Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy

In a provocative, thoughtful manifesto, Rolling Stone national editor Greider charges that America's two major political parties, unions, the press and mass media no longer mediate between citizens and the powerful moneyed elites that control the political process. The result of this collective failure, he asserts, is a near-total breakdown of democracy. With hard-edged reporting, Greider shows how concerned citizens are regularly excluded from a meaningful political voice through deceptive laws drafted on behalf of vested interests, manipulation by big corporations, a money-driven campaign system and Washington's permissive web of regulatory bargaining and deal-making. Using the savings-and-loan debacle as a case in point, he argues that the self-correcting mechanisms of our political system no longer work. Greider gives credit to grassroots activists but calls for a national resuscitation of democratic dialogue that goes beyond special pleading. His compelling inquiry is especially timely in an election year. Author tour. (May)