Can America Govern Itself? brings together a diverse group of distinguished scholars to analyze how rising party polarization and economic inequality have affected the performance of American governing institutions. It is organized around two themes: the changing nature of representation in the United States; and how changes in the political environment have affected the internal processes of institutions, overall government performance, and policy outcomes. The chapters in this volume analyze concerns about power, influence and representation in American politics, the quality of deliberation and political communications, the management and implementation of public policy, and the performance of an eighteenth century constitution in today's polarized political environment. These renowned scholars provide a deeper and more systematic grasp of what is new, and what is perennial in challenges to democracy at a fraught moment.
An insightful series of essays portraying a plateau of disfunctioning attitudes emanating from both the government and citizens and resulting in the gradual deterioration of strength and unification of the USA. It delineates issues and conditions that I consider detrimental to the future positive growth of our country. Some of these matters consist of negative public attitudes and withdrawal from commitment to America, some regarding multiple governmental disfunctions, some regarding citizens' responsibility for voting. Some are attitude response to the business giants. Some are major legal infringement in the court system, some education disfunctions and misdirection of focus while applauding the charter school program. There are, in addition, a description of several positive initiatives that I have presented for the financial enhancement of the participants. There are additional essays relating to the massive expansion of the US military might, the crisis of the extreme divisiveness of political opinion, the deleterious effect of sanctuary city policies, the technical robotization of the average American and their communication and its negative effect on their live social interaction, the blatantly prejudicial news sources, the plan for the participation of major U.S. banks in the expansion of loans for middle class business growth. Reinitiating our core beliefs in creativity and excellence, the negativity associated with the demasculinization of the American male, the disintegration of morality, and freedom of speech issues. What is abundantly clear is that the only way that the country can survive is by making the citizenry clearly aware of the depth and severity of these conditions so that we can enforce changes, political and nonpolitical, in positively dealing with them. This book is intended to illuminate the background of such an effort.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A savvy guidebook for beating Trump’s tricks, traps, and tweets from a founder of The Lincoln Project, now updated with new material on the historic battle between Trump and Joe Biden—and how the pandemic has changed the race “If you believe America’s future depends on Donald Trump’s political machine being crushed at the polls next year, then Rick Wilson’s Running Against the Devil is a must-read.”—Joe Scarborough, MSNBC Donald Trump is exactly the disaster we feared for America. Hated by a majority of Americans, Trump’s administration is corrupt, inept, and rocked by daily scandals. In the handling of 2020’s coronavirus pandemic, its incompetence has been deadly. Trump can’t win in 2020, right? Wrong. As 2016 proved, Trump can’t win, but Joe Biden can sure as hell lose. Only one thing can save Trump, and that’s a Democratic campaign that runs the race Trump wants Democrats to run instead of the campaign they must run to win in 2020. Wilson combines decades of national political experience and insight in his take-noprisoners analysis, hammering Trump’s destructive and dangerous first term in a case-by-case takedown of the worst president in history and describing the terrifying prospect of four more years of Trump. Like no one else can, Wilson blows the lid off Trump’s 2020 political war machine, showing the exact strategies and tactics Republicans will use against Biden, and how the Democrats can avoid the catastrophes waiting for them if they fall into Trump’s traps. Running Against the Devil is sharply funny, brutally honest, and infused with Wilson’s biting commentary. It’s a vital indictment of Trump, a no-nonsense, no-holds-barred road map to saving America, and the guide to making Donald Trump a one-term president. The stakes are too high to do anything less.
Saving America from Itself is designed to arouse interest in reversing the many negative trends America has suffered since it reached a summit in global leadership, wealth, justice, culture, and influence in the world after World War II. It had not only become the champion of Western democracies and free market economies, but also the world leader in science, technology, health care, and many areas of culture. Yet after all these successes, America has now slid into a trance of self-delusion, often misplaced sense of grandeur and over-indulgence. A change can only come from within and hopefully will.
How popular democracy has paradoxically eroded trust in political systems worldwide, and how to restore confidence in democratic politics In recent decades, democracies across the world have adopted measures to increase popular involvement in political decisions. Parties have turned to primaries and local caucuses to select candidates; ballot initiatives and referenda allow citizens to enact laws directly; many places now use proportional representation, encouraging smaller, more specific parties rather than two dominant ones.Yet voters keep getting angrier.There is a steady erosion of trust in politicians, parties, and democratic institutions, culminating most recently in major populist victories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Frances Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro argue that devolving power to the grass roots is part of the problem. Efforts to decentralize political decision-making have made governments and especially political parties less effective and less able to address constituents’ long-term interests. They argue that to restore confidence in governance, we must restructure our political systems to restore power to the core institution of representative democracy: the political party.
This is like no book you have ever read. It is a series of short easy-to-read essays, a straight-talking, rabble-rousing, populist blast of kitchen table politics from visionary Christopher Judges. It is a "no-bullshit" book that cares deeply about the fate of regular people in an America gone mad. It takes off your blinders, opens your eyes and speaks directly to the heart of you, hammering home the need for each of us to be a citizen hero who demands real democracy and a prosocial society. This book is an incendiary treatise, a mental thunderbolt in everyday language that exposes the cause of our suffering and shows us how to create the cause of happiness.
