It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism by Thomas E. Mann (PDF)

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Acrimony and hyperpartisanship have seeped into every part of the political process. Congress is deadlocked and its approval ratings are at record lows. America’s two main political parties have given up their traditions of compromise, endangering our very system of constitutional democracy. And one of these parties has taken on the role of insurgent outlier; the Republicans have become ideologically extreme, scornful of compromise, and ardently opposed to the established social and economic policy regime.In It’s Even Worse Than It Looks, congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein identify two overriding problems that have led Congress — and the United States — to the brink of institutional collapse. The first is the serious mismatch between our 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. Second, while both parties participate in tribal warfare, both sides are not equally culpable. The political system faces what the authors call &”asymmetric polarization,” with the Republican Party implacably refusing to allow anything that might help the Democrats politically, no matter the cost.With dysfunction rooted in long-term political trends, a coarsened political culture and a new partisan media, the authors conclude that there is no &”silver bullet”; reform that can solve everything. But they offer a panoply of useful ideas and reforms, endorsing some solutions, like greater public participation and institutional restructuring of the House and Senate, while debunking others, like independent or third-party candidates. Above all, they call on the media as well as the public at large to focus on the true causes of dysfunction rather than just throwing the bums out every election cycle. Until voters learn to act strategically to reward problem solving and punish obstruction, American democracy will remain in serious danger.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: About the Author Thomas E. Mann is a resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Norman J. Ornstein is Resident Scholar the American Enterprise Institute and a contributing editor and columnist for National Journal and the Atlantic.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The intent of this book is to convince folks that the USA should have a European style of government, with a permanent left or far left government for both the Presidential and the Congressional branches of government simultaneously. The purported reason for advocating this direction is that the Republican / Conservative party has “shifted so far to the right” after the election of Obama, in the 2010 elections, that they no longer represent the significant political center where most voters reside, and that they have far too large an ability to block this liberal government (Obama) from achieving its “mainstream” goals. The authors believe that one of the first steps is to make sure that the US Senate can do all of its business with a simple majority. Currently, for many items of business, it takes 60 Senators to vote to support stopping debate, which will then allow a vote to take place which will only take a majority to pass, or defeat, the bill at hand. This is called cloture. Interestingly, after the 2004 elections, when the Republicans increased their majorities in both houses, the Republicans in the US Senate discussed doing away with the 60 vote cloture rule, which is an internal to the US Senate rule, because the Liberal Democrats used it to constantly obstruct any positive actions by the Republicans! Saner heads prevailed that knew that a permanent Republican majority was not possible, and this would turn around and hurt the Republicans in the future. Would the authors be happy with a Republican 51 vote majority in the US Senate that passed everything the Republican House and a Republican President wanted? They say they would, for the majority like that would only last one election cycle before they were thrown out. Unmitigated liberal bombast by the authors. The authors decried how Republicans won’t approve Obama appointees, and how Obama was forced to make recess appointments. but they didn’t mention how the Democrats treated Bush and his desired appointees even worse, and how Bush was eviscerated by the liberals for making the equal or greater number of forced recess appointments, including the best UN Representative we have had in 25 years, John Bolton. The authors use the Democratic majorities of the last 60 years (from 1932 to 1994) and how it worked so well with the “moderate” Republican minority. There were times when there were over 70 Democratic Senators. It was a rare day when a Republican could even propose a minor change to any legislation. In effect, this heavenly period of cooperation only lasted as long as the Republicans were willing to just be the pets of the Democrats. They stayed that way up until 2010, while Democrats held the majority, moderate Republicans could and did support such “mainstream” programs as health care, immigration reform (I presume, amnesty) and climate change (being man made and bad, I presume). Once again, pet Republicans. Basically the authors believe that Republicans should just be Democrat light, going along and making kissy face with the Democrats at every turn, as is done in Europe. Well, Europe is demographically dying and fiscally destroying itself. It will take a decade or more to seriously start, and another century to complete, but by 2200, there will no longer be a Europe with any Europeans in it, except for a few octogenarians, and