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How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time
The playbook for consigning MAGA-style politics to the ash heap of history (where it belongs). Featuring a foreword by Jonathan V. Last.
After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, Sarah Longwell did what she's done nearly every week for the past eight years: She sat down with voters. She conducted hundreds of focus groups, listening to thousands of ordinary Americans—Republicans, Democrats, and the politically homeless—with the goal of understanding politics through the eyes of the people who will decide our country’s future.
American voters, and what they want for their country, are at the heart of How to Eat an Elephant. Longwell, the founder of The Bulwark and one of the sharpest political communicators of her generation, lays out the playbook for building a coalition big enough, bold enough, and tough enough to defeat authoritarian populism for good. Not with a single election. Not by doing another poll or debating the benefits of being more progressive or more moderate, but by building something new: A modern pro-democracy movement that can create its own communications infrastructure—just like the right has done for decades—achieve narrative dominance, elevate more compelling leaders, and talk to voters like adults.
Drawing on her own unlikely political journey from a lesbian Republican operative to the vanguard of the anti-MAGA movement, Longwell delivers a book that is equal parts war manual and pep talk—with her personal and professional story woven throughout. With her trademark bluntness and humor, she explains exactly how we got here and, more importantly, what we must build next—all while directly quoting the most important but overlooked people in the country: the voters themselves.
She answers the question: How do you eat an elephant? One voter at a time.
After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, Sarah Longwell did what she's done nearly every week for the past eight years: She sat down with voters. She conducted hundreds of focus groups, listening to thousands of ordinary Americans—Republicans, Democrats, and the politically homeless—with the goal of understanding politics through the eyes of the people who will decide our country’s future.
American voters, and what they want for their country, are at the heart of How to Eat an Elephant. Longwell, the founder of The Bulwark and one of the sharpest political communicators of her generation, lays out the playbook for building a coalition big enough, bold enough, and tough enough to defeat authoritarian populism for good. Not with a single election. Not by doing another poll or debating the benefits of being more progressive or more moderate, but by building something new: A modern pro-democracy movement that can create its own communications infrastructure—just like the right has done for decades—achieve narrative dominance, elevate more compelling leaders, and talk to voters like adults.
Drawing on her own unlikely political journey from a lesbian Republican operative to the vanguard of the anti-MAGA movement, Longwell delivers a book that is equal parts war manual and pep talk—with her personal and professional story woven throughout. With her trademark bluntness and humor, she explains exactly how we got here and, more importantly, what we must build next—all while directly quoting the most important but overlooked people in the country: the voters themselves.
She answers the question: How do you eat an elephant? One voter at a time.
318 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 8, 2026
About the author
Sarah Longwell
1 book54 followersSarah Longwell is CEO and Publisher of The Bulwark, one of the largest and fastest-growing independent media companies in the country, with millions of subscribers across all platforms. She is also the host of The Focus Group podcast, in which listeners hear directly from voters in Sarah’s focus groups. She has decades of experience leading some of the nation’s highest-visibility targeted persuasion campaigns, and is a nationally recognized leader in qualitative research into how voters are feeling about the state of the country.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
September 10, 2026
As a fan of Sarah and The Bulwark for years, I've been waiting for this one. If you found this book on a bestseller list and are not sure who Sarah is or what this book is about, this book is still for you. If you are a political junkie and looking to understand how our politics got to this point, this book is for you. If you are still waking up everyday in a post 2024 haze wondering what went wrong, you need to read this book. Or if you are just beginning to broaden your understanding of politics, or maybe just want to impress the political junkies with how politically aware you are. Either way, if you plan to vote someday, start with this book.
Sarah doesn't just understand and articulate what has gone wrong, she also lays out how to fix it. There only so much analysis of the last ten years that I can take without getting depressed. But thank god for Sarah because when I finished this book, I had this new feeling mixed with my constant political anxiety--hope.
#hopecore
Sarah doesn't just understand and articulate what has gone wrong, she also lays out how to fix it. There only so much analysis of the last ten years that I can take without getting depressed. But thank god for Sarah because when I finished this book, I had this new feeling mixed with my constant political anxiety--hope.
#hopecore
September 10, 2026
Loved this book. Loved it so much that I purchased it on Bookshop.org so I could have a physical copy and support the author.
Even though this book has many depressing themes and opinions about current US politics, I found it to be hopeful. I believe that one day we’ll get to a point where I don’t think all Republicans are insane MAGA cultists, and more Republicans will be like Sarah Longwell. Every time I’ve tried to hear out a Republican (whether from a podcast, a book, or someone in my own life), they’ve expressed an opinion that I quickly respond in my head with, “Well, they lost me.” Sarah never lost me during this book. She’s clearly smart and genuinely cares about our country. She has great ideas for how to fix not only the Republican Party, but the Democratic Party as well. Her view on Democrats in power taking the offensive is something I 100% agree with, and something I’ve been disappointed with the party about for years.
And the way Sarah explained why people are MAGA was spot-on, and also an incredibly important topic. I consider myself liberal but have a few family members who are MAGA. I hate the rhetoric online from liberals who say they would “immediately cut off” their MAGA family members. At the start of COVID, I was with them. Now, that seems wrong to me. My family members are not bad people. They are misguided people. The media and politicians they support have lied to them, and things have become so muddled that Trump can stand up there and say the craziest shit imaginable and it’s seen as totally fine because “at least he’s honest” or “he’s not like the other shady politicians.” (Even though he absolutely is)
MAGA supporters are vulnerable and, like I said, misguided. Many liberals are misguided too. But hating the other side because they’re “crazy” won’t get us anywhere. And I totally understand liberals who say they can’t be friends with someone who supports Trump. Because he’s a fascist, racist, misogynist, all the -ists. But where does it get us if we just dismiss the people who support him? No one wants to listen to someone who calls them stupid.
We can’t leave these people behind, especially when they’re our parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, etc. Like I said, they’re misguided. And they will continue to be if we don’t do something.
And the people who need to do something about it are the Democrats in power.
For the love of god, democrats in power, please do something!!!!!
Even though this book has many depressing themes and opinions about current US politics, I found it to be hopeful. I believe that one day we’ll get to a point where I don’t think all Republicans are insane MAGA cultists, and more Republicans will be like Sarah Longwell. Every time I’ve tried to hear out a Republican (whether from a podcast, a book, or someone in my own life), they’ve expressed an opinion that I quickly respond in my head with, “Well, they lost me.” Sarah never lost me during this book. She’s clearly smart and genuinely cares about our country. She has great ideas for how to fix not only the Republican Party, but the Democratic Party as well. Her view on Democrats in power taking the offensive is something I 100% agree with, and something I’ve been disappointed with the party about for years.
