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It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism Paperback – April 5, 2016
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- Print length272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBasic Books
- Publication dateApril 5, 2016
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100465096204
- ISBN-13978-0465096206
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About the Author
Norman J. Ornstein is Resident Scholar the American Enterprise Institute and a contributing editor and columnist for National Journal and the Atlantic.
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- Publisher : Basic Books; Expanded edition (April 5, 2016)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0465096204
- ISBN-13 : 978-0465096206
- Item Weight : 9 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #732,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #444 in Political Parties (Books)
- #903 in Democracy (Books)
- #1,604 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism
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“It’s Even Worse Than It Looks" is an excellent book that clarifies clearly the source of dysfunctional politics in America and what will it take to change it. Most books do a very good job of describing what ills our political system but very few excel at providing sensible recommendations like this book does. The astute analysis provides recommendations that go from the practical to a political utopia. This first-rate 274-page book includes the following seven chapters: 1. The New Politics of Hostage Taking, 2. The Seeds of Dysfunction, 3. Beyond the Debt Ceiling Fiasco, 4. Bromides to Avoid, 5. Fixing the Party System, 6. Reforming U.S. Political Institutions, and 7. Navigating the Current System.
Positives:
1. Well-researched and well-written book that is accessible to the masses. The authors provide a credible and well substantiated case for their observations and conclusions.
2. The authors come from opposing political backgrounds that give the book credibility by reaching consensus on what is causing dysfunction in American politics.
3. It’s about getting to what more closely relates to reality than what is perceived to be fair and balanced. “We were told this part of our book was discussed in a number of newsrooms and provided ammunition to journalists often frustrated by the insistence of producers and editors that they give precedence to fairness and balance over reality and truth.”
4. An excellent and logical format. The first part of the book focuses on the problem while the second half on the solution.
5. An excellent Preface that captures the sentiment of this book best captured by the most enduring quote, “The Republican Party has become an insurgent outlier—ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.”
6. An interesting look book at recent political history. The authors do a wonderful job of capturing as accurately as possible the chain of events based on the best information they were able to obtain based on their expertise in political science.
7. Bold conclusions backed by supporting arguments. “Republicans greeted the new president with a unified strategy of opposing, obstructing, discrediting, and nullifying every one of his important initiatives.” “Never before have cosponsors of a major bill conspired to kill their own idea, in an almost Alice-in-Wonderland fashion. Why did they do so? Because President Barack Obama was for it, and its passage might gain him political credit.”
8. The two sources of dysfunction identified. “The first is the serious mismatch between the political parties, which have become as vehemently adversarial as parliamentary parties, and a governing system that, unlike a parliamentary democracy, makes it extremely difficult for majorities to act. Parliamentary-style parties in a separation-of-powers government are a formula for willful obstruction and policy irresolution.” “The second is the fact that, however awkward it may be for the traditional press and nonpartisan analysts to acknowledge, one of the two major parties, the Republican Party, has become an insurgent outlier…”
9. The rise of the “Young Guns” and the politics of uncompromising conservative politics. Many great examples of their influence, “But, as Mike Allen of Politico revealed at the time: A Senate Republican leadership aide e-mails with subject line ‘Gang of Six’: Background guidance: The President killed any chance of its success by 1) Embracing it. 2) Hailing the fact that it increases taxes. 3) Saying it mirrors his own plan.” Excellent stuff!
10. Points that cut to the chase. “Partisan polarization is undeniably the central and most problematic feature of contemporary American politics.”
11. Interesting observations. “Since the late 1970s, Republicans have moved much more sharply in a conservative direction than did Democrats in a liberal direction.”
12. Some mind-blowing facts. “On Memorial Day, 2002, during George W. Bush’s administration, thirteen nominations were pending on the executive calendar. Eight years later, under Obama, the number was 108.”
13. Sensible and fair recommendations, “Bringing the Republican Party back into the mainstream of American politics and policy and return to a more regular, problem-solving orientation for both parties would go a long way toward reducing the dysfunctionality of American politics.”
14. Interesting section on actions to avoid (bromides).
15. Three avenues of electoral reform. “The first is to moderate politics by expanding the electorate. The second is to reduce the presumed bias against moderate voters and candidates by altering how votes in the election are converted into seats in government. The third avenue of electoral reform seeks to break the polarizing dynamic of the parties through changes in campaign fund-raising and spending rules and practices.”
16. Interesting suggestions that resonate. “A better and stronger reform would be to require forty-one votes to continue the debate, not sixty votes to end the debate, putting the burden squarely on the minority where it belongs.”
17. The need to restore public shame, agreed. “The country needs the remaining (if dwindling) opinion leaders from institutions like the military, churches, universities, foundations, business, the media, and public life to outspokenly denounce those who profit from bombast and lies and to denounce equally the television and radio networks and the print outlets that give them airtime and web and print space, with the legitimacy that flows from them.”
18. The politics of dysfunction reaches the absurd. “In the debate over health reform, some ideas that had originally come from Republicans and conservatives were trashed simply because Obama and Democrats had embraced them.”
19. Includes an afterword that addresses the election of 2012 and its aftermath.
20. Links to notes.
Negatives:
1. The main message is repeated almost to a fault but you won’t leave with any doubts with what the authors are espousing here.
2. Failed to explain in detail how Parliamentary Politics works. I can reach conclusions based on context but the suggestion merited a separate appendix. It would have kept it from affecting the excellent flow of the book.
