Publication date:
15 January 2018Length of book:
322 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersISBN-13: 9781538105825
While the hyper-partisanship in Washington that has stunned the world has been building for decades, Ira Shapiro argues that the U.S. Senate has suffered most acutely from the loss of its political center.
In Broken, Ira Shapiro, a former senior Senate staffer and author of the critically-acclaimed book The Last Great Senate, offers an expert’s account of some of the most prominent battles of the past decade and lays out what must be done to restore the Senate’s lost luster. Shapiro places the Senate at “ground zero for America’s political dysfunction”--the institution that has failed the longest and the worst. Because the Senate, at its best, represented the special place where the Democrats and Republicans worked together to transcend ideological and regional differences and find common ground, its decline has intensified the nation’s polarization, by institutionalizing it at the highest level. Shapiro documents this decline and evaluates the prospects of restoration that could provide a way out of the polarized morass that has engulfed Congress.
With a narrative that runs right through the first year of the Trump presidency, Broken will be essential reading for all concerned about the state of American politics and the future of our country.
In Broken, Ira Shapiro, a former senior Senate staffer and author of the critically-acclaimed book The Last Great Senate, offers an expert’s account of some of the most prominent battles of the past decade and lays out what must be done to restore the Senate’s lost luster. Shapiro places the Senate at “ground zero for America’s political dysfunction”--the institution that has failed the longest and the worst. Because the Senate, at its best, represented the special place where the Democrats and Republicans worked together to transcend ideological and regional differences and find common ground, its decline has intensified the nation’s polarization, by institutionalizing it at the highest level. Shapiro documents this decline and evaluates the prospects of restoration that could provide a way out of the polarized morass that has engulfed Congress.
With a narrative that runs right through the first year of the Trump presidency, Broken will be essential reading for all concerned about the state of American politics and the future of our country.
This book provides an overview of the development, or decline, of the Senate from the 1950s to the present, highlighting current issues between the Senate and President Trump. The institutional problems mark a devolution from the Senate’s golden age of influence and bipartisanship in the 1960s and 70s. Blame for this degeneration is placed on the deterioration of American politics, political culture, and American government in general. . . decline is pegged as coinciding with Republican resurgence in the institution. The book looks first at Mitch McConnell’s leadership in the Trump-era Senate, and then moves chronologically through Senate history from the Kefauver hearings of the early 1950s into the first year of Trump’s presidency. Senate decline begins with Ronald Reagan’s election as president and the Republicans' “shattering” of the existing order by taking the Senate majority for the first time in 25 years. The review of Senate’s activities from the 1980s provides some excellent snapshots of critical events affecting the body and are the strength of the book. It concludes with some suggestions for reordering the Senate to recover its lost prestige.
Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals.
Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals.