{"title":"Thomas F Schaller","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"whistling-past-dixie-book-thomas-f-schaller-9780743290166","title":"Whistling Past Dixie","description":"\u003cb\u003eTwo generations ago Kevin Phillips challenged Republicans to envision a southern-based national majority. In \u003ci\u003eWhistling Past Dixie\u003c\/i\u003e, Tom Schaller issues an equally transformative challenge to Democrats: Build a winning coalition outside the South.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe South is no longer the swing region in American politics--it has swung to the Republicans.\u003c\/b\u003e Most of the South is beyond the Democrats' reach, and what remains is moving steadily into the Republican column. The twin effects of race and religion produce a socially conservative, electorally hostile environment for most Democratic candidates. What's wrong with Kansas is even more wrong in the South, where cultural issues matter most to voters. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eYet far too many politicians and pundits still subscribe to the idea that Democrats must recapture the South. This southern nostalgia goes beyond sentimentality: It is a dangerously self-destructive form of political myopia which, uncorrected, will only relegate the Democrats to minority-party status for a generation. The notion that Democrats should pin their hopes for revival on the tail of a southern donkey is no less absurd than witnessing the children's variant of the party game, for both involve desperate attempts to hit elusive targets while wandering around blindfolded. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMeanwhile, political attitudes and demographic changes in other parts of the country are more favorable to Democratic messages and messengers. The Midwest and Southwest are the nation's most competitive regions. There are opportunities to expand Democratic margins in the Mountain red states while consolidating control over the reliably blue northeastern and Pacific coast states. Before dreaming of fortynine-state presidential landslides like those of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, the Democrats ought to first figure out how to win twenty-nine states. And that means capturing Arizona--or even Alaska--before targeting Alabama. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRepublicans cannot win without the South, Schaller argues, but they also can't win with the South \u003ci\u003ealone\u003c\/i\u003e. Much as Democrats were confined to the South for decades prior to the New Deal, the Democrats should South but little else. After winning and governing successfully elsewhere, Democrats can then present their record of achievement to the South--the nation's most conservative region, but one that is steadily assimilating with the politics of the rest of America and, therefore, will become more competitive in the future. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut for now, Democrats must put strategy ahead of sentimentality. To form a new and enduring majority coalition, they must whistle past their electoral graveyard. They must whistle past Dixie.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50509456605457,"sku":"GOR012403142","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50833017045265,"sku":"GOR006531110","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51006367498513,"sku":"NIN9780743290166","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51686771720465,"sku":"CIN074329016XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/074329016X.jpg?v=1751450823"},{"product_id":"common-enemies-book-thomas-f-schaller-9781496215710","title":"Common Enemies","description":"During the 1980s Black athletes and other athletes of color broadened the popularity and profitability of major-college televised sports by infusing games with a “Black style” of play. At a moment ripe for a revolution in men’s college basketball and football, clashes between “good guy” white protagonists and bombastic “bad boy” Black antagonists attracted new fans and spectators. And no two teams in the 1980s welcomed the enemy’s role more than Georgetown Hoya basketball and Miami Hurricane football.   Georgetown and Miami taunted opponents. They celebrated scores and victories with in-your-face swagger. Coaches at both programs changed the tenor of postgame media appearances and the language journalists and broadcasters used to describe athletes. Athletes of color at both schools made sports apparel fashionable for younger fans, particularly young African American men. The Hoyas and the ’Canes were a sensation because they made the bad-boy image look good. Popular culture took notice.   In the United States sports and race have always been tightly, if sometimes uncomfortably, entwined. Black athletes who dare to challenge the sporting status quo are often initially vilified but later accepted. The 1980s generation of barrier-busting college athletes took this process a step further. True to form, Georgetown’s and Miami’s aggressive style of play angered many fans and commentators. But in time their style was not only accepted but imitated by others, both Black and white. Love them or hate them, there was simply no way you could deny the Hoyas and the Hurricanes.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51030363799825,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51030366257425,"sku":"NIN9781496215710","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51734527050001,"sku":"CIN1496215710VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1496215710.jpg?v=1764162284"},{"product_id":"whistling-past-dixie-book-thomas-f-schaller-9780743290159","title":"Whistling Past Dixie","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51315533250833,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51315533644049,"sku":"GOR009583898","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53434478854417,"sku":"CIN0743290151G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743290151.jpg?v=1751263086"},{"product_id":"stronghold-book-thomas-f-schaller-9780300172034","title":"The Stronghold","description":"\u003cb\u003eA keen analysis of the GOP's transformation into a strong congressional party that has struggled to compete in presidential elections\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Once the party of presidents, the GOP in recent elections has failed to win convincing national majorities. Republicans have lost four of the last six presidential races and lost the popular vote in five of the six. In the lone Republican victory, the party incumbent won--during wartime--by the slimmest of margins. Republican fortunes in Congress, meanwhile, have been almost a mirror image: in 1994 the GOP had controlled the Senate for just ten years in the previous six decades; since then it has had a majority more than half the time. Its control of the House of Representatives is even more striking. In 1994 Republicans gained their first House majority in forty years; since then they've been in control for all but four years, and they will likely retain a majority for the rest of this decade. What explains this seismic shift in the party's center of power, and what does it mean? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In this fascinating and important book, Tom Schaller examines national Republican politics since President Ronald Reagan left office in 1989. From Newt Gingrich's ascent as Speaker of the House through the defeat of Mitt Romney in 2012, Schaller traces the Republican Party's institutional transformation and the political consequences. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Gingrich's Contract with America set in motion a vicious cycle, Schaller contends: as the GOP became more conservative, it became more Congress-centered, and as its congressional wing grew more powerful, the party grew more conservative. This dangerous loop, unless broken, may signal a future of increasing radicalization, dependency on a shrinking pool of voters, and less viability as a true national party. In a thought-provoking conclusion, the author discusses repercussions of the GOP decline, among them political polarization and the paralysis of the federal government.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53044890009873,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53044891123985,"sku":"CIN0300172036G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780300172034.jpg?v=1768943857"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-thomas-f-schaller.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}