel the transformation of the Democratic South into the heart of the Republican mainstream.

The Red and the Blue

The Red and the Blue
Author: Steve Kornacki
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 610
Release: 2018-10-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0062438999

From MSNBC correspondent Steve Kornacki, a lively and sweeping history of the birth of political tribalism in the 1990s—one that brings critical new understanding to our current political landscape from Clinton to Trump In The Red and the Blue, cable news star and acclaimed journalist Steve Kornacki follows the twin paths of Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, two larger-than-life politicians who exploited the weakened structure of their respective parties to attain the highest offices. For Clinton, that meant contorting himself around the various factions of the Democratic party to win the presidency. Gingrich employed a scorched-earth strategy to upend the permanent Republican minority in the House, making him Speaker. The Clinton/Gingrich battles were bare-knuckled brawls that brought about massive policy shifts and high-stakes showdowns—their collisions had far-reaching political consequences. But the ’90s were not just about them. Kornacki writes about Mario Cuomo’s stubborn presence around Clinton’s 1992 campaign; Hillary Clinton’s star turn during the 1998 midterms, seeding the idea for her own candidacy; Ross Perot’s wild run in 1992 that inspired him to launch the Reform Party, giving Donald Trump his first taste of electoral politics in 1999; and many others. With novelistic prose and a clear sense of history, Steve Kornacki masterfully weaves together the various elements of this rambunctious and hugely impactful era in American history, whose effects set the stage for our current political landscape.

Medium Blue

Medium Blue
Author: Michael Arria
Publisher:
Total Pages: 103
Release: 2014-01-07
Genre: Television broadcasting of news
ISBN: 9780989763738

Barack Obama wasn't the only beneficiary of the calamitous Bush years. Something of an industry punchline since its formation in 1996, MSNBC suddenly gained a comprehensible voice during the era, while pinning its hopes upon the inspiring senator from Illinois. Obama's victory spelled success for the network, which saw a sizable ratings increase and began positioning itself as a viable alternative to the right-wing propaganda of Fox News. However, a close inspection of the station's programming and an analysis of their celebrity hosts generate troubling questions about the state of the American media. MSNBC has shilled for Obama's wars, defended the administration's illegal spying programs and failed to hold our broken political system accountable. Medium Blue serves as a primer to help navigate the ultimate futility of our distinguished liberal media.

Red and Blue Nation?

Red and Blue Nation?
Author: Pietro S. Nivola
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2007-05-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0815760841

A Brookings Institution Press and the Hoover Institution publication Analysts and pundits increasingly perceive a widening gulf between "red states" and "blue states." Yet the research to support that perception is scattered and sometimes difficult to parse. America's polarized politics, it is said, poses fundamental dangers for democratic and accountable government. Heightened partisanship is thought to degrade deliberation in Congress and threaten the integrity of other institutions, from the courts to the media. But, how deep do the country's political divisions actually run? Are they truly wreaking havoc upon the social fabric? Has America become a house divided? This important new book, Red and Blue Nation?, gets to the bottom of this perplexing issue. The first of two volumes cosponsored by Brookings and the Hoover Institution carefully considers the extent to which polarized views among political leaders and activists are reflected in the population at large. It pays particular attention to factors such as the increased influence of religion and the changing nature of the media. The authors show that while the severity of the country's "culture wars" is often overstated, significant fissures have opened. In Red and Blue Nation? leading journalists and scholars combine their different insights to enrich our understanding of the issue, offering thoughtful analyses of the underlying problems. This comprehensive and accessible discussion of the polarization debate will be an essential resource for policymakers, scholars, and anyone interested in the health of American public discourse. Contributors include Alan I. Abramowitz (Emory University), David W. Brady (Hoover Institution), Peter Beinart (The New Republic), Sarah A. Binder (Brookings Institution), James Campbell (State University of New York at Buffalo), Carl Cannon (National Journal), E.J. Dionne, Jr. (Brookings Institution), Gregg Easterbrook (Brookings Institution), Thomas B. Edsall (Washington Post), Morris P. Fiorina (Hoover Institution), William A. Galston