far too many Islamists. Along the way, the complete and total fiscal collapse of Europe will go a long way to pulling the USA down with them, all because of liberal fiscal policies, liberal ideals and liberal beliefs similar to that which the authors are advocating. Fox News comes in for some scathing and specific criticism. They charge that Fox’s business model is to repeat the same news over and over again. This is called a headline news, or semi-headlline news format, and it is entirely legal. CNN did this with a vengeance with its headline news network. But for Fox to do a light version of CNN is somehow horrid and debilitating. The assumption is that watching FOX news makes those who do so less well informed than other folks. This is a liberal canard that is based on some terminally flawed studies. They authors also blame FOX news in part, along with talk radio, for the “asymmetric polarization that is now such a prominent feature of U.S. politics”. Of course, they don’t cover the radical polarization of liberals by the mainstream media, including CNN, MSNBC, and PBS. This is not an even-handed, fair and balanced, rational book. It is a liberal screed, with permanent and terminal flaws. It is written with an entertaining and legible wit that is, at times, highly entertaining, as any good fiction book should be. The authors state that “whether lawmakers like or dislike laws, they are under oath to carry them out.” But Obama has not enforced immigration laws he dislikes, he has worked for voter discrimination events, he has supported Sharia law against our Constitution, and he has broken Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation Laws regarding the DELPHI bankruptcy, involving the Treasury department, destroying the pensions of the salaried workers, while rewarding the UAW workers and making their pensions whole. The Author decries how Republicans, using the filibuster rules in the Senate, have obstructed the enforcement of laws, but they give no examples. The authors believe that it is the Democratic party, that while imperfect, is more ideologically centered. Republicans allegedly deny facts, evidence, and science, and are dismissive of the government. The authors believe that the socialistic direction the country has been headed in for the last 80 years is the right direction and that any obstructionism against achieving that goal is bad, The authors have everything upside down. The authors believe that Obama has been too restrained in his use of his executives powers, and that the presidency should be granted far greater powers. It was Richard Nixon, I believe, to whom liberals applied the term “Imperial President”. The same was true of Ronald Reagan, and especially of George W. Bush. And now they want the president, along as they are a liberal “mainstream” president, like “President Hussein” to have more powers? WOW! Obama has already taken more power because craven Republicans won’t oppose him enough. The authors use the Obamacare bill as an example of both co-operation and doing the right thing. Specifically they laud the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). They decry the naming of this board as the “death panel” by Tea Party folks, whom they particularly despise (as do most liberals). However, Health Care Delayed is frequently a death sentence. Health Care Denied is, almost always, a death sentence. Health insurance is not health care. Only 12% of US doctors will see patients on Medicaid. Within 8 years, the payments for Medicare will be as low as those for Medicaid are today. Over 50% of US doctors will not take on any or any new Medicare patients. Why? The payments are less than their costs. So much less that they cannot afford to continue in practice at those payment levels. Four years of College, 4 years of medical school, and 4 years of internship, mean a doctor is 30 before they start earning money, and their school loans are huge. Why be a doctor if you can’t make a living doing so? Fewer and fewer young folks will become doctors just to be impoverished themselves for most of their lives. The IPAB will only limit payments, not costs. Check Canada, England, and Europe. Long lines, care greatly delayed or completely denied are the norm. Obamacare will do nothing to make Health Care affordable. It will do nothing to foster the competition and innovation that are the only way to reduce health care costs. Obamacare will destroy the best health care system in the world (this is a much longer discussions to absolutely prove this, which I can do)! The US Great Depression in the 1930’s was the longest and deepest depression any country in the world had. Canada had a much shallower and shorter recession. Why? Canada had a conservative government that did not engage in Keynesian “pump priming” spending and liberal policy experimenting, which created far too much uncertainty. Most of the programs from the 1930’s and WWII were supposed to be temporary. Oops! In the 1950’s and 1960’s almost every recognized economist that studied the depression realized that FDR’s spending and liberal policies greatly hurt the USA. Here we are today, and Obama, and Bush to s lesser extent, are repeating the mistakes of history. The debt levels, which are now exceeding WWII historic highs, will gut our national defense, gut our ability to compete around the world, and, ultimately, cause either double digit inflation or the dramatic devaluation of the dollar, or both. Payments on the debt will slowly drag our nation into impotence, internationally and nationally. Ignorance of the past is no excuse. Why do conservatives despise Obama so much? Read my reviews of his two books,

