The Democracy Fix

April 1, 2019

Donald Trump's election to the presidency surprised a lot of people, especially political progressives. After losing a presidential election and 1,000 seats in state legislatures, left-leaning progressive Americans are seeking to regain the initiative from the political right. Fredrickson, president of the American Constitutional Society, with longtime experience with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and NARAL (National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws), has produced a call to action for her left-of-center colleagues. In a lively account, Fredricksen is forthright in her prediction that for the progressives to prevail, they'll need to adopt the hard-nosed approach of their political adversaries. To do so, a number of actions must be taken, including getting aggressively involved in the electoral process by devoting greater amounts of money and time to local elections. Progressives also need to take more seriously the task of getting judges sympathetic to their causes on courts at all levels. VERDICT Fredrickson pulls no punches about the amount of effort it will take for the progressive wing of the Democratic party to regain significant power at the national level in this well-conceived, timely offering on countering the current political environment.--Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

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