A Review Of Three Books On US Politics And Our Inability To Govern

This review provides a good description of three recent books which offer insightful analyses of how the US has fallen into its current trap.  It tells the story of the politics inside the Obama Administration that led to inadequate responses to the banking collapse, and an ineffective response to the recession.  It also attempts to explain Obama's failed efforts at bipartisanship. In a sense, the Obama Administration, like the Clinton Administration, has attempted to occupy the political center.  It does not have a coherent  ideology.  The Republican Party is united by a commitment to an eighteenth century economic ideology, and it has done a better job of connecting with angry white Americans who are concerned about their loss of dominance as the result of immigration.  Republicans have used that anger, and large budget deficits, to attack government social programs.  They are portrayed as programs that primarily serve the interests of groups that they do not like.  In the last presidential election, John McCain got 56% of the vote from white males, while losing the election by a wide margin.  No Democratic presidential candidate has won a majority of white male votes since Lyndon Johnson passed the civil rights act.

The GOP has also turned the banking crisis against the Democratic Party.  Americans were outraged against the bailout of the banking system that was begun under George Bush, but continued under the Obama Administration.  The primary goal of the government's response to the crisis was to restore the banking system to its prior state before the collapse. This has been the goal in both administrations. Efforts at reform, and programs, to help homeowners service their debt have been weak.  Republicans have led the effort to block reforms by appealing to anti-government attitudes in their base, and they have been allowed to get away with it by a political party that has worked hard to build alliances with Wall Street since the Clinton Administration.

The books reviewed in this article provide a good overview of what has taken place in America over the last few decades.  Unfortunately, it provides a picture of a downward spiral that will be hard to reverse.  As the GOP moves further towards the far right, the political center moves in the same direction.  A political party that desires to capture the center will move in the same direction.