Storming the Gates: Protest Politics and the Republican Revival

Synopsis

Two years after voters drove George Bush from the White House, the Republican party rode a wave of antigovernment sentiment and disappointment with President Clinton to capture Congress for the first time in forty years. In Storming the Gates, seasoned political reporter Dan Balz and Ronald Brownstein take us inside this climactic GOP victory and reveal with fresh insights how the assault on sixty years of Democratic governance and domestic programs turned out and its impact on the struggle for power in the 1996 elections. Who are these new Republicans, and how did they revive themselves so quickly after Bush's defeat? What are their prospects for consolidating their electoral success of 1994 into a lasting victory that could permanently realign politics into the next century?

After 40 years in the minority, the GOP is poised to ride a wave of antigovernment sentiment all the way to the White House. Who are these Republicans, and how did they capitalize on the current conservative grassroots movements? Two seasoned correspondents put the new politics of protest in context--and explain the immediate future consequences for America.