Join AK Press authors Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank discuss their new book, Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland.

Media pundits and political strategists have painted the United States as a two-toned nation. If your state is decorated in a blue or red hue then you, your friends, families, and neighbors must fit neatly into the "liberal" or "conservative" category. Fortunately for those of us in the real world, politics and electoralism are not synonymous, and we see things in full color. Combing alleged "red states" for signs of life, Joshua Frank and Jeffrey St. Clair found that the ballot box is no barometer of social pressure.

The rebels they encountered come from places we don't associate with political struggle. They fight the good fight whether or not it makes the news- because their lives and livelihood depend on it. We're talking populist ranchers, marijuana activists, anti-capitalists, farmers, Native American revolutionaries, antiracist activists, pro-choice crusaders, and environmentalists. Red State Rebels reminds us that the heart of the nation beats within all of us: not just in the (red or blue) clowns in Washington.

Joshua Frank was born and raised in Montana. He is the author of Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush. His investigative reports and columns appear in CounterPunch, Chicago Sun-Times, CommonDreams.org, and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. Jeffrey St. Clair was born and raised in Indiana. He is co-editor of CounterPunch, and the author of Born Under a Bad Sky.