And the way Sarah explained why people are MAGA was spot-on, and also an incredibly important topic. I consider myself liberal but have a few family members who are MAGA. I hate the rhetoric online from liberals who say they would “immediately cut off” their MAGA family members. At the start of COVID, I was with them. Now, that seems wrong to me. My family members are not bad people. They are misguided people. The media and politicians they support have lied to them, and things have become so muddled that Trump can stand up there and say the craziest shit imaginable and it’s seen as totally fine because “at least he’s honest” or “he’s not like the other shady politicians.” (Even though he absolutely is)
MAGA supporters are vulnerable and, like I said, misguided. Many liberals are misguided too. But hating the other side because they’re “crazy” won’t get us anywhere. And I totally understand liberals who say they can’t be friends with someone who supports Trump. Because he’s a fascist, racist, misogynist, all the -ists. But where does it get us if we just dismiss the people who support him? No one wants to listen to someone who calls them stupid.
We can’t leave these people behind, especially when they’re our parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, etc. Like I said, they’re misguided. And they will continue to be if we don’t do something.
And the people who need to do something about it are the Democrats in power.
For the love of god, democrats in power, please do something!!!!!
currently-requesting
July 5, 2026I have put myself on the waitlist for the audio at Pima. I hope that MORE or OKC gets it and it's avl while I'm there because I think/hope paper will be more useful.
I hope it starts with Talk with your Neighbors. Especially: *Respectfully Listen* to the ones with whom you disagree! And that it goes from there about how to do that, and what else to do.
I'm afraid it may turn out to be more hostility or intolerance.
I hope it starts with Talk with your Neighbors. Especially: *Respectfully Listen* to the ones with whom you disagree! And that it goes from there about how to do that, and what else to do.
I'm afraid it may turn out to be more hostility or intolerance.
September 14, 2026
How to Eat an Elephant exposes two disheartening facts: first, that the voting public has virtually no ability to identify politicians with the capability or willingness to address their most pressing concerns, and second, that the preservation of liberal democracy, regrettably, depends on those same voters making the right choices. Needless to say, the situation is bleak.
But there is some cause for hope. Sarah Longwell, a political consultant and former Republican, has synthesized the findings of more than 400 focus groups with thousands of voters across the political spectrum, representing the most extensive qualitative study of voter sentiment during the Trump era. The results are not always pleasant—with voters contradicting themselves sometimes within the same sentence—but they offer Democrats something invaluable: a detailed picture of what voters actually think, care about, and respond to. Longwell has, in effect, handed Democrats a remarkably detailed blueprint for connecting with the electorate. Whether they choose to follow it is another question.
What you will find in these focus groups, again and again, are voters who can articulate shared concerns yet are so uninformed or misinformed that they fail to recognize when their preferred candidates are working against their own stated interests—something many voters eventually come to regret. This long-standing suspicion of mine, that voters are easily manipulated into voting for their own economic demise, is only reinforced by this book.
Democrats, of course, commit a different kind of error. As Longwell makes clear, Democratic leaders are often so out of touch with their voters that they don’t notice that they are, in some cases, single-handedly driving them to the other party. If voters want authenticity, recognition, order, safety, and affordability, Democrats offer them the opposite: inauthentic script reading, condescension, insecurity, and the defense of abstract ideals over everyday concerns. Democrats, in other words, share much of the blame for getting Trump elected in the first place. And so we have a situation where Democrats are oblivious to voter concerns while Republicans promise to address them and then largely do the opposite—or else follow-through on promises in the most incompetent manner imaginable.
So how can Democrats win the country back? Longwell suggests a Democratic strategy based on messaging that is simple and authentic. According to the author, Democrats would be wise to take a page out of the Republican playbook and hammer away at the same message ad nauseum until it sticks (except that in this case, the message would be true). As Longwell wrote, Democrats should recite, repeatedly, the following:
The main point is this: your life as an average person is materially worse while Trump has enjoyed one of the most lucrative years of his life. The corruption, cruelty, and incompetence is so comically unprecedented that even Republican voters are noticing. As Longwell shows via countless interviews with many conservatives, MAGA is fracturing, in real-time, under the strain of broken promises, brazen incompetence, and the financial impacts of a dismal economy.
In other words, the time is ripe for a Democratic takeover. But Democrats also need to offer a compelling alternative, without getting caught up in unproductive discursions into inclusivity and identity. As Longwell assures us, people want affordability, economic opportunity, safety, unity, and immigration reform without the cruelty. What they don’t want is a return to political correctness, open borders, and the abolition of private property (although they do want universal healthcare and more progressive taxation). To the extent that Democrats prioritize these radical views is the extent to which the country will be pulled back into right-wing authoritarianism.
The bottom line: If Democrats want to win back the country—and consign MAGA to the political margins for the foreseeable future—they had better learn the lessons in this book.
But there is some cause for hope. Sarah Longwell, a political consultant and former Republican, has synthesized the findings of more than 400 focus groups with thousands of voters across the political spectrum, representing the most extensive qualitative study of voter sentiment during the Trump era. The results are not always pleasant—with voters contradicting themselves sometimes within the same sentence—but they offer Democrats something invaluable: a detailed picture of what voters actually think, care about, and respond to. Longwell has, in effect, handed Democrats a remarkably detailed blueprint for connecting with the electorate. Whether they choose to follow it is another question.
What you will find in these focus groups, again and again, are voters who can articulate shared concerns yet are so uninformed or misinformed that they fail to recognize when their preferred candidates are working against their own stated interests—something many voters eventually come to regret. This long-standing suspicion of mine, that voters are easily manipulated into voting for their own economic demise, is only reinforced by this book.
Democrats, of course, commit a different kind of error. As Longwell makes clear, Democratic leaders are often so out of touch with their voters that they don’t notice that they are, in some cases, single-handedly driving them to the other party. If voters want authenticity, recognition, order, safety, and affordability, Democrats offer them the opposite: inauthentic script reading, condescension, insecurity, and the defense of abstract ideals over everyday concerns. Democrats, in other words, share much of the blame for getting Trump elected in the first place. And so we have a situation where Democrats are oblivious to voter concerns while Republicans promise to address them and then largely do the opposite—or else follow-through on promises in the most incompetent manner imaginable.
