In a provocative challenge to Republican conventional wisdom, two of the Right's rising young thinkers call upon the GOP to focus on the interests ...
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reviews
Dec 20, 2008
Howard
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This book promises a lot and fails to deliver. The authors' central insight is a good one: the GOP can renew itself and its electoral appeal by focusing its policy prescriptions on "Sam's Club Republicans," a group that is really what used to be known as Reagan Democrats, soccer moms, or just the good old fashioned working class. However, the actual policy suggestions put forth by the authors take up little more than 70 pages of this 230 page book. Almost half is given over to the auth
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Oct 23, 2008
Aaron
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My interest in this book was sparked by an interview with the authors on NPR's "Fresh Air". Douthat and Salam are trying to create a new direction for the GOP by re-focusing traditional conservative ideals in a direction that the party hasn't, other than through lip service. Their goal is to make the GOP more relevant to the needs of working-class Americans (which they define as non-college graduates) by creating policies that address W-C concerns: job instability, instability in the
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Jul 16, 2008
Jeffrey
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Grand New Party – Ross Douthat & Reihan Salam
Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam are popular authors working for The Atlantic, the fabled long-lived magazine. Their new project is a book that is a call to arms for the GOP. It seems that even though times are as tough for the party as they have ever been, there is still some hope. There exists a subset of Americans that are not truly aligned with either party. Once called the Silent Majority, Reagan Democrats, or the angry white males, the More...
Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam are popular authors working for The Atlantic, the fabled long-lived magazine. Their new project is a book that is a call to arms for the GOP. It seems that even though times are as tough for the party as they have ever been, there is still some hope. There exists a subset of Americans that are not truly aligned with either party. Once called the Silent Majority, Reagan Democrats, or the angry white males, the More...
Feb 06, 2011
Sjo
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An interesting perspective on how the Republicans can extend reach to the working class including healthcare, education, with specific emphasis on marriage and the family. Not all ideas are good ones, but at least they are new ideas, which is a welcome change.
Jan 30, 2009
Rainey
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contains interesting political history from a conservative point of view and some very interesting policy ideas. the authors advocate a more pro-government form of conservatism that would probably appeal more to liberals than the standard fare.
Jan 29, 2009
Joseph
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Two young party-loyalists argue that Republicans could win the 2008 election by marketing themselves as populists without changing values. Well-thought theories but communicated awkwardly in the author's first book. I believe the strategies laid out would have decisively succeeded.
Jan 09, 2010
Some compelling ideas in here by young, iconoclastic conservative thinkers that Democrats would try to coopt if they were smart.
Jan 17, 2010
Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream by Ross Douthat (2008)
Oct 24, 2008
Benjamin
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Douthat and Salam strive for a lofty goal in Grand New Party: to create a humane, secular, race- and gender-neutral conservative plan to preserve the middle class. And, for the most part, they achieve that goal - they show how strong families combine with what would be "liberal" labor protections to create the conservative ideal of an "ownership society" without government social services husbanding the individual from cradle to grave. Libertarians will not be on board; the
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Oct 02, 2010
Tim
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It is a good conversation starter. I don't agree with all of the solutions, especially the author's approach to Social Security and Medicare. But, the authors emphasize a new way forward on social issues. As with David Frum's "Comeback," the authors rightly note that Republicans and conservatives need to expand their social causes beyond just homosexuality and abortion: An emphasis on strengthening the family should begin to take precedence. It is a good book.; but, like I said, it
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Aug 30, 2011
Justin
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Essentially pathetic rationalizations for the same conservative horsesh*t we've been fed for a generation. Salaam and Douthat might be smarter than most Republicans, and outwardly nicer, but they sure don't have any new ideas. The part where they try to justify C.E.O. pay is especially desperate and pathetic. I am just not convinced that the American brand of uber-conservatism has any place in the modern world, and nobody I read has convinced me otherwise.
Jan 25, 2009
Nigel
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This book reads very quickly, but I'm not sure how much I got out of it b/c it's discussion of issues is pretty superficial. Nevertheless, the first half was a really interesting chronology of 20th century politics that I found helpful.
Aug 08, 2009
Alec
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Interesting book that chronicles the conservative movement over the past 60 years or so and proposes action for the future. As far as political books go, I found this to be interesting, optimistic and very tolerable.
Oct 31, 2008
A lot of debatable ideas within this novel. I liked as a mini-history for myself, even if its slanted to the thirtieth degree. A nice book for those willing to experiment with some other points of view.
Oct 09, 2008
jerry
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Interesting but too brief to be of any real use to the Republican party. Needs to develop its ideas on Health Care, Education et. al.
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