Hearding Donkeys

It's hard to believe, but just four short years ago, during the 2006 midterm elections, the Democrats made some big gains. In 2008, the Obama campaign, layering on to the grass roots work done by the DNC under Howard Dean, would create a powerful grass roots movement that swept Democrats into power in 2008. Today, the movement seems shattered. The wave that rolled over the country on Tuesday was certainly Republican and impacted not only Congress, but State Houses and State Legislatures in every corner of the country. How did a movement that once seemed unstoppable collapse in a few years? What does it say about our politics, our President and about the Democratic party? The Nation's Ari Berman looks at all of this in his timely new book Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics. My conversation with Ari Berman: var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-6296941-2"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}