I've finally got around to reading Brock's book... more on it tomorrow. Right now though, I'd like to refer to a commentary on it in TAP online, and this relevant passage:

Now, however, the right has discovered that its extreme ideological postures -- social Darwinism, market fundamentalism, government in the bedroom -- are out of step with the values and views of most Americans. So its politics have become even more poisonous and personal, a politics of scandal rather than ideas (a prime example of which is the demonization of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle). Its tactics are more brutish; its contempt for Americans -- and thus its willingness to lie and distort -- more pervasive. But until progressives develop the institutions and the arrangements needed simply to get into the debate -- to be able to present ideas, broadcast them, echo them, and defend them against the assault from the right -- our politics will be driven and degraded by the institutional forces Brock describes.

As I said, more tomorrow.