A sobering account of a disenfranchised American working class and important policy solutions to the nation’s economic inequalities One of the country’s leading scholars on economics and social policy, Isabel Sawhill addresses the enormous divisions in American society—economic, cultural, and political—and what might be done to bridge them. Widening inequality and the loss of jobs to trade and technology has left a significant portion of the American workforce disenfranchised and skeptical of governments and corporations alike. And yet both have a role to play in improving the country for all. Sawhill argues for a policy agenda based on mainstream values, such as family, education, and work. While many have lost faith in government programs designed to help them, there are still trusted institutions on both the local and federal level that can deliver better job opportunities and higher wages to those who have been left behind. At the same time, the private sector needs to reexamine how it trains and rewards employees. This book provides a clear-headed and middle-way path to a better-functioning society in which personal responsibility is honored and inclusive capitalism and more broadly shared growth are once more the norm.
An even-tempered (if rather partisan) critique of the American soul as it exhibits itself on the different fronts of our culture war.'' Neuhaus (Unsecular America, 1986, etc.) traces the traumas of our social and political life back to their ontological roots and supplies a prognosis that will undoubtedly scandalize as many as it sways. A Catholic priest and scholar who presides over the Institute of Religion and Public Life, Neuhaus has concentrated his sociological efforts for some years now on the intersection between the political and the spiritual in American life. In doing so, he has run counter to prevailing notions of secularism--held only, he maintains, by an elite minority--that would, he says, collapse all religious impulses into an entirely private realm. Neuhaus skips over the more obvious examples of conflict--school prayer, Nativity scenes in public parks, etc.--and attempts in more theoretical terms to show that liberal democracy (in its American incarnation) requires a religious foundation if it is to succeed as a unifying social force. He draws on his experiences with the civil-rights movement to show how a religious vocabulary can be used--as it was by Martin Luther King--to bring together even the most mutually antagonistic groups. One might question Neuhaus's optimism in light of the increasing lack of cohesion in most mainline churches today, and parts of his argument display an inclination toward the sort of throne-and-altar'' alliance that has bedeviled European reactionaries for two hundred years--but his analysis of the seeming void around which the secular'' consensus is built, and the fragility of the social structures that depend upon that consensus, is challenging, prescient, and ominous. And his chapters on the abortion issue, while hardly impartial, are remarkably free of the usual cant. A trifle glib and overconfident, Neuhaus's tone can irritate. His thesis, however, is original enough to compel attention and forceful enough to provoke thought. -- Copyright (c)1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
This is like no book you have ever read. It is a series of short easy-to-read essays, a straight-talking, rabble-rousing, populist blast of kitchen table politics from visionary Christopher Judges. It is a ñno-bullshitî book that cares deeply about the fate of regular people in an America gone mad. It takes off your blinders, opens your eyes and speaks directly to the heart of you, hammering home the need for each of us to be a citizen hero who demands real democracy and a prosocial society. This book is an incendiary treatise, a mental thunderbolt in everyday language that exposes the cause of our suffering and shows us how to create the cause of happiness.
From poisoned water and police violence in our cities, to gun massacres and hate-mongering on the presidential campaign trail, evidence that America is at war with itself is everywhere around us. The question is not whether or not it's happening, but how to understand the forces at work in order to prevent conditions from getting worse. Henry A. Giroux offers a powerful, far-reaching critique of the economic interests, cultural dimensions, and political dynamics involved in the nation's shift toward increasingly abusive forms of power. His analysis helps us to frame critical questions about what can and should be done to turn things around while we can. Reflecting on a wide range of social issues, Giroux contrasts Donald Trump's America with Sandra Bland's to understand who really benefits from politically fueled intolerance for immigrants, communities of color, Muslims, low-income families, and those who challenge state and corporate power. A passionate advocate for civil rights and the importance of the imagination, Giroux argues that only through widespread social investment in democracy and education can the common good hope to prevail over the increasingly concentrated influence of extreme right-wing politicians and self-serving economic interests. Praise for America at War with Itself: "This is the book Americans need to read now. No one is better than Henry Giroux at analyzing the truly dangerous threats to our society. He punctures our delusions and offers us a compelling and enlightened vision of a better way. America at War with Itself is the best book of the year."—Bob Herbert, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos and former Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times "In this current era of corporate media misdirection and misinformation, America at War with Itself is a must read for all Americans, especially young people. Henry Giroux is one of the few great political voices of today, with powerful insight into the truth. Dr. Giroux is defiantly explaining, against the grain, what's REALLY going on right now, and doing so quite undeniably. Simply put, the ideas he brings forth are a beacon that need to be seen and heard and understood in order for the world to progress."—Julian Casablancas "In America at War with Itself, Henry Giroux again proves himself one of North America’s most clear-sighted radical philosophers of education, culture and politics: radical because he discards the chaff of liberal critique and cuts to the root of the ills that are withering democracy. Giroux also connects the dots of reckless greed, corporate impunity, poverty, mass incarceration, racism and the co-opting of education to crush critical thinking and promote a culture that denigrates and even criminalizes civil society and the public good. His latest work is the antidote to an alarming tide of toxic authoritarianism that threatens to engulf America. The book could not be more timely."—Olivia Ward, Toronto Star "America at War with Itself makes the case for real ideological and structural change at a time when the need and stakes could not be greater. Everyone who cares about the survival and revival of democracy needs to read this book.”—Kenneth Saltman, Professor, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Author of The Failure of Corporate School Reform Henry A. Giroux's most recent books include The Violence of Organized Forgetting and America's Addiction to Terrorism. A prolific writer and political commentator, he has appeared in a wide range of media, including the New York Times and Bill Moyers.