So how can Democrats win the country back? Longwell suggests a Democratic strategy based on messaging that is simple and authentic. According to the author, Democrats would be wise to take a page out of the Republican playbook and hammer away at the same message ad nauseum until it sticks (except that in this case, the message would be true). As Longwell wrote, Democrats should recite, repeatedly, the following:
The tax cuts went to billionaires, not you. The Epstein files are still hidden. Families are being torn apart by cruel and incompetent mass deportations. Trump promised to drain the swamp and instead filled it with his cronies. He promised to fight for you and instead made billions of dollars for his family.
The main point is this: your life as an average person is materially worse while Trump has enjoyed one of the most lucrative years of his life. The corruption, cruelty, and incompetence is so comically unprecedented that even Republican voters are noticing. As Longwell shows via countless interviews with many conservatives, MAGA is fracturing, in real-time, under the strain of broken promises, brazen incompetence, and the financial impacts of a dismal economy.
In other words, the time is ripe for a Democratic takeover. But Democrats also need to offer a compelling alternative, without getting caught up in unproductive discursions into inclusivity and identity. As Longwell assures us, people want affordability, economic opportunity, safety, unity, and immigration reform without the cruelty. What they don’t want is a return to political correctness, open borders, and the abolition of private property (although they do want universal healthcare and more progressive taxation). To the extent that Democrats prioritize these radical views is the extent to which the country will be pulled back into right-wing authoritarianism.
The bottom line: If Democrats want to win back the country—and consign MAGA to the political margins for the foreseeable future—they had better learn the lessons in this book.
September 14, 2026
There’s a scene in A Clockwork Orange where Alex is strapped into a chair with his eyelids literally clamped open and he is forced to watch what’s playing in front of him.
At times, that is exactly how I felt reading How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time.
And I mean that as a very, very good thing.
As someone who is left-leaning and deeply concerned about the MAGA movement, I have to admit that I am not always good at listening to Trump voters. I get frustrated. I get angry. I can be dismissive. Sometimes I think I already know what they’re going to say before they say it.
Sarah Longwell essentially forced my eyes open and made me listen.
Longwell comes at this from a fascinating perspective. She spent much of her life as a Republican, came out of the John McCain wing of the party, and opposed Donald Trump from the beginning. She has also spent years conducting focus groups with voters, including Republicans, Trump voters, former Trump voters, independents, and people who no longer feel at home in either political party.
And she has listened to them. Really listened.
That makes this book incredibly valuable for people on the left who want to understand voters who may be growing disillusioned with MAGA—and, more importantly, who want to communicate with them rather than simply yell past them.
Some of the most interesting parts of the book deal with language. Longwell demonstrates how two people can use the same political vocabulary and hear completely different things. Words and arguments that sound perfectly reasonable to someone on the left may immediately put another voter on the defensive.
One observation that particularly fascinated me was the difference between how Democrats and Republicans often describe their political affiliation: Democrats tend to begin with what they believe, while Republicans are more likely to describe what they are. Politics can become part of identity, and understanding that changes how you approach persuasion.
The sections about faith also gave me a lot to think about personally. People on the left can sometimes be hesitant to talk openly about religion because they want to make sure people of every faith—and no faith—feel included. But that can inadvertently create the impression that Christianity belongs exclusively to the political right. As a Christian who is also left-leaning, this book challenged me to think about whether being more open about my own faith could actually create points of connection rather than division.
That is what I appreciated most about this book: it made me examine my own communication.
Longwell isn’t arguing that everyone can be persuaded or that one election will magically move American politics back toward the center. Her argument is much more focused on understanding voters, building a broader coalition, and figuring out how to communicate with people who may be open to moving away from MAGA.
And you cannot persuade someone you refuse to listen to.
That was probably the lesson I most needed.
This book didn’t make me less concerned about American politics. But strangely, it made me more hopeful. There are people whose political identities are more complicated than a red or blue box can capture. There are people whose opinions are changing. And there are ways to talk across those divides that don’t require abandoning your own values.
If you’re left-leaning and concerned about the direction of the country, I think this is an absolute must-read—especially if, like me, you sometimes find yourself thinking, How can these people possibly think this way?
Open your eyes. Listen.
Apparently, that’s how you eat an elephant: one voter at a time.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time was published September 8, 2026.
Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press for sending me a finished copy.
At times, that is exactly how I felt reading How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time.
And I mean that as a very, very good thing.
As someone who is left-leaning and deeply concerned about the MAGA movement, I have to admit that I am not always good at listening to Trump voters. I get frustrated. I get angry. I can be dismissive. Sometimes I think I already know what they’re going to say before they say it.
Sarah Longwell essentially forced my eyes open and made me listen.
Longwell comes at this from a fascinating perspective. She spent much of her life as a Republican, came out of the John McCain wing of the party, and opposed Donald Trump from the beginning. She has also spent years conducting focus groups with voters, including Republicans, Trump voters, former Trump voters, independents, and people who no longer feel at home in either political party.
And she has listened to them. Really listened.
That makes this book incredibly valuable for people on the left who want to understand voters who may be growing disillusioned with MAGA—and, more importantly, who want to communicate with them rather than simply yell past them.
Some of the most interesting parts of the book deal with language. Longwell demonstrates how two people can use the same political vocabulary and hear completely different things. Words and arguments that sound perfectly reasonable to someone on the left may immediately put another voter on the defensive.
One observation that particularly fascinated me was the difference between how Democrats and Republicans often describe their political affiliation: Democrats tend to begin with what they believe, while Republicans are more likely to describe what they are. Politics can become part of identity, and understanding that changes how you approach persuasion.
The sections about faith also gave me a lot to think about personally. People on the left can sometimes be hesitant to talk openly about religion because they want to make sure people of every faith—and no faith—feel included. But that can inadvertently create the impression that Christianity belongs exclusively to the political right. As a Christian who is also left-leaning, this book challenged me to think about whether being more open about my own faith could actually create points of connection rather than division.
That is what I appreciated most about this book: it made me examine my own communication.
Longwell isn’t arguing that everyone can be persuaded or that one election will magically move American politics back toward the center. Her argument is much more focused on understanding voters, building a broader coalition, and figuring out how to communicate with people who may be open to moving away from MAGA.
And you cannot persuade someone you refuse to listen to.
That was probably the lesson I most needed.
This book didn’t make me less concerned about American politics. But strangely, it made me more hopeful. There are people whose political identities are more complicated than a red or blue box can capture. There are people whose opinions are changing. And there are ways to talk across those divides that don’t require abandoning your own values.