⭐, titled “Islamist Apostate? Or Islamists?” and

⭐titled “Our Islamist President and Defeating America”. As I state, I have spent over 10,000 hours studying Islam since 9/11, we are in mortal danger of becoming an Islamist country before 2100, and anybody who voted for or who supports Obama wants the USA to become an Islamist nation 5 to 15 years sooner than either if McCain was elected or if Romney is elected. Obama is not on the side of al-Qaeda and the IslamoNazis that want to blow us up or cut our heads off, but he is on the side of the Jihadists that want Sharia law to replace our constitution, as is the DOJ under Eric Holder. Read

⭐and my review titled “An EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) Attack on the USA is a Permanent Civilization Killer”. Obama will allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. It is not his job to farm out our own defense to Israel. Iran with nuclear weapons is a clear and present danger to the USA. The authors plug for a publicly funded broadcast system that is fair and balanced, with shows like the PBS “News-Hour”, “Charlie Rose”, or the “Diane Rehm Show”. The problem, as is everything with these authors and this book, is that those are, all three, uber-liberal shows, that occasionally have a liberal-conservative on to represent the other side of the argument against multiple other uber liberal guests. In effect, since liberal talk radio has been a complete failure, and MSNBC has only a minute audience share, this book is for eliminating freedom of speech. The authors make the common argument that only knowledgeable folks should be included in any argument, which sounds OK superficially, but who decides who is knowledgeable?. Similar to Michael Mann, author of the hockey stick global warming curve, perverted science and abused the scientific method to achieve his predetermined beliefs., argues that only peer-reviewed articles and scientists can be included in the global warming discussion. The problem is that Michaels Mann’s blatantly biased unscientific paper was peer reviewed by a bunch of peer alarmists that bowed down to his expertise, and it took a non-peer reviewed non Ph. D scientist to figure out how Mann had perverted science and proven the peer review system to be worthless. Liberals are just like Michael Mann, without logic or facts, and willing to lie about it. The authors and this book have everything wrong and upside down. It is cogently written. It is 100% without merit. I do recommend this book to every conservative, to understand just how far gone the alleged moderate liberals are. It is even worse than it looks, and it is the Democratic party that has gone so far to the left that they are no longer on the side of America, neither domestically, nor regarding national defense, and not internationally.

⭐It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With New Politics of Extremism by Thomas E. Mann, Norman J. Ornstein“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.

⭐This short book seemed to me to consist, in effect, of two books in one. There was an important analysis of the dysfunctional character of Congress. But there was, matching it, a complacent attachment to the system as it used to operate, and a dismissal of those who were concerned about the dysfunctions of that as ‘ideological’. The critical discussion is important, and highlights issues which will be with us again if Biden faces greater problems with Congress after the mid-terms. It is also, clearly, the Republicans who have caused problems. Some of the ideas which inspired them were problematic. But the authors seem implicitly totally dismissive of what looks to me a powerful point underlying their concern: that Congress, as it functioned, was giving government an ever-increasing role, and operating in favour of special interests. They seemed simply dismissive of those who took the view that government should be less extensive in what it undertakes – and who, as a result, were unwilling to go along with measures which would lead to yet more government spending. (Clearly, a broad-brush condemnation of everything is problematic; but people were led to behave in this way just because those on the other side of politics did not seem to appreciate that there is an anademic analysis of the existing problems of the US government on the other side, which is just as telling as this.) I was also dismayed that they seemed to favour government by executive order. All told, the issues that they are raising are real; but what is needed is an analysis of the full range of problems, and an attempt to improve things which takes the full range of issues into account.

⭐I gave this as a present to our “Wee Free” Church of Scotland Minister. He said he had suspected as much for years and it reinforced his fear of Satan and all his works.

