Is there a book that explains how politics got so awful in US?

[Hamlette]

Seems like there were several causes, Fox News, gerrymandering, Tea Party, The South, Evangelicals becoming more active in politics etc.

Seems the GOP doesn't give a damn about what is best for the country only what is best for their party and that was not true 30-40 years ago.

A friend wants the name of a book that explains, from a historical perspective, how/why/when that happened.

Ideas?

[shenmue]

1. A couple of good ones

"Wrapped in the Flag," Claire Conner, and "The Party's Over," Charlie Crist.

[Hamlette]

20. Wrapped in the Flag looks great, the Crist book, not so much

Crist seems to think it all happened in the last 10 years. I think it has gotten worse but it has to be before the Clinton impeachment which was a historically significant event. I'd say it goes back to Reagan. Not only did he start the politics of hate, he injected anti intellectualism into the debate, again! gawd I hated that man!.

[Hamlette]

24. Just finished Wrapped in the Flag, and recommend it

She is the daughter of a rabid John Bircher. Her parents were nut jobs and its a good history of the JBS and how it is now the Tea Party. I wish she had explained better how her parents got so nuts. Her mother obviously just followed her dad and religion played a big part. I still wonder if its "we don't want to pay taxes" so we are going to do whatever we can to scare people, mess with the poor, take away voting rights (JBS's Welsh's philosophy for reasons to be against civil rights, we, the rich and deserving, get a bigger share of the votes cast.)

She says in the end she thinks she understands why her dad was so rabid, but I'm not sure I do.

Otherwise its a great read. I read it in one gulp. I recommend it to anyone interested in "recent" history.

Oh, and yes, the Koch brothers were big supports of the JBS. But the JBS hated Eisenhower and came to hate Reagan so they are unlike the Tea Party in that regard (sure, the Tea Party says they did not like some of the stuff Bush did but they don't unload on him like the JBS unloaded on Eisenhower and Reagan. In fact, it was all the awful shit they said about Eisenhower that drove the GOP to disown them early on.)

[Uben]

2. Does Dick Cheney have an autobiography?

That would pretty much tell the story.

[cantbeserious]

3. Who Stole The American Dream - by Hedrick Smith

One can watch the author interviewed on you tube.

[alsame]

4. It started with

Reagan, who made it acceptable to publicly demonize other Americans. The seeds of the hate we see today were planted by him.

So I don't know of any specific titles to recommend, but I would look for one that explores what happened in the 80s.

[Fumesucker]

5. This might help

https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

OK, what’s this book about? It’s about what’s happened to the American government lately. It’s about the disastrous decisions that government has made. It’s about the corruption that rotted the Congress. It’s about how traditional conservatism has nearly been destroyed by authoritarianism. It’s about how the “Religious Right” teamed up with amoral authoritarian leaders to push its un-democratic agenda onto the country. It’s about the United States standing at the crossroads as the next federal election approaches.

“Well,” you might be thinking, “I don’t believe any of this is true.” Or maybe, you’re thinking, “What else is new? I’ve believed this for years.” Why should a conservative, moderate, or liberal bother with this book? Why should any Republican, Independent, or Democrat click the “Whole Book” link on this page?

Because if you do, you’ll begin an easy-ride journey through some very relevant scientific studies I have done on authoritarian personalities--one that will take you a heck of a lot less time than the decades it took me. Those studies have a direct bearing on all the topics mentioned above. So if you think the first paragraph is a lot of hokum, or full of half-truths, I invite you to look at the research.

For example, take the following statement: “Once our government leaders and the authorities condemn the dangerous elements in our society, it will be the duty of every patriotic citizen to help stomp out the rot that is poisoning our country from within.” Sounds like something Hitler would say, right? Want to guess how many politicians, how many lawmakers in the United States agreed with it? Want to guess what they had in common?

[MannyGoldstein]

6. I've thought about writing a book like that

It would be fun. And depressing.

[WillyT]

7. Yes... 'The Prince'...

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince

[Hamlette]

14. I just spewed diet coke out my nose n/t

[WillyT]

18. LOL !!!

[el_bryanto]

8. I quite like the Great Limbaugh Con and The Right Wing Noise Machine

Both pretty good.

