It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

It's time to do more than protest. It's time to do more than protest In It's Time to Fight Dirty, David Faris offers accessible, actionable strategies for American political reform which doesn't require a constitutional amendment, and would have a lasting impact on our future. With equal amounts of playful irreverence and persuasive reasoning, Faris describes how the Constitution's deep democratic flaws constantly put progressives at a disadvantage, and lays out strategies for "fighting dirty" through obstructionism and procedural warfare- establishing statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico; breaking California into several states; creating a larger House of Representatives; passing a new voting rights act; and expanding the Supreme Court. The Constitution may be the world's most difficult document to amend, but David Faris argues that many of America's democratic failures can be fixed within its rigid confines-and, at a time when the stakes have never been higher, he outlines a path for long-term, progressive change in the United States.

Reviews

In [this] short, bracing book, David Faris ... argues that Democrats should immediately use every lever they have to gum up the works in Washington, to ensure they win full control of government.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

A bracing polemic . . . American democracy could disappear altogether within our own lifetimes. Everyone who wants to avoid that catastrophe must read his book.
THE GUARDIAN US

The most detailed case against the Return to Normalcylets call it the Normal Is Over side of the debateis advanced by the political scientist David Faris in hisnew book.
POLITICO

Political scientist David Faris makes a compelling case that court-packingalong with statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico and other reformsamounts to a prerequisite for lasting progressive change.
JACOBIN

Should be mandatory reading by every Dem leader.
DAILY KOS

[Faris] advocates a number of astringent, constitutionally legal challenges to a system that has hardly served the American public, let alone Democrats, well . . . A worthy contribution to the ongoing American experiment.
BOOKLIST

Blueprints to make sure that Republicans never force the rest of the country into their most nightmarish fantasies.
GQ

There are more of us than there are of them, so lets fight like it: resist Trump and embolden the Democrats. Its Time to Fight Dirty is our roadmap to a fairer democracy and an America we want to live in. If we listen to David Faris, its a fight we can win.
David Daley, author of Ratf**ked

Go get the book. Read it for yourself. This is the playbook, this is what we need to do, this is how we draw the line.
THE BENJAMIN DIXON SHOW

A playbook the left can use to get more power without having to change the Constitution, and they can do a lot.
Ezra Klein, VOX

Author Bio

David Faris is the author of Dissent and Revolution in a Digital Age- Social Media, Blogging and Activism in Egypt, the co-editor of Social Media in Iran- Politics and Society after 2009, and a regular contributor to The Week. He is associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University in Chicago.