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"Blue Grit is both a love letter and a wake-up call. Like Diogenes in search of an honest man, Flanders travels the country looking for the soul of the Democratic Party. She finds it not among the Sunday morning talking heads or the national party leaders, but in places like Utah, South Dakota, Mississippi and southern Ohio–places where liberal Democrats have grown victorious candidates in less-than-fertile soil. These are the Democrats with blue grit, the ones who understand that "to change people's minds, you have to stir things up. You have to really pick a fight, not pick at it, squirm and flinch...I'll say this: anyone who can have her book blurbed by Fran Lebowitz, Chuck D and Richard Viguerie knows something about building a political party."

Matt Rothschild interviews Laura Flanders about Blue Grit.

Available for download.

Description: Laura Flanders talks about what the Democratic Party needs to do to revive itself. She argues that instead of rushing to the center, Democracts would do well to embrace those on the progressive side of the party. She spoke at Olsson's Books and Records in Washington, DC.