Based on the premiss that the US, in the past two decades, has been in the midst of an economic-social-cultural transformation in which the middle class has paid a heavy price, this volume envisions a drastic "Jeffersonian" revolution. It proposes a fundamental shift toward economic nationalism and the basic political reconstruction that will enable it. The book postulates that major reform will be necessary. In the light of an unresponsive political system, the only way to enact an economic nationalist programme is to make major issues subject to popular decision, firmly restrict campaign funding, open elections to multiple political parties and proportional voting, and make direct and issue-based democracy possible for the first time. The authors offer a set of solutions that they feel will enable middle Americans to take back their governments and make them work for the public interest again.