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The reviewer seems to want a different book than the one Armstrong & Zuniga wrote, but when evaluated on it's terms, Crashing the Gate is notably successful at accomplishing what it sets out to do. And that is to diagnose the systemic problems with the Democratic party as it now exists.
As Molly Ivins is known to say, the first rule of holes is to stop digging... and it's not only useful, but crucial for the Democratic party to take stock of itself, and why it is out of power. There's no point in putting a full tank of gas in a car with a broken transmission: similarly, the discussion of strategy and tactics for crafting a new Democratic party message isn't going anywhere until some root problems are acknowledged and addressed.
Armstrong & Zuniga have identified a number of ways that the Democratic party has institutionalized practices that render it ineffective and unsuited to supporting and advancing a political agenda, regardless of what that might be.
And that's why Crashing the Gate is an important book. It may be the case that the problems with the Democratic Party are structural rather than ideological, and that by tending to its long neglected local organization, i.e. the grassroots, and by rebuilding a networked party infrastructure abandoned in the flush of a fascination with mass media, the Democrats may find that their core values still resonate with the American people... once they actually are able to effectively reach them.
