Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn from Conservative Success

by Paul Waldman

""Waldman's book is terrific-good sense mustered with evidence, well argued, and sharply written to boot. I agree fervently with almost everything he writes. This is the indispensable book for the 2006 elections.""
--Todd Gitlin, author of The Sixties and The Twilight of Common Dreams
""A well-sourced, partisan blueprint for undoing Republican control of the nation.""
--Publishers Weekly
""Here's the ticket for Democrats to get back in read this book, understand what it means to be a true American progressive, expose conservatives as the mean elitists they are, get tough, and fight back. Nobody paints the strengths of progressives and the weaknesses of conservatives like Paul Waldman.""
--Bill Press, author How the Republicans Stole Christmas
""With clarity and passion, Paul Waldman demonstrates persuasively that the forces of the right have not 'taken over the country, ' as the media often lazily put it. They've only taken over politics. That can be reversed, and Waldman shows exactly how.""
--Michael Tomasky, Editor, the American Prospect

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

266 pages, Hardcover

First published April 28, 2006

About the author

Paul Waldman is a journalist and opinion writer whose work has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and digital outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Week, MSNBC, and CNN. He is a former columnist at The Washington Post and the author or co-author of four previous books on media and politics, including Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn from Conservative Success and The Press Effect: Politicians, Journalists, and the Stories that Shape the Political World.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing in 2006 Waldman says Democrats need to put together an over-arching narrative that will define simply what they stand for, and why they stand in opposition to conservatism. Instead progressives too often offer tedious ten point policy lists and allow conservatives to control the narrative. Conservatives have been so successful at this that they have literally consigned the word "liberal" to the political dumpster. Liberals have renamed themselves Progressives.

I generally agree with what he's saying. It's interesting that at one point he identifies (the then little known) Barack Obama as someone who can tell a story with passion and say what progressives stand for: a speech entitled A More Perfect Union".

It seems Obama has forgotten some of the Waldman advice that worked so well for him in the campaign. And I don't Progressives have figured out their narrative yet.

It would have been interesting if Waldman had gone back further than just the conservative movement for ideas. How did the original Progressive movement get started; and what about the New Deal?

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. It gives suggestions on how we need to win and stop the inept (in governing) so-called conservatives from wiping the floor with us in the public-relations sphere.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book appeared on a friend's grad school syllabus on political rhetoric. As a book on rhetoric on I found it to be fairly successful. However, it was funny looking back on the defeatism of Democrats circa 2006 after losing twice to Bush. The bitterness, disbelief, and rage definitely clouded judgment, and that's on display here (everyone agrees with progressives therefore the only way Bush won was by fighting dirty and manipulating stupid people-oh and Republicans are racist). All this is mixed in with some useful insights on effective communications, staying on message, and fighting dirtier. Much of the advice seemed familiar from the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns.

[Darryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know why Republicans have succeded and Dems have only been able to win when the Republicans became so abyssmal that people had no other choice but to vote for them, read this book.

Waldman lays out the problem and solutions in this book.