Resisting Reagan: Liberal Strategies in a Conservative Age

A fresh assessment of how liberal organizers, activists, and politicians creatively rebuilt the Democratic Party's coalition, messaging, and strategies to find success during the Reagan Revolution.“Liberalism is at a crossroads.It will either evolve to meet the issues of the 1980s or it will be reduced to an interesting topic for Ph.D.-writing historians.” So stated the young Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas in June 1980 in the keynote address before the liberal organization Americans for Democratic Action.Tsongas’s statement was a bracing critique of the liberal establishment and a call to creative action in the face of the new economic, social, and political realities that had engulfed the country since the 1960s.While liberal leadership failed to pivot enough to maintain the presidency-many were shocked by and dismissive toward Tsongas’s message-Ronald Reagan’s election forced Democrats to change their approach. According to a widespread consensus, the country during the Reagan er