Crashing the Party Paperback by Heather Gautney

Product Details

• Publisher: Verso (2018-05-01)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 208 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781786634320
• Item Weight: 263.09 grams
• Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.6 cm

A leading activist-scholar on what’s next in the Sanders revolution

Bernie Sanders shocked the political establishment by winning 13 million votes and a majority of young voters in the 2016 Democratic primary. Since that upset, repeated polls have judged this democratic socialist to be the most popular politician in the United States. What lessons can be drawn from his surprising insurgent campaign?

Longtime author and activist Heather Gautney was a Policy Fellow in Sanders’s Washington, DC, office and a volunteer researcher and organizer on his presidential campaign. In reviewing what enabled Sanders to reach out to an unprecedented number with a socialist message—and what stalled his progress—she draws lessons on the prospects and perils of building a progressive movement in the United States.

Gautney’s poignant account of the role that race and class played in this election cycle, her anatomy of the conflicting dynamics of movement and electoral ambitions, and her clear-eyed analysis of the Democratic position following Trump’s victory will serve as a useful starting point for many readers newly aware of the limitations of the Democratic Party and the immensity of the challenges ahead.

About the Author

Heather Gautney is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Fordham University. She has written and edited books, opinion essays, and academic articles on US politics, social movements, social inequality, and workforce issues. Dr. Gautney was a senior policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders in the US Senate Budget Committee. In 2012-2013, she was a legislative fellow in Sanders’s Senate Office, a volunteer organizer and researcher on his presidential campaign in 2015-16, and representative of the State of Vermont for the 2016 Democratic Party Platform Committee. Currently, she is the Executive Director of Our Revolution.