Bryant

[QC]

9. Any book about Newt Gingrich should do,

along with something dealing with Lee Atwater.

Those two made nastiness into a science, and they bear far more than their share of the blame for the cesspool that American politics has become.

[LuvLoogie]

10. Lee Atwater and a complicit press

[Brother Buzz]

11. Thomas Frank's, 'What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America'

is a quick read and just may be a good place to start.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

21. Yes. And 'Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing is Turning America Into a One-Party State'.

[marions ghost]

12. I read

"The Crash of 2016" by Thom Hartmann (Nov 2013)

It explains everything that has happened since Reagan and why--& is very readable. The book ends positively with a vision for a new world if we come together.

[frazzled]

13. It's been bad before, too

The McCarthy era in American politics, during the 1950s, for instance, was pretty awful, and thousands of lives and careers were ruined. And the media abetted it, mostly.

I think these things are cyclical, and play themselves out: I'm truly waiting for America to return to some kind of sanity. Granted, it's not going to be the sanity of 30-40 years ago (whatever that was), but something different: because we are not the same country, physically, economically, or psychically. It's the 21st century. Still, I await the "new normal."

[Hamlette]

17. yes, but the media actually brought McCarthy down in the end

just by putting the hearings on TV. I think it was LBJ's idea reasoning that if Americans saw what an awful person Joe was, public opinion would change.

Joe was very scary and when Ann Coulter and others tried to rehabilitate him I almost slit my wrists. If we ever come to see McCarthy as a hero it is over. I grew up in a liberal artsy fartsy family and McCarthy was just over when I started to become aware of stuff. I heard non stop horror stories about him and that time.

I'm not so sure the press was more complicit than politicians. Everyone was terrified of him. If he spoke out he'd turn on you and it was impossible to defend against his allegations when his national popularity was so high.

There are lots of reasons, the GOP blames the Bork hearings as the start of it all. Just looking for a good read that pulls it all together.

[sibelian]

15. A land of dreams and opportunities...

is not going to be terribly concerned with necessities. Nor is it going to be tremendously interested in even distinguishing between fantasy and necessity. Particularly in terms of the extent to which moral thinking is an extension of rather than a foil to pragmatism.

That's about it, really.

[rug]

16. Richard III.

First Murderer: How dost thou feel thyself now?

Second Murderer: Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.

First Murderer: Remember our reward, when the deed's done.

Second Murderer: Zounds, he dies; I had forgot the reward.

First Murderer: Where is thy conscience now?

Second Murderer: In the Duke of Gloucester's purse.

First Murderer: So, when he opens his purse to give us our reward, thy conscience flies out.

Second Murderer: Let it go; there's few or none will entertain it.

First Murderer: How if it come to thee again?

Second Murderer: I'll not meddle with it, it is a dangerous thing, it makes a man a coward; a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man cannot swear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his neighbour's wife, but it detects him: 'tis a blushing shame-faced spirit, that mutinies in a man's bosom; it fills one full of obstacles: it made me once restore a purse of gold, that I found; it beggars any man that keeps it: it is turned out of all towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man that means to live well, endeavors to trust to himself, and live without it.

First Murderer: Zounds, it is even now at my elbow, persuading me not to kill the duke.

Act I, Scene iv

[rock]

19. If you're looking for one root cause from which all those things flow read on

I posted several times about it on DU. The republican party began to deteriorate shortly after Nixon. By deteriorate, I mean the party lost its mooring as it declined in having serviceable (i.e electable) candidates. It ultimately became what it is today: a party that does NOT support a Democracy. I hesitate (though not much) to describe them as Fascist.

[Hamlette]

22. agreed, but how did it happen?

My dad was a republican until the mid 1980s. He came to hate Reagan and think him dangerous. He was not undemocratic. So how did the weed out my dad and find enough people to elect W? I don't think half the country is undemocratic. Some have just been sold a bill of goods, others believe we are going to hell in a hand basket and only right wing morals will save us (and religion).

How did the dupe so many people?

[kimbutgar]

23. Screwed by Thom Hartmann

Thom writes some great books and The thom Hartmann reader has short essays which really spell out how the GOP and Reagan screwed over this country.