Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics

After the 2004 election, the Republican Party held the White House, both houses of Congress, twenty-eight governorships, and a majority of state legislatures. One-party rule, it seemed, was here to stay.

Herding Donkeys tells the improbable tale of the grassroots resurgence that transformed the Democratic Party from a lonely minority to a sizable majority. It chronicles the inside story of Howard Dean s visionary yet deeply controversial fifty-state strategy, charting his unpredictable journey from insurgent presidential candidate, to front-running flameout, to chairman and conscience of the Democratic Party in an unexpected third act. Ari Berman reveals how the Obama campaign built upon Dean s strategy when others ridiculed it, expanding the ranks of the party and ultimately laying the groundwork for Obama s historic electoral victory but also sowing the seeds of dissent that would lead to legislative stalemate and intraparty strife.

Revelatory and entertaining, in the vein of Timothy Crouse s The Boys on the Bus and Rick Perlstein s Nixonland, Herding Donkeys combines fresh reportage with a rich and colorful cast of characters.It captures the untold stories of the people and places thatreshaped the electoral map, painting a vivid portrait of a shiftingcountry while dissecting the possibility and peril of a new era in American politics.