If you’re left-leaning and concerned about the direction of the country, I think this is an absolute must-read—especially if, like me, you sometimes find yourself thinking, How can these people possibly think this way?
Open your eyes. Listen.
Apparently, that’s how you eat an elephant: one voter at a time.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time was published September 8, 2026.
Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press for sending me a finished copy.
September 16, 2026
This is not my kind of book, when I glanced at the cover I thought it was some wretched animal abuse book and just ignored it. Kept seeing good reviews so read the synopsis and thought I would get the audio for my husband. He started with me in the car and I was instantly hooked. We spent so much time discussing it we must have stopped every ten minutes. Disheartening to say the least, at one point I wanted to cry, exposed me to things I hadn't considered.
September 9, 2026
STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND BUY THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW. YOU’LL GET YOUR MONEY’S WORTH IN THE FIRST TEN MINUTES. Also you can maybe help knock Ted Cruz off the top of the bestseller list (which is honestly the main reason I bought it).
The foreword is hilarious, cut-throat, and endearingly warm and hopeful all at once. Will report back after I’ve listened to the book proper.
The foreword is hilarious, cut-throat, and endearingly warm and hopeful all at once. Will report back after I’ve listened to the book proper.
September 9, 2026
This is the book I was waiting for
If you want to understand how the country thinks as a whole and how people outside your own cultural bubble are looking at politics, this book will enlighten you. Sarah Longwell has been in the trenches and has as clear an idea of where the country is headed as anyone could have. She presents her case clearly and logically and has a way of making the reader feel hopeful about our future.
If you want to understand how the country thinks as a whole and how people outside your own cultural bubble are looking at politics, this book will enlighten you. Sarah Longwell has been in the trenches and has as clear an idea of where the country is headed as anyone could have. She presents her case clearly and logically and has a way of making the reader feel hopeful about our future.
September 15, 2026
This was a solid book. I’ve always enjoyed Sarah’s perspective on The Bulwark. She does a great job setting the stage that listening to the voters is how we’ll move forward. Even if some of their perspectives are WILD and don’t seem to make logical sense. Get to the heart of what people care about about message the shit out of it without fear you’re leaving someone out. There’s still hope.
September 16, 2026
Excellent explanation of how we got here, the real risks to our democracy and what we can do to address from the co-founder of The Bulwark. Listened to this as an audio book, which Sarah herself narrates—she has been holding focus groups with voters for a decade and has real insights from them. Recommend.
September 9, 2026
Exceptional insight into the American electorate, wrapped up in an engaging and surprisingly narrative package. This book is a triumph, and I feel so lucky that Sarah took the time to share with all of us
September 14, 2026
If you had told me even two years ago, I’d be fangirling over a former Republican operative, I’d say pls tell me to blink twice if I’ve been taken hostage. But if Sarah Longwell has a million fans, I’m one of them. If she has ten fans, I’m also one of them. If she has one fan, that is me. If she has no fans, I’m dead.
September 11, 2026
Excellent analysis of how we got where we are politically and how to get out of it, if you can stomach the innocent babble of voters misled by a corrupt conman
September 11, 2026
This book was amazing. The amount of empathy this writer has for both republicans and democrats is evident throughout. She gives us a very honest and insightful perspective on how we got here as a country. I love watching and listening to her on the Bulwark and I am now such a huge fan of her! Please read this book. It is honest and such a unique perspective. She spent years researching this. I feel hopeful and I feel like our country may be able to heal.
September 11, 2026
Excellent and timely book about where politics is in the USA, how we arrived at this point, what we might do in this moment, and where we may be headed. The author has listened to A LOT of voters or all stripes, for years. A very thoughtful and compelling read. Respectful of everyone (at least mostly), but honest & direct as well. I listened to the audio version read by the author. I think I'll be paying some greater attention to The Bulwark.
September 12, 2026
This is the perfect book for anyone who is discouraged about America today. In parts it is scary, but Sarah lays out a path to take back America from the corrupt leaders who are trampling on our nation.
This should be required reading for anyone who loves our country over MAGA , especially those who are building campaigns. Listen to the voters. Amazing job, Sarah!
This should be required reading for anyone who loves our country over MAGA , especially those who are building campaigns. Listen to the voters. Amazing job, Sarah!
September 8, 2026
So I watch The Focus Group every week, and I guess you could call me a certified groupie. (If you know, you know.) And I was like, how the f*** is she going to make these focus groups interesting? And I’m happy to report she did it. The book is nice and interesting. If you want to crush Republicans in the fall and in 2028, please read this book and do what Longwell says.
September 15, 2026
To put this book in military terms: this is a tactical and operational handbook, not a strategic plan. This book, which I liked overall, is about how to adjust communications, rhetoric, campaigning, and other "how-to-win" issues, most of which are designed to win over swing voters, independents, and disillusioned Trump voters. The source base, if you will, is the hundreds of focus groups that Longwell and her firm have conducted with different sets of voters.
This body of evidence can tell you a lot, but not everything. Still, there are some great insights in here for Democrats. Here are a few:
1. Talking about democracy doesn't really work. It fires up liberals, but not the kinds of voters Democrats need to reach. Most people don't really feel like democracy is in jeopardy; after all, they voted Trump in, and they voted Trump out. I disagree, but at this point they probably aren't going to Instead, talk less about democracy and more about American values and welfare.
2. You can't go wrong fixating on the economy and affordability. It is what matters most to . You have to not only have policies but genuine empathy (even for people you don't like) about how Americans are struggling. Throwing economic facts (the economy is good, actually! GDP is up!) at voters doesn't change the fact that it's hard to fill up the gas tank and buy groceries. Longwell is not a big fan of Zohran's actual policies, but she holds him up as a model for how to communicate on
3. Speaking of communications, Longwell blasts Democrats for being behind the 8-ball on modern comms. Democrats are way too focused on fact-based, think-tanky reports and traditional campaigning, and they are not getting into the spaces where voters (esp young ones) spend most of their time: podcasting, social media, and other non-traditional spaces.
