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H. W. Brands's avatar

The descriptive part of the book is the best - recounting what has happened when countries descended into civil war, and what the contributing factors were. The prescriptive part is more wishful (and, I suspect, urged upon the author by her editors). Her remedies aren't likely to happen. And her suggestion about regulating social media might very well create more problems than it would solve. (I'm a fairly rigid First Amendment guy.) I picked up the book expecting to be able to dismiss it as fear-mongering. A civil war like the 1860s just isn't going to happen, not least because there is no clear geographic line dividing the country today. But Walter points out that civil wars these days are often different. They are insurgencies supported by sizable parts of the population, reflecting a conviction that the political system has lost its legitimacy. At a moment when the Republican party still denies that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and increasingly dismisses the violent attempt to overturn the results as a harmless free-speech protest, I'd say the legitimacy of the American system is in real jeopardy. The Democratic party has contributed to all this through the relentless identity politics of the party's left wing. That's another key element of Walter's analysis: when people identify first with racial or ethnic or religious groups, and only afterward with the nation, that nation is in trouble. I fear that's where America is today. I wish it were otherwise, but I'm not seeing the evidence.

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Tom Rainey's avatar

I have not read the book but from your review, the question "What's a democrat to do?" seems to be left somewhat twisting in the wind. Efficient, effective government action to address significant national needs? Federal action to protect the vote, or curtail partisan gerrymandering and unaccountable campaign cash? Eliminate the Electoral College? Whether one thinks these are worthy or execrable goals, these are among the many things that current U.S. democracy seems utterly unable to accomplish.

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