Democracy Under Fire
Author | : Lawrence R. Jacobs |
Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | : 289 |
Release | : 2022 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780190877248 |
ISBN-13 | : 0190877243 |
Rating | : 4/5 (48 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: How did democracy become so vulnerable in America? Donald Trump is a shrill warning of the political system's fragility, but he alone is not the problem. The vulnerability is broader and deeper-and looms still. Even before Trump ran for president, his disdain for the rules and norms of democracy and the US Constitution was well-known by many prominent Republicans who were unable to stop his nomination. Trump's presidency is the culmination of a series of political decisions since the late 18th century that ceded party nominations to small cliques of ideologues. Democracy Under Fire provides a readable, if disturbing, history of American democracy and proposes recommendations to restore it.