Uprising : An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington

by SIROTA, DAVID

• ISBN13: 9780307395634
• ISBN10: 0307395634
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-27
• Publisher: Crown

Summary

An All-Access Pass to the Populist Insurrection Brewing Across the Country Job outsourcing. Perpetual busy signals at government agencies. Slashed paychecks. Stolen elections. A war without end, fatally mismanaged. Ordinary Americans on both the Right and Left are tired of being disenfranchised by corrupt politicians of both parties and are organizing to change the status quo. In his invigorating new book, David Sirota investigates whether this uprising can be transformed into a unified, lasting political movement. Throughout the course of American history, uprisings like the one we are seeing now have given birth to powerful movements to end wars, protect workers, and expand civil rights, so the prospect of today's uprising turning into a full-fledged populist movement terrifies Wall Street and Washington. InThe Uprising, Sirota takes us far from the national media spotlight into the trenches where real change is happeningfrom the headquarters of the most powerful third party in America to the bowels of the U.S. Senate; from the auditorium of an ExxonMobil shareholder meeting to the quasi-military staging area of a vigilante force on the Mexican border. This is vital, on-the-ground reporting that immerses us in the tumultuous give-and-take of politics at its most personal. Sirota also offers a biting critique of our politics. He shows how the uprising is, at its core, a reaction to faux "bipartisanship" in the nation's capitalthe "bipartisanship" whereby Republican and Democratic lawmakers join together in putting the agenda of corporate interests above all those of ordinary citizens. Ultimately, Sirota reminds us that the Declaration of Independence, "America's original uprising manifesto," says that governments "derive their powers from the consent of the governed." Irreverent and insightful,The Uprisingshows how the governed have stopped consenting and have started taking action. From the Hardcover edition.

Author Biography

DAVID SIROTA is a political organizer and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who has worked in state and national politics all over America. His first book, Hostile Takeover (2006), was a New York Times bestseller, and his column runs weekly in the Denver Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Seattle Times, as well as in other newspapers. Sirota blogs at credoaction.com/sirota. He is a senior fellow at the Campaign for America's Future and the founder of the Progressive States Network—both nonpartisan research institutions. He lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife, Emily, and their dog, Monty.

Visit DavidSirota.com

Table of Contents

A Portrait of the Writer on a Bathroom Floor	p. 1
The Thrilla in Montana	p. 11
What Kind of Hardball Can Stop a War?	p. 52
The Boss and His Fusion Machine	p. 86
The Permanent Barrier	p. 124
Mad as Hell, and Not Gonna Take It Anymore	p. 178
Mainstreaming the Militia	p. 206
Dilberts of the World, Unite	p. 252
The Blue-Chip Revolutionaries	p. 287
Chasing the Ghosts of Chicago	p. 320
Notes	p. 339
Acknowledgments	p. 373
Index	p. 377
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.