3. To my surprise the authors did not address the religious right aspect of the extreme right.
4. No formal bibliography.
In summary, this turned out to be one of my favorite political books of the year. It covers the subject of dysfunction in the government with mastery and it does so in a succinct and lucid fashion. I commend the authors for providing the public with a much needed book on such a divisive topic and for giving it the realistic treatment that it demanded. The authors provided many good practical suggestions; excellent work gentlemen. I highly recommend it!
Further suggestions: "When the Tea Party Came to Town: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives' Most Combative, Dysfunctional, and Infuriating Term in Modern History" by Robert Draper, “Rule and Ruin” by Geoffrey Kabaservice, “That’s Not What They Meant!” by Michael Austin, "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" and "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class - And What We Can Do about It)" by Thom Hartmann, “The Republican Brain” by Chris Mooney, “American Fascists” by Chris Hedges, “Blowing Smoke” by Michael Wolraich, "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future" by Robert B. Reich, “Act of Congress” by Robert G. Kaiser, "War on the Middle Class" by Lou Dobbs, and "Winner-Take-All Politics" by Jacob S. Hacker & Paul Pierson.
In It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism the authors- one from the Brookings Institute, a respected left or center-left think tank and one from the American Enterprise Institute, a respected conservative think tank, take on not only why our system is so broken but lay out some possible solutions to the problem.
The book focuses on the gridlock in Congress. Obviously, we have a strong two party system. When I say strong, I mean as in each party is well defined. One more so than the other. Again, I think most people would agree that Democrats and Republicans are not working well together. But, why is it that they can no longer seem to agree on the most simple or obvious things? Because we are so deeply divided as a country, it seems any analysis has to lay equal blame on both parties to not be declared "partisan" by the other side. The authors of this book go out on a limb to try to call it as they see it. Their conclusion is that one side has veered far away from the center and is dug in- unwilling to compromise on anything and is using the rules (particularly those of the Senate) to make sure it's their way or the highway.
The authors know the dangers of their conclusion and despite saying several times in the book that for us to break this impasse, we have to start by the public and the media and more moderate members of the Republican Party start just calling it as they see it, the authors are very careful to point out the Democrats' contributions to the problem. It's as if they're trying to keep the book balanced, even though they acknowledge the problem is not equal on both sides. For example:
We have noted, for example, that Democrats' arrogance and condescension toward the minority over their forty years of majority reign contributed in no small measure to the Republican takeover of the House in 1994, and we criticized the Democrats for their departures from the regular order during their renewed majority status after 2006.
However, the authors are so bold as to point out the problem is asymmetrical and are calling on others to do the same.
A balanced treatment of an unbalanced phenomenon is a distortion of reality and a disservice to your consumers. A prominent Washington Post reporter sanctimoniously told us that the Post is dedicated to presenting both sides of the story. In our view, the Post and other important media should report the truth. Both sides in politics are no more necessarily equally responsible than a hit-and-run driver and a victim; reporters don't treat them as equivalent, and neither should they reflexively treat the parties that way.
The book covers the recent history of how we got to this place, gives examples of the problem in action in Congress and lays out some possible solutions- some that would have to come from within government itself (I'm not hopeful about that one), some that are way too blue-sky, but some that we the people might actually be able to do. Of course, the authors assume that we want a working government and most of their suggestions seem to lean toward getting more "moderates" in office. There are some people (hopefully not many) who like things the way they are. They want more extremists in government and have no problem with a little short term pain (like a downgrade in our credit rating) for long term gain (making Obama a one term President). Mitch McConnell- "Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term".
I think one of the problems with this book will be getting the people who need to read it to read it. Democrats and Liberals will have no problem saying "It's Republicans who are the problem" and will snatch it up- nodding their heads most of the way through. Independents might think "Well, I don't want to read a book that just blames one side. I'd rather read a book that takes a more 'balanced' approach". I think most Republicans will reject the book out-of-hand before even picking it up.
I was accused of reading this book just to reinforce my own biases. Interestingly enough that was by a guy who doesn't even know me. He read my one sentence comment I posted from my Kindle the night I finished the book. I said: "Unfortunately, I think our country is probably already too divided to benefit from it." The guy who criticized me (after that one sentence summary) read the summary on Amazon and concluded it was an "unbalanced" (my word) book and seems to have rejected it the way I would anticipate most conservatives will. That makes me sad. I only hope that moderate Republicans will come to their senses and take their party back, for all our sakes. I don't want to destroy the Republican Party.
If you need evidence of how skewed the Republican Party has become, there's plenty in the book. But, without looking at the book, look at the demographics. In the last Presidential election 95% of the African-American vote went to the Democrat. In the election before that, it was 88%. Mitt Romney is polling near 0% for African-American voters. Latinos are expected to go for Barack Obama something like 70/30 or possibly even 80/20 in November. Lindsey Graham (a prominent Republican) recently said: "The demographics race we're losing badly. [sic] We're not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.". Some Republicans are beginning to recognize they're not playing a smart long-term game. That's reason for hope.
The intent of this book, I believe is not to bash the Republican Party or to marginalize it any more than it is marginalizing itself, the purpose is to restore our two party system to one with more balance and one that can effectively govern. That can't happen when one party is going off the rails, particularly with the rules we have in the Senate that effectively allows the minority party to take the whole country hostage.
Overall, I give the book 4 stars out of 5. Some of the solutions given are just to impractical to be worth giving much consideration and, even though it's short, it went into a bit too much detail for someone not really into political science. It should, however, be required reading for anyone in Congress.