The Death of Politics How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump Book Review

This review of The Death Of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Commonwealth Afterward Trump (New York: HarperOne, 2019), is in the form of a letter of the alphabet sent to the author, Peter Wehner.

Love Peter Wehner:

You, Republican, ethicist and voice communication-writer for Reagan and Bush, have written a scathing critique of Donald J. Trump. In this age of farthermost partisan polarization, this is a rare affair. In suggesting that Trump'southward presidency could exist a catastrophe signaling the death of the best of the American political tradition covering the roles of morality, religion, rhetoric, debate, and citizenship, you trigger an alarm that many Americans have felt during Trump's run for office,
and during the two and a half years he has been in function.

With the telling of over 10,000 documented lies, where his feelings and beliefs take become "facts", where truth is not truth, Trump is non just supporting ignorance and the devaluation of truth; he is promoting it. This is dangerous to society and damaging to government.

Further, since your volume was published, Trump's by and nowadays racist and white supremacist rhetoric regarding immigrants and duly elected legislators of color has become current news
and appears to exist defining his re-election entrada… with no meaningful dissent from your
Republican cohorts.

Trump has described others equally "nut chore," "crazy," "maniac," words that could well be used to
describe himself. He has been called a "huckster" and "con man" and his by and current
beliefs, every bit businessman, reality show star, and political figure seems to fit these terms. This
would be shocking when applied to anyone in political office, merely to describe – define – the
President of the United states of america, underscores the crunch in our political organisation that you explore in
your book, The Death Of Politics.

I agree with you that we must render to the truthful significant and exercise of politics as noted by
Aristotle: managing "the affairs of the urban center," with civility above all, and the concern of human
flourishing based on the equality of each person.

I also agree that politics in America has been corrupted, or co-opted, by the faith-based
movement in the Republican Party despite the guarantee of separation of church building and country,
supported by James Madison and the Neb of Rights. Your concern regarding evangelical
Christianity becoming a vehicle of middle-class white resentment (of social deportation – loss
of status – rather than economical weather condition) leading to the disregard of Trump'south immensely
flawed graphic symbol in favor of bourgeois policy wins, suggests to me how hands souls can exist
sold if the propaganda is right.

How did we arrive at this point in our history? Y'all consider the causes as massive
demographic and cultural change; long-term income stagnation (except for the wealthy);
solutions to political-social bug languishing in partisanship; and the astringent loss of trust in
the political class. Democrats appear to be more comfy with some social changes than
Republicans: the reduction of ii-parent households, two working parents in a household, gay
union, as examples. These current societal shifts are comparable to the huge changes
brought by the Industrial Revolution. Government is not helping society manage itself
efficiently, if at all, during these times.

I appreciate the way in which you lot addressed the importance of Aristotle, John Locke, and
Abraham Lincoln in shaping American politics, through instruction, ethics, contemplation, the
pursuit of virtue and happiness (Aristotle); to "regulate assent and moderate our
persuasions," (Locke); and the belief that basic human rights could not exist voted up or downward,
merely that all men are created equal (Lincoln).

You lot did not specifically say it, but these elements take led our Commonwealth to achieve
magnificent things for its people, including: regulatory actions confronting out of control trusts, assist
to farmers, and the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank (Wilson); social security, the United
Nations, the GI Nib Of Rights, the rural electrification of America (Roosevelt); federal housing
loans, the Fulbright scholarship program, the Rural Telephone Human activity, the establishment of NATO
(Truman); the Peace Corps and VISTA programs (Kennedy); civil rights and voting rights
protections, the Head Outset and Medicare/Medicaid programs (Johnson); the institution of
Federal emergency management, the departments of Education and Free energy (Carter); the
Family and Medical Exit Human activity, the Earned Income Revenue enhancement Credit, and the National Voter
Registration Act (Clinton); the Affordable Care Act, fair pay legislation and veteran's health care
legislation (Obama) – all under Democrat presidents.

Farther, get-go with Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation; the right to vote for women
(Grant); protections for wildlife, forests and antiquities (Theodore Roosevelt); the interstate
highway system (Eisenhower); anti-discrimination laws against women, the EPA, OSHA, the
Clean Air Human activity (Nixon); the Americans with Disabilities Act (H.West. Bush-league); and Medicare Pt. D (Grand.Due west.
Bush-league) – under Republican presidents (although current Republicans would likely not approve
of many of these today, and have actively tried to dismantle the effectiveness of several laws,
including the right to vote).

You point to several big and looming issues yet to be effectively addressed, and likely to be
ignored by the Trump administration, among them existence exorbitant costs of college, the opioid
epidemic, mass killings and gun control – and the issue which seems to override all of these,
global warming and climate anarchy, which is affecting every person in every area of our planet.
You allude to what yous view as positive manifestations of our regime'south recent actions: the
recent tax police force changes and the deregulation of many Obama-era laws. I disagree with this: the
recent revenue enhancement changes accept vastly benefited the rich at the expense of the working classes and
the poor, and deregulation of business and corporate interests, also benefiting the wealthy,
ways more pollution and increased environmental degradation.

How tin citizens reclaim a working political organization? You aver, "Citizens demand to renew their
delivery to truth itself and be willing to fight for it and to fight falsity." This can be
challenging in an age of exploded social/news media outlets. Disputes over facts must not be
misconstrued as disputes over principles as some media outlets and conservative
commentators do.

Yous explored moderation, compromise, and civility as means we can re-focus ourselves to a
more workable politics. As you lot noted, the task of politics is to alive peaceably with differences
and to discover appropriate outlets of views to be heard and represented. Trump's name-calling and
fearfulness-mongering does not accomplish this; information technology subverts the process of politics.

Congress must re-assume its function in the restoration of politics. It must bargain, or compromise,
to pass legislation; it must authorize and advisable funds to support legislation; it must permit
longer floor time to present and discuss legislation to get a vote; and it must play a greater role
in oversight of executive and regulatory agencies. Presently, it is either not performing these
functions, or not being very effective at them. Wouldn't it be a meaning step if Congress
could endeavor to achieve consensus on some salient bug as a manner to reduce the current "us
versus them" mindset? Perhaps, consensus is besides much to ask of our dysfunctional
regime.

Notwithstanding, at that place are things that every citizen tin can do. Nosotros can support people who model what
respectful disagreements (and agreements) look like; oppose those who are non good models
of civil beliefs; support the stop of disinformation campaigns by this gild and other
governments; regulate and hold social medial platforms answerable for their actions; acquire
American history to assistance improve our civic knowledge and autonomous focus. In improver, you
suggest leadership training for youth, national service, and civility training programs which
teach adept ways to disagree, as well every bit listening skills.

In 2016, the American people elected (selected through the Electoral College?) a person
manifestly unequipped intellectually, temperamentally, psychologically, and through his life
feel of indebtedness and bankruptcies and racially biased behavior, to govern. He is
creating – and entertaining – a tribe of followers as his base with a rhetoric of hate, derision
and partition, with a staff and most political members of the Republican Political party which adulates
and cannot question his behavior without fear of reprisal. This has led us to a crunch of
confidence.

Your book represents the promise and hope that we are equipped, through our autonomous
process, to do something almost. This should exist a must-read for every politician in America.

Thank you.
Frank E Grant
FEG 081419

seiglerbehopentrib.blogspot.com

Source: https://ohvec.org/review-death-of-politics-how-to-heal/

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