Book excerpt: Americans are not living as well as the citizens of the world's wealthiest and most powerful nation should. Part of the reason: their government has been hijacked by the right third of the political spectrum. Why? After all, the American left — Democrats, Greens and political movements from environmentalism and animal rights to those who oppose unfettered free trade — should by all rights enjoy majority, mainstream status. Eighty percent of Americans are "regular people," people who make less than $100,000 a year. A plurality of registered voters are Democrats. Despite this seemingly intrinsic advantage, there hasn't been a "real" Democrat in the White House since Lyndon Johnson. But Democrats, as Will Rogers famously observed, don't belong to an organized political party—right-wingers from Genghis Khan to Adolf Hitler have always been better at getting things done. The GOP has talk radio, Fox News and Clear Channel Communications on its side. The obvious solution to the current crisis of power is the reconstitution of a strong, viable American left centered around an effective Democratic Party.This book is dedicated to the prospect that the left will, and must, rise again.