Despite Americans’ belief that the United States is immune to the deprivations of austerity, the country is actually only a few bad elections away from a radical right-wing leadership, John Nichols declares, and its agenda could devastate many American lives through cuts to social programs and spending. Nichols elaborates on how and why Americans cannot be complacent and instead must fight to take back democracy, beginning, but not ending, with elections.

—Elizabeth Whitman