Are You a Liberal?
Ever wondered whether you are a conservative or liberal? Well, stop wondering and take this quiz at Qzilla to find out.If it turns out you ARE a Liberal, you might want to visit LeftyBlogs.com, a compendium of 1800 liberal blogs from all fifty States, like Psychobilly Democrat and Blue Mass Group. This site can connect you to a liberal blogger near you. Great for getting the in touch with the left side of local elections and issue in your region.
Regardless of your political leanings -
DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!
Why should you vote?
Because the privilege of an American Citizen to vote is the right that defines our democracy.
By exercising this fundamental right, we protect all the other rights of our constitution. The vote is an expression of equality, neither wealth nor fame or power can make one person’s vote count more than another person’s vote.
Yet many potential voters say, “My vote doesn’t count and it doesn’t directly effect my life." WRONG! Every vote DOES count.
Every voter has the opportunity to make personal decisions and influence the future. Although many election contests are won by comfortable margins, some have been so close that a single vote has made the difference. Some notable decisions resulting from a single vote include:
Voting is the way to tell politicians and government officials what is important to us. The members of congress and judges we elect influence all aspects of our lives. Here are some very practical reasons to vote on election day:
(Adapted from League of Women Voters materials.)
If you're not already registered to vote, a downloadable PDF national voter application is available here.
For a persuasive, Hollywood-style look at democracy check out DeclareYourself.com, one the hipper efforts to encourage voter registration and participation, complete with celebrity videos including a reading of the Declaration of Independence by a troupe of actors including Mel Gibson, Michael Douglas, and Renee Zellweger.
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Feature
Proud To Be a Liberal Publisher
A conversation with IG Publishing's Robert Lasner
Like many small presses, Ig Publishing was originally launched to publish its founder’s first novel. But when the book took off (selling 6,000 copies the first year) and landed a distributor, author Robert Lasner and his wife and co-founder Elizabeth Clementson realized they were really in the publishing business – and they’ve never looked back.“When we didn’t know anything about publishing, it was easy,” said Lasner in a 2005 Publishers Weekly interview. “Now the more we learn, the harder it gets.” A look at the Brooklyn, N.Y.–based press’ offerings and one immediately sees they’re not afraid to tackle the tough publishing topics. Their books deal mainly with three hot-button issues: Sex, Booze, and Politics.
As interesting as all three might be, it’s Election Season, so we decided to cover the area where Ig Publishing is really making a splash. Their Proud To Be Liberal, a defiant political anthology featuring contributors like Will Durst, Maud Newton, Neal Pollack, and David Rees caused a big stir early this year. They followed that with Confessions of a Former Dittohead, about the political transformation of author Jim Derych from a right-wing Rush Limbaugh "dittohead" to a liberal Democrat blogger.
Ig may have found a niche in turning political blogs into books—it has three more in the works--and it’s easy to see the attraction. Author-bloggers are generally prolific writers with good journalistic sensibilities--and they come with a ready audience—an important factor in marketing for an independent press with limited promotional budgets.
The win-win for authors in choosing such a small press is the speed of publication—Lasner says he can bring a book from contract signing to store shelves in less than a year.
As a staunch liberal himself, Lasner is thrilled to be in the middle of a publishing movement that is helping turn “regular people into activists and authors and giving them the power to fight back."
We asked him about the blog-to-book movement and the role of books in the American political process.
IP: Can authors and publishers change the world one book at a time? Can they change voter's minds?
RL: Over the past few years we have seen the rise of what is called the “netroots,” or the liberal/progressive blogosphere, fueled by websites like Daily Kos. In addition to being a force for political change, the netroots has also allowed ordinary people to become an important part of the political process again, after years of declining voter participation.
As a liberal political press, we have been very fortunate to be able to tap into this movement. Our first “netroots” title was a book called Confessions of a Former Dittohead, the story of one man’s transformation from a Rush Limbaugh “dittohead” into a liberal democrat. The book started out as a diary on Daily Kos, as the author, Jim Derych, wanted to share his personal and political transformation with the world. Now, because of the book, Jim is a published author and a mini-celebrity in the blogosphere.
What kinds of books, what kinds of voices, can bring about change?
Just like the grassroots movements of the Right, which manifested themselves in the 1980s and 1990s through talk radio and fueled the eventual Republican takeover of the government, we feel that the netroots will be the primary force behind what we hope will be a liberal takeover of the government. That is the main reason why we published our anthology, Proud To Be Liberal, as we were ashamed that the Left had allowed the Right to turn “Liberal” into a dirty word. Proud To Be Liberal, which featured contributions from Steve Almond, Eric Alterman, Neal Pollack, David Rees, Tom Tomorrow and many others, was our attempt to take back the “L-word” from the clutches of the Right.
