"The 2004 presidential election has the potential to be one of the most important in decades. Every fundamental question of national values and national policy is up for debate. . . . Ron Hirsch's We Still Hold These Truths is a systematic and serious effort to make that debate as clear and valuable as it can be. . . . The questions he is asking are the right ones for the public this year." —James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic

As the country heads towards the 2008 election, the message of "We Still Hold These Truths" is of even greater importance than in 2004. For during the past four years, the Bush administration has moved to solidify the ascendancy of radical conservative thinking in all policy areas and in the courts.

Our nation stands at a crossroad. The radical Republican conservative movement seeks to fundamentally alter the balance that our system has struck between private rights, the public good, and government. Personal freedoms have been restricted while big business/industrial/financial interests have been promoted at the expense of the public good. At risk is the heart of our democracy, our historic values. The Democratic Party must fight to save it and take back the presidency in 2008. We must restore government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Using the Declaration of Independence as a touchstone, "We Still Hold These Truths" examines nine key areas of domestic and foreign policy to define "an American manifesto," a positive vision for the Democratic Party that will resonate with mainstream America and the policy positions that flow from that vision. It reclaims the moral and spiritual bona fides of the Democratic Party. And it shows why the direction of the Bush administration and the radical Republican conservatives is destructive of our historic values.