This work is a comprehensive introduction to the most important issues facing American citizens and their government. It addresses various interpretations of the proper role of government with a view towards the Democrats re-working of such integral issues as: - States' rights - Societal affluence and social needs - Campaign finance reform - Media Consolidation - America's climbing debt ceiling - China's military and political expansion - Manufacturing's decline - Job outsourcing - The disappearance of pension plans - The whittling away of America's middle class - America's inadequate health care system - Environmental degradation - America's vanishing family farms