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One Party Country
The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century

By Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten
John Wiley & Sons
Buy the book at Amazon.

A Los Angeles Times Best Seller

[events and news]

Harpers Magazine asks Peter and Tom Six Questions about the Midterm Elections.

Peter and Tom discuss One Party Country on Democracy Now!

Read reviews of One Party Country in the Arkansas Times, Washington Monthly, and the St. Petersburgh Times Review.

Eric Black's Biq Question blog writes about One Party Country, with a panel discussion of the book.

Minnesota Public Radio rebroadcasts a panel discussion about One Party Country from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute

Tom Hamburger was on Air America's Al Franken Show August 4 and July 24.

Read the LA Times review of One Party Country.

George Will writes about One Party Country in Newsweek.

Listen to these radio appearances:

Monday, July 24 Fresh Air National Public Radio

Wednesday, July 26 The Diane Rehm Show National Public Radio

Friday, July 28 The Tavis Smiley Show Public Radio International

To schedule an event or media appearance, email Tom or Peter, or call 201-748-6361.

[blurbs]

"One Party Country proves once and for all that Republicans are simply better than Democrats at the basic blocking and tackling of politics. Anyone who wants to know why the GOP will win more than lose for the foreseeable future needs to read this book." --Jonathan Alter, Senior Editor, Newsweek and author of The Defining Moment

"Hamburger and Wallsten pull back the curtain and reveal the Republican battle-plan to take over American politics. With compelling detail and scrupulous fairness, the two uncover many of the machinations that have been below the radar screen—until now." --Roger Simon, author of Divided We Stand

[about the book]

The Democrats have an easy road to victory, right? Not quite. This book pulls the curtain back on the Republicans' astonishingly effective efforts to keep that from happening. Despite poor polling for the Republicans, they are closer to making America a one party country than most people imagine. One Party Country exposes the way Republicans have nearly completed their plan to :

  • make the most of redistricting, so that most Congressional seats aren't really up for grabs
  • create software and databases the Democrats can only dream of--a huge advantage in turning out their base
  • make modern polling useless, since even the best polls can't measure the turnout advantage
  • turn Big Business into an arm of the party, from K Street to corporate boardrooms and sometimes onto the factory floor
  • stir up the religious right with one hand, while actually forwarding the competing agenda of their big donors with the other
  • create policies--like Iraq, Social Security privatization, and faith-based programs--that use the government's resources to tilt the electorate to the right and undermine the Democrats
  • neutralize the Democrats traditional advantage with Hispanics, women, and African Americans
  • fill the courts with conservative judges ready to keep turning away challenges to this new order

Full of fresh reporting and insightful narratives, ONE PARTY COUNTRY gets beyond today's shallow horse race to see where American politics are really headed.

[about the authors]

Peter Wallsten (left) and Tom Hamburger. Photo by M. Cordeiro.

Tom Hamburger is an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times, specializing in the White House and the executive branch. A graduate of Oberlin College, he worked previously for the Wall Street Journal, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the Arkansas Gazette. He lives in Silver Spring, MD.

Peter Wallsten covers the White House and national politics for the
Los Angeles Times. A graduate of the University of North Carolina and a Chapel Hill native, he worked previously at the Miami Herald, St. Petersburg Times, Charlotte Observer and Congressional Quarterly. He lives in Washington, D.C.

 

 

[excerpt]

The GOP knows you don't like anchovies

Unpopular Republicans still own the art of politicking.

By Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger

June 25 2006

FOUR DAYS before this month's special election in San Diego County to replace imprisoned former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Republican strategists back in Washington were worried. In addition to voter discontent with GOP leadership and the looming shadow of scandal dominating the campaign, Democrats appeared to enjoy yet another advantage: More absentee ballots were being submitted by Democratic voters than by Republicans.

The complete LA Times article can be viewed here.

[excerpt]

One night a few months after President George W. Bush and the Republican Party declared a euphoric victory in the 2004 elections, the new chairman of the GOP drove to the Washington suburb of Largo, Maryland, for his first public speech as party leader. He could have picked any venue for this appearance, and it was not happenstance that on this February night he chose a Black History Month celebration in predominantly black Prince George's County. As recently as the 1970s, PG County, as it's called, had been mostly white and rural, a backwater still marked by the attitudes and customs of the Old South. By the turn of the century, however, it had turned overwhelmingly black, and was home to a large and upwardly ambitious black middle class. Fresh, well-groomed subdivisions had sprung up, more than a few with their own McMansions and stylish shopping plazas. Moreover, one of the county's residents, Michael Steele, had been elected the Republican lieutenant governor of Maryland, making him the highest-ranking elected African American Republican in the country and a favorite to win election to the U.S. Senate in 2006. -more-

 

 

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