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Product Description

“Politics is stuck,” writes Bill Bradley, in this insightful, informative, and provocative book about America at a crossroads, but “idealism isn’t dead. It can be reawakened.”

What will it take to make America a better, stronger, truer country? asks the bestselling author, former Knicks star, and onetime presidential candidate. Bill Bradley believes that America is at a teachable moment when we are compelled to reevaluate our political system, our leadership, our agenda as a nation, and ourselves as citizens. With clarity and urgency, Bradley shows why the story we are being told now about who we are as a people is not true. He then offers a new story about our nation, based on America’s rich heritage and his belief in the character of the American people. Bradley explores what changes need to be made in our parties, in our politics, and in citizen activism to ensure America’s future. He asserts that the American people are ready for the truth and suggests that the party that chooses to embrace this new story will be in power for a generation.

Writing from his own experience in politics and drawing on his knowledge of history, Bradley shows how the Republican Party has built a solid pyramid structure since the 1970s, at the base of which are money, ideas, and media, whereas the Democratic Party’s structure is an inverted pyramid, with too much emphasis put on the need for a charismatic leader to hold the pyramid up. Each party, for different reasons, fails to deal with the real issues that now confront America.

This informed and inspiring call to action is addressed not only to the parties and elected leaders, but to citizens as well. Bradley proposes things every American can do to shape our nation’s future. He points out that if eighty percent of the electorate voted, instead of fifty percent, it would be the most important change in American politics since women got the vote. Now more than ever, he says, we need to embrace an “ethic of connectedness,” a combination of collective action and individual responsibility, to solve our nation’s most pressing problems, and he argues that the fate of all countries is bound together as never before. Writing today with the freedom of a private citizen, Bradley provides this transformative and eye-opening book about the danger and the promise of America’s choice at this crucial moment in the nation’s history.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #318574 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-27
• Released on: 2007-03-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
He doesn't have an exploratory committee, but the former Democratic senator and one-time presidential hopeful certainly has a platform in this thoughtful policy agenda. Bradley (Time Present, Time Past) scathingly critiques Republican ideology and presents a liberal-centrist program for change that advances a multilateralist foreign policy, spending cuts (including Pentagon sacred cows) and tax hikes to reduce the deficit. There are also detailed, often far-reaching proposals to shore up (not privatize) Social Security and reform private pensions, health care, education and energy policy. His insightful account of the politics of Republican ascendancy and Democratic eclipse in recent decades is coupled with a cogent call for Democrats to "abandon the star system" of celebrity candidates (take that, Hillary and Barack!), develop a coherent governing philosophy and rebuild the party from the grass roots. Bradley's proposals range from the bold—free college tuition for the top third of every high-school class—to the niggling—"Ban trans fats." He loses his nerve on health care, as he won't unequivocally endorse the "Medicare for all" insurance system he obviously prefers. Still, Bradley puts forward a tough, plainspoken indictment of the Republicans and a vigorous and substantive Democratic reform program that deserves to be read and debated. (Apr. 3)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Taking advantage of his long and varied experience--and the credibility he earns because he's not running for office--Bradley appeals to Americans' better nature in a bid to recast politics. Lamenting the current cynicism that has divided the nation into red and blue states, Bradley aims to counter the conventional wisdom that the nation lacks the resources or the will to tackle problems. Recounting past national glories, Bradley proposes a new American story that focuses on the realities, not scare tactics or rosy political spin. He offers a specific agenda to help the U.S. find a place in the world that is not determined by military might but by a "civil religion" that works to improve common conditions for all nations. The current focus on the war in Iraq has distracted the U.S. from attending to growing tensions between Japan and China, the rise of anti-Americanism in South America, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, among a host of other crucial developments. On the domestic front, Bradley advocates health care for every American, higher teacher salaries, lower employment taxes, and publicly funded congressional and presidential elections, among other policies. Bradley appeals to both Democrats and Republicans--and individual citizens--to seize the current moment to reshape the nation's direction. Bradley, former professional basketball player, U.S. senator, and presidential candidate, offers a thoughtful look at American politics for citizens of whatever political persuasion. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Bill Bradley has been a three-time basketball All-American at Princeton, an Olympic gold medalist, a Rhodes scholar, and a professional player for ten years with the New York Knicks. Elected to the Senate from New Jersey in 1978, 1984, and 1990, he has authored extensive legislation, including the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Bradley is the author of five other books: Time Present, Time Past, a New York Times bestseller about his life as a senator and his travels throughout the country; Values of the Game, another New York Times bestseller; The Journey from Here; The Fair Tax; and Life on the Run. Bill Bradley is married and has one daughter; he is currently a managing director at Allen & Company LLC in New York.