4. Finally, Longwell advocates a new relationship between Democratic politicians and the activist class on the left. Activist groups (or many of them) from the left approach Democrats as their vector of influence, and they often seek to hold Democrats "accountable" for not taking the maximal position on trans issues, immigration, Gaza, etc. This is not really how activism works on the right; most right-wing activist groups are far more slavishly supportive of Republicans, for both ideological and financial reasons. This puts Democratic politicians in the constant dilemma of threading the needle between an activist base that is trying to get them to take manifestly unpopular positions (on trans people in sports, for example) that tar the Democrats as radical and a larger voter base that wants more "common sense" approaches. The answer, Longwell suggests, is that activists should focus less on pressing Democrats into taking these positions and more on what the gay marriage movement did: combining assertive legal strategies wtih broad efforts to move the needle on public opinion so that it is easier for politicians to take more progressive stances.
Longwell also has some nice insights into what makes Trump so maliciously effective as a politicians. Trump achieves "narrative dominance" through constant reinforcement of the same themes and claims, even when most of what he says isn't true. He sets the agenda, and Democrats react. He even did this while out of office because of the Biden team's ineffective media strategy. Trump also is a master of "schema activation," in which he links immigration, for instance, to everything else bad happening in the country: crime, opioid abuse, overloaded public services, etc. When he says "America First," he immediately activates resentment against elites from both parties who are perceived as serving interests other than what is best for AMerica. The fact that this slogan has a dark history doesn't matter to most people, so Democrats hammering that point isn't effective.
Still, this is very much the book of a political operative, and a former Republican operative at that. As such, it has significant blind spots. First, Longwell is much more trusting and forgiving of Trump voters than I am. She tends to believe that most of them come from a good place: from justified resentment of the establishment, from a sense of betrayal by Democrats, from an overall sense of bewilderment, or from everyday experiences of life in America as not-so-great. She profiles their frustration that, in Trump 2.0, Trump "isn't doing what he said he would do!" and she sees this as a big opportunity for Democrats.
However, we have now had 3 straight elections where the vast majority of this coalition chose Trump 3 times in spite of, well, everything. There's just no excuse in 2024 to not realize that Trump doesn't actually give a crap about ordinary people, that he's not for peace, that he revels in cruelty and enacts cruelty through policy, and that his whole strategy is to make the AMerican people hate each other as much as possible. I'm much more on the side of Jonathan van Last, Longwell's colleague, who puts much more blame on the voters for simply being irresponsible and stupid, for believing things like "Trump is a good businessman" even though there's not a shred of evidence that that's the case, or for pooh-poohing or conspiracizing about January 6.
I suppose I am intellectually and emotionally with JVL and strategically with Longwell on this; I'm not sure what choice Democrats have than to compete for low-information, distrustful voters, because there's a lot of them. Still, I think that the focus group evidence base is flawed; focus groups allow people to project themselves at their most reasonable (oh, I don't hate trans people or Mexicans at all) whereas when you look at behavior (how you vote, what media you consume) it becomes clear that there is much more of an appetite for conspiracy, authoritarianism, and unadulterated cruelty than you could learn from a focus group (or, at least an apathy toward Trump's bigotry and cruelty).
But a big source of dissonance for me in this book is that Longwell's view of the pre-Trump GOP is overly rosy. This makes sense; she was a GOP operative. Her breaking from the GOP over Trump and gay rights issues was admirable, but as a historian her claims that Trump is a radical discontinuity from the earlier GOP does not hold water. This was not a party "defined by ideology," as she asserts; the party intelligenstia and operative class may have been ideologically charged, but the majority of the party's voters and probably the majority of elected Republicans were driven much more by identity/cultural politics than fealty to Burke and Hayek. Moreover, she portrays the Democrats as way more dovish on foreign affairs than they really were, and Republicans as way more devoted to a rules-based world order than they ever were. I get it; she's an operative, she's trying to devise ways to win, she's looking forward. But as a historian, that selective representation of the past rubbed me the wrong way.
So this is a worthwhile, thoughtful, and pithy book from someone I respect and see as a political ally. This is a playbook, not a strategic vision. If you take it at that level, it's quite good. But that's also a limited argument, much more about form than content, leaving me a bit unsatisfied.
This body of evidence can tell you a lot, but not everything. Still, there are some great insights in here for Democrats. Here are a few:
1. Talking about democracy doesn't really work. It fires up liberals, but not the kinds of voters Democrats need to reach. Most people don't really feel like democracy is in jeopardy; after all, they voted Trump in, and they voted Trump out. I disagree, but at this point they probably aren't going to Instead, talk less about democracy and more about American values and welfare.
2. You can't go wrong fixating on the economy and affordability. It is what matters most to . You have to not only have policies but genuine empathy (even for people you don't like) about how Americans are struggling. Throwing economic facts (the economy is good, actually! GDP is up!) at voters doesn't change the fact that it's hard to fill up the gas tank and buy groceries. Longwell is not a big fan of Zohran's actual policies, but she holds him up as a model for how to communicate on
3. Speaking of communications, Longwell blasts Democrats for being behind the 8-ball on modern comms. Democrats are way too focused on fact-based, think-tanky reports and traditional campaigning, and they are not getting into the spaces where voters (esp young ones) spend most of their time: podcasting, social media, and other non-traditional spaces.
4. Finally, Longwell advocates a new relationship between Democratic politicians and the activist class on the left. Activist groups (or many of them) from the left approach Democrats as their vector of influence, and they often seek to hold Democrats "accountable" for not taking the maximal position on trans issues, immigration, Gaza, etc. This is not really how activism works on the right; most right-wing activist groups are far more slavishly supportive of Republicans, for both ideological and financial reasons. This puts Democratic politicians in the constant dilemma of threading the needle between an activist base that is trying to get them to take manifestly unpopular positions (on trans people in sports, for example) that tar the Democrats as radical and a larger voter base that wants more "common sense" approaches. The answer, Longwell suggests, is that activists should focus less on pressing Democrats into taking these positions and more on what the gay marriage movement did: combining assertive legal strategies wtih broad efforts to move the needle on public opinion so that it is easier for politicians to take more progressive stances.
Longwell also has some nice insights into what makes Trump so maliciously effective as a politicians. Trump achieves "narrative dominance" through constant reinforcement of the same themes and claims, even when most of what he says isn't true. He sets the agenda, and Democrats react. He even did this while out of office because of the Biden team's ineffective media strategy. Trump also is a master of "schema activation," in which he links immigration, for instance, to everything else bad happening in the country: crime, opioid abuse, overloaded public services, etc. When he says "America First," he immediately activates resentment against elites from both parties who are perceived as serving interests other than what is best for AMerica. The fact that this slogan has a dark history doesn't matter to most people, so Democrats hammering that point isn't effective.
