The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything

I teach American history, and after reading this book I am convinced that we are at an historic turning point in American electoral politics. For thirty years conservatives have out-spent and out-organized progressives. Mainstream media outlets across the country have been either cowed into irrelevance or bought up wholesale by right-wing media conglomerates. A generation of young Americans has grown up believing that Rush Limbaugh is a journalist rather than a propagandist. The permanent Republican majority seemed on the cusp of realization. And then along came Howard Dean and Joe Trippi. Trippi's book, while predictably emphasizing his take on the successes and failures of the Dean campaign, makes a much larger point: that the internet changes EVERYTHING in politics. The democratization of fundraising, the revolution in how people get their news, and the empowerment of supporters all across the country to literally BECOME the campaign are only a few of the pioneering political techniques that Trippi describes in this important first-hand account. Regardless of how the 2004 election turns out, I am convinced that historians will be citing this book for years.

Only a few of the 650,000 people in the Dean campaign would deny that Joe Trippi worked his heart out for all of us -- not for his own self-promotion. His brilliance and risk-taking propelled a ragtag band into a real loving community. Now, since the candidate's loss in his bid for the presidency, some are bitter, but Joe's book is not. His rich story telling and analogies -- the Dean campaign as a little league baseball team on the field with the New York Yankees -- are inspiring and hopeful. He tells all who were involved in our campaign that they really did perform like the Miracle Mets. His link back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and his look forward toward the promise of community empowerment is just what the doctor ordered for any American, cynical, disgusted and disillusioned. Give this book to your friends, families and coworkers. And you will be giving them a reason to believe in democracy again.

It typically takes me a week to read a book. I read this one in one day. I cancelled a business meeting and missed a flight in order to finish it. I called my wife and friends. I bought copies for my clients who I've been trying to explain this "internet thing" to for months. And when I closed my own book, I let out a long breath that I had been holding for weeks. As a national community, we're twisting and turning, frustrated and wringing our hands for relief... but of what? Why are we going crazy? Why is everyone in this country running around on antidepressants and prepackaged God-speak and Reality TV? We're chasing after personal growth and renewal - we're getting massaged and eating out more than ever before in history, but we don't find any relief. The theme of the Dean campaign gave us a glimpse of what we seek. The relief that we crave can only be fully understood in the moment of acquisition... the moment we realize that we have the power. The government of our own country is in our hands. The 1960's should have left a thumbprint, but our parents forgot to tell their children: YOU HAVE THE POWER. And for those of you who need to bottle up a little hope and take it with you to the office, the book reads like an action novel. Thanks, Joe. Take leadership. America is listening ? and you have work to do. ~Ian Bryan, www.sensiblecity.com

I'm an insomniac, but it's rare for me to give up the 3 or 4 hours of sleep I am able to get in a night. Reading this book kept me up until the sun came up. Trippi's writing style is almost conversational and if you paid attention to the Dean campaign, you can almost hear his voice in your head while reading the book.It was a glorious, painful, and hopeful read, reliving some the incredible highs and incredible lows of the Dean campaign. I started following Dean online before Trippi was the campaign manager, so the book was full of nostalgia, but also some interesting nuggets of the "inside story." The book is not a tell-all, but talks frankly about mistakes, both Trippi's and the campaign's, and what could have been.Trippi follows the campaign from start to his stepping down as campaign manager, and the crash and burn is painful to remember for all of us. But just when the book reaches its lowest point, Joe "You gotta' believe" Trippi reminds us that we changed everything. And the Dean campaign wasn't a 10-second scream of an ending, it was a beginning of a movement to take politics away from the TV set and bring it back to our communities. The book ends on a positive note that rekindles the spirit and makes me think that next time, we'll succeed.