About the Book
An essential toolkit for all progressives- helping them to respond to the current sustained right-wing criticism of US domestic and foreign policy
"The game is begun," Rush Limbaugh said, the day after Barack Obama won the presidency; and he was right. The clash of views on US domestic and foreign policy is, if anything, even more intense now than it was before the change of leadership in Washington. Right-wing media figures and Republican politicians regularly regale us with conservative criticisms of the realignment of policy and politics now underway. Even more than in 2008, now is the time for liberals to answer back, to counter those criticisms by both recognizing their content and locating their weaknesses. In the great clash of parties and philosophies that will shape the next American century, an informed citizenry will require more accurate information, ideas, and arguments than right-wing radio characteristically provides, and the market is wide open for a book that engages with both the worst and the best of the Republican case. Answering Back is that book.
Answering Back intends to lift the quality of political discourse in the United States by bringing together the best conservative and the best liberal arguments on the eight key policy issues now in contention between the parties: trickledown economics and the role of public spending, the desirability of welfare reform, the future of social security, the establishment of health care for all, the possibility of comprehensive immigration control, religious issues and the social agenda, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the causes of the financial meltdown.
Each chapter begins with a brief introduction, followed by conservative views and a point-by-point progressive response. Each stage of each argument is labeled for easy memorization, and the language used is deliberately jargon free, to make the material as accessible as possible. The sources of both conservative and progressive arguments (and their supporting evidence) are cited to open the door to further research.
Answering Back is a completely revised and expanded version of A Liberal Tookit, intially published by Praeger in 2007. This new version is a handbook of arguments, data, and sources that present today's key policy debates in an even-handed and accessible manner. This will be an essential tool for anyone interested in policy reform, party politics, and American politics. It is written in a manner that is, at one and the same time, scholarly, useful, accessible, and fun!
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: A Call to Arms
Introduction to the book; the need for balance in complex arguments.
Chapter 2: Clearing the Decks
Conservative arguments
Liberal response to conservative arguments
Discusses issues such patriots and traitors, raising the standard of debate, labeling liberals.
Chapter 3: The Wonders of "Trickle-Down Economics"
Conservative arguments
Liberal response to conservative arguments
Discusses tax rates, tax cuts and economic growth, government and market, trade unions, greed.
Chapter 4: Cutting "Welfare" to help the poor
Conservative arguments
Liberal response to conservative arguments
Discusses poverty in the US, the notion of self-induced poverty, welfare programs, limits of welfare to work programs, lessons from Katrina.
Chapter 5: "Reforming" Social Security
Conservative arguments
Liberal response to conservative arguments
Discusses whether social security is viable, financing of social security, market-based funding of pensions, retirement and personal investment accounts,
Chapter 6: Bringing Health to the Health-Care System
Conservative arguments
Liberal response to conservative arguments
Discusses work-based health insurance, access and costs, government intervention, socialized vs. market-based medicine, and progressive alternatives.
Chapter 7: Immigration Control in a Land of Immigrants
Conservative arguments
Liberal response to conservative arguments
Discusses border control, right vs. wrong kind of immigrants, US national unity, illigal immigration and welfare, wages, and crime.
Chapter 8: Is God Necessarily Conservative?
Conservative arguments
Liberal response to conservative arguments
Discusses America as "a City upon a Hill", marriage, abortion, evangelical Christianity, secularism, moral agenda, Holy wars.
Chapter 9: The Wisdom of the War in Iraq?
Conservative arguments
Liberal response to conservative arguments
Discusses Iraq and terrorism, democracy, fanaticism, safety at home, victory and defeat, opposition to the war, admission of error.
Chapter 10: The Real Causes of the Financial Meltdown
Conservative arguments
Liberal response to conservative arguments
Discusses Republican leadership and economic growth, government regulation, American model, free trade,
Select Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
David Coates holds the Worrell Chair of Anglo-American Studies, Department of Political Science at Wake Forest University, USA. He previously held personal chairs at the universities of Leeds and Manchester, UK. He is the author of The Labour Party and the Struggle for Socialism and Models of Capitalism: Growth and Stagnation in the World Economy (translated into Chinese and South Korean) and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.
David Coates is Worrell Professor of Anglo-American Studies at Wake Forest University. He was previously Professor and Director of the International Center for Labor Studies at the University of Manchester. He has written extensively on contemporary political economy, the war on terrorism, and the politics of labor. His previous books include Prolonged Labour: The Slow Birth of New Labour Britain (2005), Blair's War (2004) with Joel Krieger, and Models of Capitalism (2000).
Review :
"With passion, disarming candor, and fair-minded analysis second to none, David Coates captures the pulse of American politics. Answering Back makes the best case yet for how to revitalize the Left--and outmaneuver the Right--in the political space broken open by the Obama presidency. If you are interested in the fate of American democracy and want to become a stakeholder you must read this book." --Joel Krieger, Norma Wilentz Hess professor of Political Science, Wellesley College; Editor in Chief, The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World
Answering Back is a very timely book. It will deepen the reader's understanding of the main issues in the debates between liberals and conservatives--especially those on the far right. The book is written from a liberal perspective, but it documents both the liberal and conservative sides of the issues. It achieves one of its main objectives very well--raising the quality of these debates.
"Aiming to defend and sustain the victories of President Obama and the Congressional Democrats in 2008, Coates expands and updates his previous volume, A Liberal Tool Kit (2007), which supports liberal candidates and investigates conservative and liberal arguments on eight policy issues in the US faced by the new Democratic administration: trickle-down economics and the role of public spending, welfare reform, social security, health care, immigration control, religious issues and the social agenda, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the causes of the financial meltdown. For each, he presents the conservative views and a point-by-point progressive response to them. The chapter on whether the economy was safe in Republican hands has been replaced by the chapter on the financial meltdown." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.