Still, this is very much the book of a political operative, and a former Republican operative at that. As such, it has significant blind spots. First, Longwell is much more trusting and forgiving of Trump voters than I am. She tends to believe that most of them come from a good place: from justified resentment of the establishment, from a sense of betrayal by Democrats, from an overall sense of bewilderment, or from everyday experiences of life in America as not-so-great. She profiles their frustration that, in Trump 2.0, Trump "isn't doing what he said he would do!" and she sees this as a big opportunity for Democrats.
However, we have now had 3 straight elections where the vast majority of this coalition chose Trump 3 times in spite of, well, everything. There's just no excuse in 2024 to not realize that Trump doesn't actually give a crap about ordinary people, that he's not for peace, that he revels in cruelty and enacts cruelty through policy, and that his whole strategy is to make the AMerican people hate each other as much as possible. I'm much more on the side of Jonathan van Last, Longwell's colleague, who puts much more blame on the voters for simply being irresponsible and stupid, for believing things like "Trump is a good businessman" even though there's not a shred of evidence that that's the case, or for pooh-poohing or conspiracizing about January 6.
I suppose I am intellectually and emotionally with JVL and strategically with Longwell on this; I'm not sure what choice Democrats have than to compete for low-information, distrustful voters, because there's a lot of them. Still, I think that the focus group evidence base is flawed; focus groups allow people to project themselves at their most reasonable (oh, I don't hate trans people or Mexicans at all) whereas when you look at behavior (how you vote, what media you consume) it becomes clear that there is much more of an appetite for conspiracy, authoritarianism, and unadulterated cruelty than you could learn from a focus group (or, at least an apathy toward Trump's bigotry and cruelty).
But a big source of dissonance for me in this book is that Longwell's view of the pre-Trump GOP is overly rosy. This makes sense; she was a GOP operative. Her breaking from the GOP over Trump and gay rights issues was admirable, but as a historian her claims that Trump is a radical discontinuity from the earlier GOP does not hold water. This was not a party "defined by ideology," as she asserts; the party intelligenstia and operative class may have been ideologically charged, but the majority of the party's voters and probably the majority of elected Republicans were driven much more by identity/cultural politics than fealty to Burke and Hayek. Moreover, she portrays the Democrats as way more dovish on foreign affairs than they really were, and Republicans as way more devoted to a rules-based world order than they ever were. I get it; she's an operative, she's trying to devise ways to win, she's looking forward. But as a historian, that selective representation of the past rubbed me the wrong way.
So this is a worthwhile, thoughtful, and pithy book from someone I respect and see as a political ally. This is a playbook, not a strategic vision. If you take it at that level, it's quite good. But that's also a limited argument, much more about form than content, leaving me a bit unsatisfied.
September 11, 2026
Devoured this in two days and immediately wanted to talk to everyone I know about it, which is usually my best sign a book was worth reading. Sarah Longwell takes everything I've been half-noticing and half-articulating about politics for the past ten years and actually puts words to it, categorizes it, and makes sense of it in a way I couldn't on my own.
A few things that stuck with me:
The personal thread: Her own path from a lesbian Republican operative to a leading voice against MAGA-style politics gives the "playbook" sections real texture. She doesn't gloss over the tension of holding both identities at once, and that honesty about wrestling with where she fit politically hit close to home for me. I spent years describing myself as some kind of fuzzy libertarian before finally landing, comfortably, on calling myself a Democrat in today's political climate. Reading her work through that lens made the book feel less like a strategy memo and more like a conversation with someone who'd been through a similar reckoning.
The "narrative infrastructure" argument: Longwell makes a compelling case that the right didn't just win elections, it built durable media and messaging machinery, and that the other side needs the equivalent, not just better talking points. She digs into how parasocial relationships play into this too, how The Apprentice made millions of people feel like they already knew Trump, like he was a familiar presence in their living room, long before he ran for office. She ties this to our cultural love of the anti-hero too: Tony Soprano, Walter White, these are characters you can admire and root for even while knowing they're doing vile things, and how that same appetite carried over into how people related to Trump. That kind of manufactured familiarity is its own form of infrastructure, and it's not something the other side has built an equivalent for.
Talk to voters like adults: Her focus-group work keeps circling back to how much persuasion fails because it condescends. Refreshing to see that made explicit as a strategic principle, not just a nicety. She's got no patience for the kind of messaging that talks down to people or assumes they can't handle nuance, and it shows in how she frames the whole coalition-building argument.
Being right vs. winning: One line that really stuck with me: "Do you want to be right, or do you want to win?" It's such a simple question, but it reframes so much of what goes wrong in political persuasion. Chasing both at once is often how you lose.
If you've spent the last decade feeling like something's just OFF but couldn't quite name it, much less formulate a plan to fix it, this book will do it for you.
A few things that stuck with me:
The personal thread: Her own path from a lesbian Republican operative to a leading voice against MAGA-style politics gives the "playbook" sections real texture. She doesn't gloss over the tension of holding both identities at once, and that honesty about wrestling with where she fit politically hit close to home for me. I spent years describing myself as some kind of fuzzy libertarian before finally landing, comfortably, on calling myself a Democrat in today's political climate. Reading her work through that lens made the book feel less like a strategy memo and more like a conversation with someone who'd been through a similar reckoning.
The "narrative infrastructure" argument: Longwell makes a compelling case that the right didn't just win elections, it built durable media and messaging machinery, and that the other side needs the equivalent, not just better talking points. She digs into how parasocial relationships play into this too, how The Apprentice made millions of people feel like they already knew Trump, like he was a familiar presence in their living room, long before he ran for office. She ties this to our cultural love of the anti-hero too: Tony Soprano, Walter White, these are characters you can admire and root for even while knowing they're doing vile things, and how that same appetite carried over into how people related to Trump. That kind of manufactured familiarity is its own form of infrastructure, and it's not something the other side has built an equivalent for.
Talk to voters like adults: Her focus-group work keeps circling back to how much persuasion fails because it condescends. Refreshing to see that made explicit as a strategic principle, not just a nicety. She's got no patience for the kind of messaging that talks down to people or assumes they can't handle nuance, and it shows in how she frames the whole coalition-building argument.
Being right vs. winning: One line that really stuck with me: "Do you want to be right, or do you want to win?" It's such a simple question, but it reframes so much of what goes wrong in political persuasion. Chasing both at once is often how you lose.
If you've spent the last decade feeling like something's just OFF but couldn't quite name it, much less formulate a plan to fix it, this book will do it for you.