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Customer Reviews

A "new " story which affirms "old" values

Others have their own reasons for admiring Bill Bradley and, more specifically, this book. Here are three of mine. First, with all due respect to his credentials (e.g. All-American, All-Pro, and Hall of Fame basketball player, Rhodes Scholar, and U.S. Senator), what has most impressed me about him over the years is that he has what John McPhee once characterized (in 1965) as a "sense of where you are." That was and continues to be true of Bradley as, in this volume, he shares his thoughts about a wide range of subjects which include the challenges of public service and what he learned from his own involvement, his concern about unmet social needs and wasted opportunities to respond effectively to them, and yet his remarkably durable faith in what can yet be accomplished if (huge "if") enough people can agree to work together despite their ethnic, economic, political, and religious differences.

Bradley candidly acknowledges regret about his own errors of both omission and commission throughout his years of public service even as he offers forceful, indeed eloquent reassurances that "the new American story" can be written only by reaffirming certain traditional ("old") values which are too often compromised by political expediency. In this book, he reveals a strong sense of where the American society is now and an even stronger strong sense of where it can - and should -- be.

For decades, I have been concerned about political labels such as "liberal" and "conservative" and, more recently, about catch phrases such as "social liberal" and "fiscal conservative." In this book, Bradley calls upon us to focus on the most important issues and then make decisions about them that are guided and informed by the core principles in the Declaration of Independence, in the Constitution, and (especially) in the Bill of Rights. Bradley offers a convincing and eloquent explanation of why a commitment to these principles in public policies and in personal conduct seems more imperative now than at any previous time in U.S. history.

A sound plan for America
Too bad Bill Bradley has ruled out a run for the presidency, because the plan for America he outlines in this book could easily get him elected. We must therefore hope that the actual candidates, together with the 535 members of the U.S. House and Senate -- and the President, vice president and other members of the Executive Branch -- all read this and heed it. Bradley, a Democrat, outlines the pictures of America that the Bush administration and its allies have been selling to our citizens since January of 2001. Then he reframes them to reflect what's actually in place. And finally, he calmly and reasonably suggests how those problems can best be addressed in his view of "The New American Story." To solve the Social Security problem, for example, he suggests raising the minimum eligibility age from 67, where it will be in 2027, by one month every two years until it reaches 70 in 2099. He also calls for levying a 2 percent Social Security tax on all income above $94,200, the present ceiling on which we levy the universal 6.5 percent retirement tax. He calls for adding all new state and local employees into the system over a five-year period. Finally, Bradley suggests adjusting how we calculate annual cost-of-living raises by tying them to a slightly different consumer price index than the one now used. Those four provisions would keep Social Security solvent for at least 75 more years, he says. Many more problems are addressed in the same no-nonsense, easy-to-understand fashion, with plenty of facts to back up what he's saying. The difference between Bradley and many of today's politicians is that he's interested in building consensus to solve problems, not in getting elected or re-elected and not in attacking the opposite party or strengthening his own party. This book contains more "straight talk" and makes more sense than most of the utterances of the nation's top politicians. It's refreshing to find a book that focuses on issues and solutions instead of personality or ideology. Bradley has written that book.

What Might Have Been, and Still Can Be
Bill Bradley's journey has been extraordinary indeed: U.S. Olympian; Rhodes Scholar; NBA Hall of Famer; distinguished 3-term senator from NJ; candidate for president. Written with intellect, insight and authority, The New American story speaks to ALL Americans in a voice that is at once reassuring and urgent. Bradley knows politics from surface to core. More than that, he knows the American people. From a lifetime on the road, he understands who we are, how we got got into the trouble we're in, and what we can do, together, in order to make this country closer to the one our Founders envisioned, and of which we all dream. Perhaps the dominant theme of this wonderful treatise is, despite what the politicians and media continually assert, we are NOT divided Red and Blue; time and again, Bradley cites examples that remind us of the many fundamental needs and values we all share, regardless of the so-called color of our states or the actual color of our skin. I am proud to have worked for Senator Bradley in 2000, and from where we now find ourselves, both here and abroad, I can only wonder with a sad and heavy heart what might have been. And yet, it is refreshing to read these words, and to know that they come from the heart and mind of a very great American, and one who has been liberated from the shackles of future campaigns and elections. I cannot recommend this book more highly. Read it soon, for the clock is ticking...