11/11/2019
Grassroots organizer and Nebraska Democratic Party chair Kleeb debuts with a savvy political strategy guide for Democrats looking to make inroads in rural communities that typically vote Republican. Noting that liberals and rural voters can find common ground on such issues as Medicare and Medicaid expansion, fighting climate change, and “end eminent domain for private gain,” Kleeb suggests that Democrats can have success simply by showing up to rural towns and asking locals what’s important to them. She also offers advice on how to respectfully agree to disagree on issues including guns, abortion, and immigration. Kleeb cites FDR’s New Deal and the 1980s farm crisis as moments when urban Democrats advocated for rural communities, but her most inspiring example is the campaign to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. National environmental groups, farmers, and Native Americans worked together, Kleeb writes, in a “David versus Goliath battle” that led to the Obama administration’s 2015 rejection of the pipeline proposal. Kleeb’s account is somewhat repetitive and might have worked just as well as a long-form essay; nevertheless, her advice is cogent and well-supported by both history and personal experience. Democrats hoping to win in the next election would be wise to take note. (Jan.)
[Kleeb’s] overarching message often transcends political party. . . The book contains twin delights: Kleeb's sensible approaches to bridge building and a pleasing, conversational writing style. — Kirkus Reviews
“Jane Kleeb sounds the alarm for national Democrats to wake up to rural issues: start with ‘the Farmers’ Bill of Rights,’ pay attention to rural health care, especially mental health services, as Republican policies have closed rural hospitals. ‘Show up with ears open and mouths closed.’ That’s the way to win and that’s the way to govern.” — Sherrod Brown, U.S. Senator from Ohio
“Deeply personal and persuasive, Harvest the Vote shows progressives that we don’t have to sacrifice our values to expand our coalition. Jane proves that rural issues aren’t any different from the issues confronting people all over the country, and require a national effort that includes Americans from every region and walk of life.” — Jon Favreau, co-host Pod Save America
Only Jane Kleeb could have written something so passionate, clear-eyed, and persuasive. The solutions are exactly what we must do to put the needs of all working families first as we reform the Democratic Party. As progressives, we need to show up and stand with them. — Nina Turner, former state senator from Ohio, and co-founder of Our Revolution
“There is no finer rural political leader in America than Jane Kleeb, and this cogent and comprehensive volume distills the wisdom she’s won in one hard battle after another. I’ve spent most of my life living in rural America, often in very ‘red’ parts, and I share her sense that these can be sources of real power for a progressive realignment, if only we get to work!” — Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy and The End of Nature
“Jane Kleeb knows Democrats have solutions that will help families no matter where they live. What I learned through organizing in Indian Country is that one-on-one conversations matter, and people in underrepresented communities need to know that our democracy includes them.” — Deb Haaland, U.S. Congresswoman from New Mexico
Deeply personal and persuasive, Harvest the Vote shows progressives that we don’t have to sacrifice our values to expand our coalition. Jane proves that rural issues aren’t any different from the issues confronting people all over the country, and require a national effort that includes Americans from every region and walk of life.”
Jane Kleeb sounds the alarm for national Democrats to wake up to rural issues: start with ‘the Farmers’ Bill of Rights,’ pay attention to rural health care, especially mental health services, as Republican policies have closed rural hospitals. ‘Show up with ears open and mouths closed.’ That’s the way to win and that’s the way to govern.
There is no finer rural political leader in America than Jane Kleeb, and this cogent and comprehensive volume distills the wisdom she’s won in one hard battle after another. I’ve spent most of my life living in rural America, often in very ‘red’ parts, and I share her sense that these can be sources of real power for a progressive realignment, if only we get to work!
Only Jane Kleeb could have written something so passionate, clear-eyed, and persuasive. The solutions are exactly what we must do to put the needs of all working families first as we reform the Democratic Party. As progressives, we need to show up and stand with them.
Jane Kleeb knows Democrats have solutions that will help families no matter where they live. What I learned through organizing in Indian Country is that one-on-one conversations matter, and people in underrepresented communities need to know that our democracy includes them.
2019-10-21
A grassroots Democratic organizer suggests how rural and urban voters can find common ground on a variety of issues and perhaps wrest elective offices from the Republican Party.
Though Kleeb's extended essay is candidly partisan, her overarching message often transcends political party and approaches why-can't-we-all-just-get-along territory. "At my core…is a desire," she writes, "more than anything, to have our country work for everyone, not just for a few people at the top." Using her personal life as an example in numerous extended passages, the author discloses how she morphed from someone who knew nothing about farming or ranching or Native American tribal land to someone happily married to a Nebraska man, living enthusiastically in a rural sector of the country. Currently, Kleeb is the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and founder of Bold Nebraska, a "grassroots advocacy group" that welcomes not just Democrats, but also Republicans, Independents, and even nonvoters. The author expresses alarm that outside of Nebraska, few federal policymakers understand the lives and challenges of farmers and ranchers. She illuminates how farmers of all political persuasions pulled together in the 1980s to descend on Washington, D.C., by way of a tractor brigade, which resulted in new legislation and government regulations ameliorating a farm crisis. Today, however, only one U.S. senator is an active farmer back home: Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat. As Kleeb notes, while helping organize rural residents against the massive Keystone XL energy pipeline project, she found common ground among unlikely allies. She wants to build similar alliances to bridge an urban-rural divide on other issues, including affordable health care, the abuse of eminent domain land grabs to undergird deleterious corporate projects, the looming extinctions of climate change, sensible gun control, and much more.
The book contains twin delights: Kleeb's sensible approaches to bridge building and a pleasing, conversational writing style.
