"Had Enough? : A Handbook for Fighting Back" was Carville's guide for Democrats heading into the 2004 election. Amazon.com talked me into buying the book before November 2nd, but I didn't get around to reading it until afterwards. While that might seem like bad timing, the election was actually lost a few years earlier. The biggest lesson out of 2004 is that the party needs to build a wider infrastructure. If you have 1,000 motivated Democratic volunteers in Texas, sending them to Ohio to campaign for a candidate is not effective. You need to get your 1,000 Ohio volunteers from Ohio, talking to their friends and coworkers. The Republicans had organization to get their supporters, be they Klansmen, Nazis, or Crusaders to the polls.

Carville discusses ten central issues including homeland security, the budget deficit, the Bush tax cuts, education, energy independence, health care, and tort reform amongst others. For each topic James presents the issue in detail, then the Bush position, and finally a strong Democratic position. He is careful to provide responses that represent being FOR something rather than just against a Republican plan. Most of the points Carville makes are still valid, namely because the Bush plan to trash America hasn't changed since Karl Rove conceived it in 1998. In fact two of the issues, Tort Reform and Social Security, are at the forefront of political discourse as I write.

On Tort Reform he talks about the fact that almost everyone has heard an anecdotal story about excessive jury awards. And most have heard (true) news stories about skyrocketing malpractice insurance rates. The Republicans say the increases are due to large jury awards. But that isn't true, premiums are increasing at a rate far outpacing corresponding pay-outs. The insurance industry is simply pocketing more and more cash. In addition, states that have enacted caps haven't reduced insurance rates. Carville suggests making malpractice information on doctors public and using the "market" to remove dangerous ones. But since insurance companies give large quantities of money to the Republicans, Bush supports the industry and not injured Americans.

On Social Security Carville talks about the same 2018, 2042 dates as the administration for failing to meet benefit obligations. Unlike Bush who proposed a "reform" plan that did absolutely nothing to make Social Security solvent, James presents a three point plan:

• Raising the cutoff for taxation.
• Scaling back the indexing of benefits (not using the CPI).
• Investing Social Security Trust Fund dollars.

The first point is the most obvious since the current limit (taxing only the first $90K of wages) makes FICA a regressive instead of a flat tax. Republicans have already said they will never do this because they have no interest in saving Social Security. Their prime objective is to have poor people die young. I remember learning that the Consumer Price Index runs a little higher than the actual cost of living back in the High School. Many federal benefits, including Social Security, are indexed to the CPI. Using an alternate method would fix a large percentage of the problem. On the last item I have to disagree with Carville. With the Bush Crime League in power you can't expect a government agency to invest public dollars based purely on economic factors. Any such organization would be pressured to invest in the Enron-like ventures of Republican contributors.

I recommend reading the book as guide for 2006 rather than the 2004 election for which it was originally written. Kerry and the Democratic Party never did a good job of clearly presenting themselves as being FOR something. They allowed themselves to be placed in a defensive stance too many times. They also believed surveys that said "swing" voters didn't like negative ads, when reality proved the Karl Rove class of evil pays off in America.
Unless you want to return to the days of Lords and Serfs, you need to participate in grass roots organizations. That can be the Democratic Party or some other organization of your choosing. Only strong organizations in every state are going to stem the tide of Republican destruction.