Similarly, we just released a book by legendary activist Tom Hayden called The Lost Gospel of the Earth: Revised and Updated, about the need for religion to become more active in the environmental movement. Tom has been to trying to change the world for over forty years now, and it is exciting to be able to publish a book from someone with that kind of track record alongside our blog authors.
How can books and publishing evolve to play a more effective role in political discourse?
By being part of that discourse. One of the reasons we enjoy doing our “blog books” is that they are written by real people, about real issues. The books that emerge out of the blogosphere reflect the experiences of regular people living real life, and, as a result, their ideas reflect the realities of everyday life, which makes their books much more powerful. These people are activists, dedicated to changing the status quo and making themselves heard as part of the national discourse. For example, two of the books that we are publishing next year—Moving A Nation to Care, about post-traumatic stress disorder in our returning combat troops, and Steeplejacking, about how the Christian right is hijacking mainstream religion—reflect important issues that real people are dealing with, and it is our hope that both of these titles will have a positive effect on the issues they discuss.
As a publisher, how do you reach non-readers -- and non-voters?
Working with an author’s established audience is the best way to reach those who aren’t active readers. Some of our “blog” authors have been working for years to build an audience that is interested in their ideas. While this audience might not necessarily be “readers,” they are active supporters of the author and the cause, and will buy the book based on this interest. We saw this with Confessions Of A Former Dittohead, as fans of Jim’s original diaries on Daily Kos helped to establish a word of mouth following and create a buzz around the book.
How important is it for your authors to have an online presence?
For our political books, it is essential, as that is where the initial audience for the book is, As far as our novelists are concerned, an online presence is not as vital; it is more important for them to have relationships with other authors and a track record within the literary community.
How has blogging affected the nature of author platforms?
Blogging has helped authors develop followings before their books are even published. The authors of Steeplejacking and Moving A Nation to Care have both had an online presence for over a year, and one of our other 2007 authors, Jeffrey Feldman, who is writing a book called Framing The Debate, about political framing, has a very popular website called Frameshop. While all three of these titles are from first-time authors, which is usually a hard sell in publishing, because each author has a strong online presence, when their books are released we won’t have to start marketing from scratch, as the online audience becomes a ready made audience for the book. In the case of blog books, you are publishing a book from a first-time author who already has thousands of fans.
How is Proud to Be Liberal doing?
Proud to be Liberal received an amazing reception. We got prominent bookstore placement (Barnes and Noble choose it for a nationwide table-top display), and we were able to get our contributors on Air America, as well as on many local programs. However, the best—and funniest—thing was when the American Spectator, a hardcore conservative magazine, did a THREE-page “review” of Proud To Be Liberal (and Confessions of a Former Dittohead), in order to trash both books. We figured that if the “enemy” was paying attention to us, we must be doing something right.
How did being Liberal in America become a badge of shame?
Attacking liberals is not a new thing. In the 1960s liberals were referred to as "bleeding-hearts" to describe those who opposed the Vietnam War and favored government assistance for the poor. Although only one out of every five Americans currently identify themselves as liberal, a majority of Americans still support and believe in liberal programs, like Social Security. While Republicans have been popularizing name-calling in thirty-second sound bites, discussions about the issues have been pushed aside. And so, while we're distracted with hate rhetoric, conservatives have been able to advance their goals of rolling back the gains of the liberal movement.
Unfortunately, when the right was on the attack, the left retreated, refusing to stand up for themselves, their ideology, even their language. One of the reasons we are so attracted to the blogosphere is that they believe in fighting back and fighting back hard. That is why we published Proud To Be Liberal, as well as our other political books—to try to be part of that fight.
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Robert Lasner is editor-in-chief of Ig Publishing, co-editor of Proud To Be Liberal, and author of For Fucks Sake, "a semi–autobiographical novel about my experiences with love."
In an interview about being an independent publisher in MobyLives, Lasner said, "...you will be ignored by everyone—reviewers, other publishers, authors, booksellers. Distribution will solve the bookseller problem, and will help with the author and publisher problem, but the review situation will remain a 'long, hard slog.'"
About publishing "edgy" books: "Readers want something different. Launching Ig with For Fucks Sake turned out to be a brilliant move, as it gave our press an immediate, hard to forget, 'Oh, you're the press who published the fuck book' identity. Despite rumors to the contrary, big chains will place supportive orders for small press fiction. Borders ordered a thousand copies of For Fucks Sake, and displayed it in several stores. 'Nuff said."