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You Have the Power: How to Take Back Our Country and Restore Democracy in America
The Vermont governor and former presidential candidate calls for an end to the right-wing and special-interest agenda that has dominated America and calls for each American citizen to stand up for what he or she believes and demand a system-wide change. 60,000 first printing.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published October 5, 2004
About the author
Howard Dean
18 books6 followersHoward Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from the U.S. state of Vermont, and currently the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the central organization of the Democratic Party at the national level. Before entering politics, Dean received his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1978. Dean was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1982 and was elected lieutenant governor in 1986. Both were part-time positions that enabled him to continue practicing medicine. In 1991, Dean became Governor of Vermont when Richard A. Snelling died in office. Dean was subsequently elected to five two-year terms, serving as governor from 1991 to 2003, making him the second longest-serving Governor in Vermont history, after Thomas Chittenden (1778–1789 and 1790–1797). Dean served as chairman of the National Governors Association from 1994 to 1995; during his term, Vermont paid off much of its public debt and had a balanced budget 11 times, lowering income taxes twice. Dean also oversaw the expansion of the "Dr. Dynasaur" program, which ensures universal health care for children and pregnant women in the state.
An early front-runner in the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination, Dean denounced the 2003 invasion of Iraq and called on Democrats to more strongly oppose the Bush Administration. Dean showed strong fundraising ability, and was a pioneer of political fundraising via the internet; however, he eventually lost the nomination to Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Dean formed the organization Democracy for America and later was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee in February 2005.
An early front-runner in the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination, Dean denounced the 2003 invasion of Iraq and called on Democrats to more strongly oppose the Bush Administration. Dean showed strong fundraising ability, and was a pioneer of political fundraising via the internet; however, he eventually lost the nomination to Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Dean formed the organization Democracy for America and later was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee in February 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 28, 2026
3.1/5: Interesting and therapeutic when not written like a stump speech
Politician books are usually bad, and campaign memoirs especially are usually dreck. Especially if they're by active politicians. They're usually a bizarre mixture of self-bloviation, someone trying and failing to look humble while also talking about how much people loved their speeches and how many "YOU CHANGED MY LIFE" comments they got, at least one reference to an Ivy League college while acting personable, and a distinct lack of saying anything with teeth. I would explain further, but there was a recent Atlantic article about those garbage political memoirs (recently, paperweights by JD Vance and Kamala Harris) which argues how little substance they actually have far better than I can.
Dean's book, in comparison to those, is great! Which means, compared to actual books, it's fine.
What makes Dean's writing different is, half the time, he has an interesting thing to say, something that you can use for contemporary political campaigning. You can see shadows of successful campaign tactics that took cues directly from its pages, whether it's smart use of internet communities (Obama 2008), rural community outreach (O'Rourke 2018), small dollar donation approach (Sanders 2016), that sort of thing.* When talking about the media, Dean gives you stuff that is interesting and revealing and learned lessons about how you should avoid New York Times reporters. Hell, when talking about the Democratic Party itself, you can basically cut and paste half of his complaints into current day and just change a few names and dates. It is very, very useful, almost a required read for anybody who currently works at the DNC.
And, of course, it has the political memoir stuff, pretty much everything mentioned in paragraph 1 of this review. There are some completely skip-able parts that sound like something straight from a draft titled "Kerry2004_Supporter_Stump_Speech_final_FINAL.doc". Other parts are tough because they're critiques of Democrats, followed by the exact things Democrats were critiqued about. There are parts where Dean, the former governor of the whitest state in America, the Yalie, the worked-in-Aspen-during-the-summer guy, tries to talk about race relations. There's gold in here, but it's surrounded by the coal that you usually get when cracking open one of these things.
*Please note that 2 of these didn't actually win their elections, but I give them credit for doing way, WAY better than expected. Losing Texas by 3 points basically equals winning New York by 30.
Politician books are usually bad, and campaign memoirs especially are usually dreck. Especially if they're by active politicians. They're usually a bizarre mixture of self-bloviation, someone trying and failing to look humble while also talking about how much people loved their speeches and how many "YOU CHANGED MY LIFE" comments they got, at least one reference to an Ivy League college while acting personable, and a distinct lack of saying anything with teeth. I would explain further, but there was a recent Atlantic article about those garbage political memoirs (recently, paperweights by JD Vance and Kamala Harris) which argues how little substance they actually have far better than I can.
Dean's book, in comparison to those, is great! Which means, compared to actual books, it's fine.
What makes Dean's writing different is, half the time, he has an interesting thing to say, something that you can use for contemporary political campaigning. You can see shadows of successful campaign tactics that took cues directly from its pages, whether it's smart use of internet communities (Obama 2008), rural community outreach (O'Rourke 2018), small dollar donation approach (Sanders 2016), that sort of thing.* When talking about the media, Dean gives you stuff that is interesting and revealing and learned lessons about how you should avoid New York Times reporters. Hell, when talking about the Democratic Party itself, you can basically cut and paste half of his complaints into current day and just change a few names and dates. It is very, very useful, almost a required read for anybody who currently works at the DNC.
And, of course, it has the political memoir stuff, pretty much everything mentioned in paragraph 1 of this review. There are some completely skip-able parts that sound like something straight from a draft titled "Kerry2004_Supporter_Stump_Speech_final_FINAL.doc". Other parts are tough because they're critiques of Democrats, followed by the exact things Democrats were critiqued about. There are parts where Dean, the former governor of the whitest state in America, the Yalie, the worked-in-Aspen-during-the-summer guy, tries to talk about race relations. There's gold in here, but it's surrounded by the coal that you usually get when cracking open one of these things.
*Please note that 2 of these didn't actually win their elections, but I give them credit for doing way, WAY better than expected. Losing Texas by 3 points basically equals winning New York by 30.
December 20, 2010
excellent analysis of where we're at and how we got here- even though it was written back in 2004. A bit depressing that we let this happen and still aren't following any of his advice as to how to undo the damage.
August 10, 2007
Explains why you can't just vote, you need everyone to vote.
August 17, 2013
This is an excellent book for those seeking positive involvement on progressive politics!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews