In coping with any post-Apocalyptic scenario where plenty of fuel is required, it might be best to head to the ‘Political Science’ section of your bookstore. Survival and the rebuilding of civilization will require sacrifices. Noam Chomsky’s books can easily be spared to boil water and simmer stew in an emergency. Moreover, all the books that argue ‘All Republicans are Fascists’ and ‘All Democrats are Socialists’ can likewise be tossed on the fire without wincing.
It would be best, however, to spare Ronald Brownstein’s The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America. (Penguin Books, New York, 2007)
In the past forty years, more and more Democrats have become ‘liberal’ (American-speak for way left-of-centre partisan) while more Republicans have become ‘conservative (likewise for way right-of-centre partisan). The inevitable result is the dwindling of political civility, an end to useful debate and deadlocked-legislatures. Both sets of partisans struggle to throw out wide nets to capture the middle ground but they remain incapable of satisfying it because of their own internal criteria. The results are discernible in America’s current weakness.
Brownstein is a journalist (a writer for the LA Times) and sometimes did not find it easy to disparage Democrats as readily as he went after Republicans but he made a truly honest attempt at it. In the meantime, everyone in America would do well to concentrate on shared ideals to see if the gulf can be bridged.
