Storming the Gates: Protest Politics and the Republican Revival.

AuthorBirnbaum, Jeffrey H.

It's a presidential election year and time once again for political hyperbole. In the journalistic race to find who's up and who's down, the highs never get higher nor the lows so deep as during the quadrennial gambol to attain the most coveted and perhaps least understood office in the land. In truth, the president doesn't govern anything. He spends far more effort reacting to matters beyond his control than acting like the potentate we imagine him to be. But the American people - and many of the news outlets that inform them - scrutinize the contest for the White House as if it is the only election that matters.

Now there is a tonic for this myopia. Storming the Gates reminds us of the broader context in which the election of 1996 is being held: The Republicans might be on the verge of completing a historic turnaround in partisan control of political institutions around the country. In their new book, Dan Balz of The Washington Post and Ronald Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times detail how this came to be and what forces and ideas were at the heart of this movement. An excellent recapitulation, the book demolishes the notion that the race for president should be the nation's sole focus.

Storming the Gates skillfully dissects the fragile alliances and warring factions that comprise the modern Democratic and Republican parties. The groups' leaders are as colorful as their interests are diverse. On the Republican side is Ralph Reed, the hard-bitten choir boy of the Christian Coalition; Tanya Metaska, the gray-haired, gun-toting lobbyist of the National Rifle Association; and of course, Newt the Absurd. The Democrats have A1 From, the doughy but prescient founder of the "New" Democrats; Richard Gephardt, the earnest and left-learning climber; and at the helm, Bill the Waverer. The book's analysis of each of these player's places in the Washington firmament is first rate. But the authors could have done more with their quirky personalities. Storming the Gates would have been more accessible, and more fun to read, if it...

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