We're Right, They're Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives

by James Carville

Responds to the Republicans' Contract with America, defending a strong government and its social role and providing a program for strengthening America. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679769781
• ISBN13: 9780679769781
• Release Date: February 1996
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 183 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

He's Right!

Carville really gets under republican's skins, mostly because he makes such a compelling case for a liberal agenda. Carville clearly explains why education funding is so important, and how funding continuing education can be used to SAVE money in the long run (by moving people off welfare). This book is largely based on the idea that "the only two respectable things for someone between the ages of 18 and 65 to do are woking or getting yourself educated", and the government should help facilitate this. Since this book was written, the US has moved away from Mr. Carville's philosophy, so if you agree with him, reading this book is pretty sombre.

We're Right, They're Wrong

Just like Harry Truman, the Ragin' Cajun' gives 'em hell. James Carville wants to put Democrats back on the offensive. Carville, chief strategist of Bill Clinton's 1992 War Room, is out to break the GOP'S Contract with America. In We're Right, They're Wrong, Carville serves up a sassy, no - holdsbarred response to the right - wing myths spewing out of Congress and polluting the AM airwaves. Carville rips apart Republican bluster and [extreme] programs and offers smart, compassionate, no-nonsense alternatives. Tired of getting browbeaten at neighborhood barbecues and school board meetings? We're Right, They're Wrong gets progressives off their heels and back on the attack. With Carville's trademark wit, political savvy, and street smarts, We're Right, They're Wrong is a broadside for our times, the most provocative book of the 1996 campaign season.

Telling the truth...and the ammo to prove it!

What happens when you mix a Rajin' Cajun with Politics... You get the truth. Touche' Mr. Carville. Your book has already proven to be true life-saver for me, a 24K Cajun, stuck right smack dab in the middle of Dole and Bushwack, I mean Bush Country in a suburb of South of KC. I enjoyed the book, but I love the rapid response and extended response part especially! It puts the mojo on the "good ole' boy network!" This handbook will help to make your time spent at parties or at any event of one of your wonderful, yet, Republican friends and company not only more interesting, but you may also find that people will pay attention to you, whether they agree or not and it will either reply with anger or it might just scare the heck out the them. What I like is the fact that he gives you the facts. Then, if you don't believe it, you can follow the trails and he will lead you right to it, the original quotes or what ever the issue, right their in your face, through his heavily researched and well-armed footnotes. I researched the footnotes that truly caught my interest, and was astounded to see where some of this "reliable information" comes from in the GOP. Where do the Republicans find some of these people? This book is not only worth reading, it is worth reading again; or as a gift to a family member or friend who always has a lot to say about politics, and are really not aware of the real ongoings in politics behind the scenes, and for really great Cajun receipts. Don't take his word for it, check his sources; they speak for themselves!

A wonderfully one-sided book

Carville is exactly right -- us liberals are too nice! We've taken too much from the right and we're ready to fight back against Republican propoganda and misinformation! We need to stand up for the little people, progressives! In this time of economic prosperity, we need to act to preserve Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and environmental programs. If only we had one hundred more of you, Cueball, the government would be a much kinder place.

Tired of the bombast of Rush Limbaugh? Listen to this book.

This book is a spirited defense of progressive ideals. It is read by the author, which makes for a great listening experience. Carville is the kind of Democrat we need more of nowadays: someone who is unabashedly proud of our tradition. Despite current GOP efforts to canonize Ronald Reagan, we know who the really great presidents of this century have been; and with the exception of TR, not a single one of them has a "R" following their name. One of the merits of this book is, despite its having come out a few years ago, its pertinence to today's debates. Carville's commentary on "Mr. Family Values" himself, Newt Gingrich, coupled with his stanch defense of the Clinton's, is enough to hearten even the most discouraged Clinton supporter. My only reservation about this book is that Carville at one point makes a remark about hairdressers that smacks a bit of a classist and elitist perpsective -- not the James Carville that we know and love. After all, if the Democratic party doesn't stand for all the hairdressers (and "trailor park trash") of the country, it doesn't stand a chance of a snowball in hell of doing anything worthwhile. Carville makes a convincing case that we do, in fact, stand for something of which to be proud -- which makes this momentary lapse all the more disappointing.