⭐Amerika ist fest in den Händen von republikanischen Kriegs-Truppen. Diese Verbände halten ihre Trutzburgen des Einnehmens fest zusammen, es sind:1. Freie radikale Kapitalisten, die nichts abgeben, dafür umso mehr zocken und von Feindbildern leben.2. Die Bevölkerung mit christlichen Losungen fesseln (wen Gott segnet, dem schenkt er Reichtum, wem nicht, der hat kein Recht zu essen) und3. Mit privaten Medien Wortsalven über die Bevölkerung schütten, die jeglicher Demokratie Hohn sprechen, die jeglichem gesunden Menschenverstand zuwider laufen.4. Terroristen, die jegliche Regierungsfähigkeit der Demokraten / Obama im Keim über den Senat ersticken, mit aggressiver Wort- und Tatakrobatik.Amerika in diesen Tagen ist tief gespalten, das Damoklesschwert des Kommunismus/Sozialismus als Feindbild wird (immer noch) über alles gehalten, was von den Demokraten kommt. Das Beten auf der einen wird zum zähnefletschenden Hass auf der anderen Seite.Mehr als die europäische Krise müssen wir die Probleme der Amerikaner fürchten, die schon lange über ihre Verhältnisse leben und im Grunde den Kopf in den Sand stecken: die freien Marktradikalen der Republikaner haben über TV-Sender wie Fox alles fest in der Hand, Europa ist für sie nur eine weit entfernte Region, partout halten sie halsstarrig an alten Dogmen fest von Freiheit und Erfolg, die sich schon längst erübrigt haben, wenn man das Heer der Mittellosen und Abgehängten in USA betrachtet. Reich durch Armut, nirgendwo sonst wird diese Aussage deutlicher als in Amerika, das sich noch ein letztes Mal an einer unnötigen Internetblase wie Facebook laben darf, bevor die Kurse ob dieser Nutzlosigkeit in den Keller rauschen. China mit seinem Fleiß hat die USA schon längst begonnen von innen her anzugreifen.Das Resultat: ein völlig überschuldetet Staat ohne Perspektive, bar jeglicher Kompromissfähigkeiten, die von den Republikanern konsequent torpediert werden. Wie wohltuend muss man dagegen die deutsche Opposition empfinden, die tatsächlich vernünftig, auf dem Boden des guten Willens, Politik mitgestaltet. Amerika ist in den Händen christlicher Talibane, von denen ein besonders strenger (Mormone) jetzt Präsident werden möchte.Die USA sind die am besten geplante Scheindemokratie aller Zeiten, eine Wirklichkeit gewordene Hölle, in dem Arbeitssklaven verheizt werden, während die Wallstreet eine ganze Nation verzockt und halsstarrig an die Kette legt. Tatsächlich wird Amerika von den immer gleichen regiert, egal ob Republikaner oder Demokraten an der Macht sind: es ist die Wirtschaft, die hier nach der Chicagoer Schule das Sagen hat, aufgeladen durch den Mythos, dass Amerika in den 40ern die Demokratie nach Europa gebracht habe, Freiheitsapostel des Selbst für alle Zeiten.Dabei helfen auch die im Buch vorgeschlagenen Maßnahmen (z.B. Zwang zur Wahl durch Lotterieverknüpfung) herzlich wenig, hilfreich wird das Ganze erst, wenn es den Reichen wirklich an den Kragen geht, wenn ihre Ghettos geplündert werden. Mario Basler in seiner unnachahmlich intelligenten Art sagte vor kurzem bei Sandra Maischberger etwas Wahres bzw. proletete seine Angst vor dem Mob laut hinaus, während eine betrunken wirkende ZDF Fußballreporter-Legende zum 1000000mal etwas vom deutschen Neid lallte, wenn in Italien die Spieler in ihren Porsches neidlos beklatscht werden. Wir alle müssen hier nicht mehr lange warten, bis auch in Deutschland die Villengegenden heißer und heißer werden. Es ist wohl so, dass niemand etwas freiwilig abgeben möchte und solange auf den Säcken sitzen bleibt, bis diese explodieren. Leider.It discusses the polarization between the two political parties in the U.S.A. and places the blame squarely on the Republicans. What’s good for the American citizenry as a whole is not as important as is the success of the party or personal gain. This book is no partisan rant. The authors support their claim convincingly with irrefutable fact. The book is a little outdated and does not cover the ‘Trump Phenomenon’. But it explains how the stage was set for the Republican circus of 2016. I will be eagerly awaiting a post-election dissection of the campaign by these authors.

⭐This is the update of an earlier edition of this book with a new forward and afterward added to bring it more up to date (i.e. prior to the results of the 2016 election). The authors analyze the total polarization and lack of effectiveness that has developed in the US Congress during the past years. Their conclusion is that the Republican Party is very much to blame. The problems they identify will need to be solved if the US democracy will be able to survive.

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