September 16, 2026
I have been a Bulwark reader since they started and only recently cut back on my subscriptions for financial and sanity reasons (it was just too much bad news, all the time). Which brings me to this book. Sarah Longwell founded The Bulwark but along with that, she has been a focus group facilitator. She has been listening to voters of all stripes during the Trump era in an effort to understand what American voters are thinking.
The news is not encouraging if you’re a Never Trumper like me or a traditional Democrat, but it’s infuriating, eye-opening, and necessary if you have it in your head to defeat Trump and his movement/successors going forward. Longwell quotes voters who were Biden one election, Trump the next, or the reverse of that. The variations are mind boggling. But the lessons are there for anyone who (like Longwell) has the patience to listen and learn: politics as was pre-2015 is gone. What voters want (from politicians, not government) has changed. How they learn about candidates or issues has changed. And Trump tapped into those changes while traditional Republicans and Democrats have not. This is not a value judgment, just a fact. The bulk of the book is her summaries of focus groups or specific quotations from them—it makes for painful reading.
In addition to setting non-Trumpists straight about what voters are thinking, Longwell takes the reader through her own political journey (allowing us to shake our heads in bafflement as she struggled to be a lesbian in the Republican Party). She sprinkles her book with advice on how Democrats can build a big-tent organization, touching on individual policies or political actions.
If there was one thing I wish the book had more of, it’s a stronger note of hope. Alas, while she’s much more of an optimist than her colleague Jonathan V. Last, Longwell is a realist. The effort to build an effective counterforce to Trump will be had work. She offers a lot of advice for Democrat politicians and their advisors, but she doesn’t let voters off the hook, either. Undoing the damage done by Trump will require building something new, and to be sustainable, it’ll have to be a top-to-bottom effort.
So by all means, if you are interested in these sorts of challenges, read this book. It might not be the happiest book you read, but it will ground you in the reality of how your fellow Americans think so you can think through how to make things better. Eat your broccoli.
The news is not encouraging if you’re a Never Trumper like me or a traditional Democrat, but it’s infuriating, eye-opening, and necessary if you have it in your head to defeat Trump and his movement/successors going forward. Longwell quotes voters who were Biden one election, Trump the next, or the reverse of that. The variations are mind boggling. But the lessons are there for anyone who (like Longwell) has the patience to listen and learn: politics as was pre-2015 is gone. What voters want (from politicians, not government) has changed. How they learn about candidates or issues has changed. And Trump tapped into those changes while traditional Republicans and Democrats have not. This is not a value judgment, just a fact. The bulk of the book is her summaries of focus groups or specific quotations from them—it makes for painful reading.
In addition to setting non-Trumpists straight about what voters are thinking, Longwell takes the reader through her own political journey (allowing us to shake our heads in bafflement as she struggled to be a lesbian in the Republican Party). She sprinkles her book with advice on how Democrats can build a big-tent organization, touching on individual policies or political actions.
If there was one thing I wish the book had more of, it’s a stronger note of hope. Alas, while she’s much more of an optimist than her colleague Jonathan V. Last, Longwell is a realist. The effort to build an effective counterforce to Trump will be had work. She offers a lot of advice for Democrat politicians and their advisors, but she doesn’t let voters off the hook, either. Undoing the damage done by Trump will require building something new, and to be sustainable, it’ll have to be a top-to-bottom effort.
So by all means, if you are interested in these sorts of challenges, read this book. It might not be the happiest book you read, but it will ground you in the reality of how your fellow Americans think so you can think through how to make things better. Eat your broccoli.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2026
There is a lot of essential advice in here but Sarah is still blinded by her Republican goggles and bungles some things. Below are a couple.
1) Democrats are more secular because they are more secular. It's not that Democrats are afraid to talk about or reference religion, it's just that religion isn't that important to us anymore. We are a diverse coalition and we threaten coalition unity with it. There is no reason to try and appeal to religious right-wingers who believe the Bible says abortion is murder and gay marriage is from the devil himself. You will not convince them by quoting the Sermon on the Mount. You will turn off a lot of people in the coalition that is about 40% non-religious, a share which is growing all the time.
2) Non-binary people are transgender. Non-binary identity is not something separate from transgender identity. It is explicitly a transgender identity. She, in the book, declares that non-binary people are different from trans people in the section about Trump's famously successful "Kamala cares for they/them, Trump cares about you" ad. Sarah, for all her good intentions, is totally unqualified to pontificate breathlessly on this subject. She worked with the anti-gay forces, including Rick Santorum, whose whole thing was being anti-gay. Whatever else you can say for her, you simply cannot trust her here.
These types of complaints aside, this book was a short read, which I am thankful for.
I've been chipping away at a behemoth of a book on LBJ and it has taken about a month so far. I took care of this book over the course of about two days. (Two days I really wish I had spent on the LBJ book instead, honestly.)
If you are interested in activism or building something related to politics, this is the book for you.
Just be aware that it is very much the kind of book a conservative would write about how to fix liberalism.
1) Democrats are more secular because they are more secular. It's not that Democrats are afraid to talk about or reference religion, it's just that religion isn't that important to us anymore. We are a diverse coalition and we threaten coalition unity with it. There is no reason to try and appeal to religious right-wingers who believe the Bible says abortion is murder and gay marriage is from the devil himself. You will not convince them by quoting the Sermon on the Mount. You will turn off a lot of people in the coalition that is about 40% non-religious, a share which is growing all the time.
2) Non-binary people are transgender. Non-binary identity is not something separate from transgender identity. It is explicitly a transgender identity. She, in the book, declares that non-binary people are different from trans people in the section about Trump's famously successful "Kamala cares for they/them, Trump cares about you" ad. Sarah, for all her good intentions, is totally unqualified to pontificate breathlessly on this subject. She worked with the anti-gay forces, including Rick Santorum, whose whole thing was being anti-gay. Whatever else you can say for her, you simply cannot trust her here.
These types of complaints aside, this book was a short read, which I am thankful for.
I've been chipping away at a behemoth of a book on LBJ and it has taken about a month so far. I took care of this book over the course of about two days. (Two days I really wish I had spent on the LBJ book instead, honestly.)
If you are interested in activism or building something related to politics, this is the book for you.
Just be aware that it is very much the kind of book a conservative would write about how to fix liberalism.
September 14, 2026
Absolutely. I’d work that into the first paragraph so it explains why her perspective particularly resonates with you:
As a former Republican, I think Sarah Longwell is one of the most underrated voices in this arena. As a student of political science, I’m fascinated by political behavior, and her focus groups are so, so valuable for understanding how people actually think and for hearing perspectives outside of our own echo chambers.
Sarah somehow manages to strike a balance between pragmatism, even when it hurts my feelings (like telling me Kamala Harris shouldn’t run again), and genuine hopefulness about where we go from here. I appreciate that she is willing to say what the data and the voters are telling her, even when it isn’t necessarily what her audience wants to hear.
What I appreciated most about *How to Eat an Elephant* is that it doesn’t just diagnose the problem. It offers a practical way of thinking about how to move forward, how to talk to voters, and how to build a coalition that can actually win.
Every Democratic politician and campaign strategist should read a copy of this book and let it inform how they approach future campaigns.
It was a quick, accessible, funny, and genuinely enjoyable read. Sarah has a talent for making political strategy interesting without making it feel like homework. I hope she keeps writing books because I will happily keep reading them.
As a former Republican, I think Sarah Longwell is one of the most underrated voices in this arena. As a student of political science, I’m fascinated by political behavior, and her focus groups are so, so valuable for understanding how people actually think and for hearing perspectives outside of our own echo chambers.
Sarah somehow manages to strike a balance between pragmatism, even when it hurts my feelings (like telling me Kamala Harris shouldn’t run again), and genuine hopefulness about where we go from here. I appreciate that she is willing to say what the data and the voters are telling her, even when it isn’t necessarily what her audience wants to hear.
What I appreciated most about *How to Eat an Elephant* is that it doesn’t just diagnose the problem. It offers a practical way of thinking about how to move forward, how to talk to voters, and how to build a coalition that can actually win.
Every Democratic politician and campaign strategist should read a copy of this book and let it inform how they approach future campaigns.
It was a quick, accessible, funny, and genuinely enjoyable read. Sarah has a talent for making political strategy interesting without making it feel like homework. I hope she keeps writing books because I will happily keep reading them.
September 12, 2026
I am loving the audiobook (purchased through libro . fm) and can't wait to get back to it after pausing to finish a book club choice. I will probably buy the book to share with others. Sarah is my most trusted voice on the American voter and campaign messaging strategy. I read/watch her on The Bullwark, a media company which she created after years of working on Republican campaigns. Like any sane person, when she realized the Republican Party she thought was the right fit for her no longer exists, she left and started The Bullwark with Bill Kristol. She does focus groups with voters who have taught her how and why Republican stories and emotional triggering works. She is begging Democratic operatives to hurry up and learn why their reliance on reason and facts is not working with many voters who would benefit from liberal policies. Her compassionate heart will not let her think of Trump voters as ignorant or beyond reason (though some may be, as JV Last, her equally admirable colleague, insists). In any case, the important thing is to understand that there is a better way to communicate and listen to voters' concerns if Democrats any chance to win elections and turn this disaster into a new vision for America. It doesn't require any kind of lying or dirty tricks. Her wisdom is worth a few hours of your time.
September 14, 2026
It wasn't that long ago that I was listening to a podcast and heard Ezra Klein ask "Do you want to be right, or do you want to win?" It fundamentally shifted the way I view politics.
Sarah Longwell repeats the same question partway through this book, which is the culmination of a decade of focus groups with voters. She started the focus groups in an effort to understand how the hell America could elect Trump...and then elect him again. I found my way to her podcast with the same question.
As a regular listener, there isn't much in this book that was new to me. But it was still worthwhile to see it all laid out and organized and polished up. Some of the middle gets a little dark and dispiriting, but the final chapter left me feeling energized and optimistic. There isn't a way back, but there is a way forward. And we just have to seize it.
Sarah Longwell repeats the same question partway through this book, which is the culmination of a decade of focus groups with voters. She started the focus groups in an effort to understand how the hell America could elect Trump...and then elect him again. I found my way to her podcast with the same question.
As a regular listener, there isn't much in this book that was new to me. But it was still worthwhile to see it all laid out and organized and polished up. Some of the middle gets a little dark and dispiriting, but the final chapter left me feeling energized and optimistic. There isn't a way back, but there is a way forward. And we just have to seize it.
September 8, 2026
I’ve followed Longwell’s focus groups for years and still learned something here. What she does better than almost anyone is take voters seriously without being sentimental about them. She quotes them at length, including when they’re contradictory or wrong about their own lives, because persuading them is the whole game. The argument is blunt and kind of a relief: quit relitigating moderate versus progressive, because what voters really want is for Democrats to fight and win. She’s also funnier than a book about authoritarianism has any business being. Walked away from it feeling more hopeful than I’ve felt in a while, not in a naive way, more in the sense that we still have some agency here.
September 10, 2026
Sarah has a magical way of breaking down the overwhelming goings on of life into strategic, smart and didactic prose. Her honesty, intelligence and lack of B.S. is a refreshing change from the constant stream of nonsense DC insiders try to push onto everyday Americans. Instead of throwing her hands in the air, Sarah has a plan, and, spoiler, it's about fighting back and going on offense. For those who can also walk and chew gum, and those who aspire to one day, Sarah's book is your guide for how to win and keep winning.
September 10, 2026
There are some hard truths in this book that Sarah Longwell has discovered by listening to the voters. If you know her from The Bulwark, you will not be surprised by the thoroughness of her work. It is like a lesson in teaching diverse thinking as she considers all factors; explores the positive, negative, and interesting aspects of ideas expressed by the voters and articulated by the politicians; while providing the reader with goals and objectives that are needed to make real change and, dare I say, save our Democracy. Highly recommended.
September 11, 2026
One of the best books on politics I have read in a very long time. It feels like a simple point, but to understand what's going on in the country, we should actaully listen to our fellow Americans. Longwell has been doing that for years and has laid out a clear roadmap for pro-democracy Americans to take if they want to get past the Trump years. Plus, it's incredibly funny, an easy read, and Sarah has a compelling personal story that should be an example to all of us on how to be better citizens and thinkers.
September 14, 2026
I picked up a hard copy of this at the Sarah & Kara show at Sixth & I earlier this month but wound up preferring the audio version as the author’s narration is familiar and personable. Having listened to Focus Group podcasts over the years, I was not expecting “what voters say” to be new information, but the way it is organized forced me to hear it again, reiterated the main themes, and ultimately tie to the action-oriented recommendations toward the end of the book. A worthy read and inspiration to concentrate on ways to feed the good wolf!
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