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nwhikerWhy We're Polarized by Ezra Klein.
A very much "must read" in this time of, hah, extreme polarization, and a chilling read in lights of RatFucker Sanders' victory in the Nevada caucuses yesterday.
Klein delves into the reasons we've ended up this split. He writes at length about identity, and how, as humans, we want to find our groups, and once found, we like to stay with them. This is human nature, and not something we'll be getting rid of soon.
Where this book excels, I think, is getting at some of the things that have changed over the past decades that have deepened and cemented the divides: the loss of local news, of the Evening News, the ability to find 100% politics news at any time of day.
He carefully touches on the danger that the "both sides" false equivalencies creates. The Republicans have gone a lot more extreme than the Dems have. Klein is also careful to differentiate polarization and extremism. The Rs have both. The Dems less so.
He ties all this in with our land votes problem, and the demographics that give outsize importance to land/small states. This imbalance -and this is chilling- means that Republicans only need to cement their coalition. To win Democrats needs not only all the Dems, but also the center left, and a chunnk of the center right. There is a reason that despite the popularity of AOC, none of the seats flipped in 2018 were flipped by the far left. The moderates are the ones who took back the House, despite the often heard Revolution! rhetoric.
Alas, he has no solutions to the problem, but at least he doesn't pretend to. Instead, he offers some suggestions that might help.
These are the institutional ones:
-- bombproofing: setting in place policies that prevent the whole government from blowing up, and taking the world economy with it (if, say, the US defaulted because the morons refused to raise the debt ceiling). Fixing the way the budget is determined. Basically, to making sure Congress cannot, by some stupid partisan action, fuck things up to the point of no return.
-- democratizing: getting rid of the electoral college (probably with something like the Popular Vote Compact, not a Constitutional Amendment), ranked choice voting with slates of congresscritters, rather than the current so very gerrymandered mess, which would also allow for some third party representation. Getting rid of the filibuster in the Senate (not 100% sure I agree with him there, but it's worth the debate) and finally giving representation to Puerto Rico and DC.
-- balancing: setting up a better way for SCOTUS appointments: not just packing the Court, but reforming how justices are picked: How to save the Supreme Court.
And then there is us. Like, all of us! He talks about two things:
-- identity mindfulness: thinking about how a given event/article/whatever is speaking to one of more of your identities. Being aware of this would help people become more aware of when we are being manipulated by the media or politicians.
-- focus more on local politics. Not only can we influence there more, but the commonalities of place can create relationships that are less polarized.
He calls all of these thing corrections, not solutions. But worth thinking about.
My small gripes about the books:
-- Klein used the generic he/him/his. I'm sure he never meant that all candidates were male, but the use of the male pronoun at this time feels exclusionary to me. I wish he'd used 'they'.
-- I don't think he truly exposed how awful the Republicans were, I think at times he gave them too much credit. Many of them are hateful, and he's very gentle this. I hope this will allow some of the center right to read this book, as I think they have things to learn :), but as a partisan (damn straight!) it was difficult to not see him shovelling the blame where it belonged.
-- He did touch on racism. Just... not enough? I dunno. I think so much of what is going on is the result of racism, and while he discussed it, I felt he was pulling punches a bit. These people are not just casual racists. They truly appear to not see the humanity of Black and brown people.
Overall, this was a great book, and well worth reading.
A very much "must read" in this time of, hah, extreme polarization, and a chilling read in lights of RatFucker Sanders' victory in the Nevada caucuses yesterday.
Klein delves into the reasons we've ended up this split. He writes at length about identity, and how, as humans, we want to find our groups, and once found, we like to stay with them. This is human nature, and not something we'll be getting rid of soon.
Where this book excels, I think, is getting at some of the things that have changed over the past decades that have deepened and cemented the divides: the loss of local news, of the Evening News, the ability to find 100% politics news at any time of day.
He carefully touches on the danger that the "both sides" false equivalencies creates. The Republicans have gone a lot more extreme than the Dems have. Klein is also careful to differentiate polarization and extremism. The Rs have both. The Dems less so.
He ties all this in with our land votes problem, and the demographics that give outsize importance to land/small states. This imbalance -and this is chilling- means that Republicans only need to cement their coalition. To win Democrats needs not only all the Dems, but also the center left, and a chunnk of the center right. There is a reason that despite the popularity of AOC, none of the seats flipped in 2018 were flipped by the far left. The moderates are the ones who took back the House, despite the often heard Revolution! rhetoric.
Alas, he has no solutions to the problem, but at least he doesn't pretend to. Instead, he offers some suggestions that might help.
These are the institutional ones:
-- bombproofing: setting in place policies that prevent the whole government from blowing up, and taking the world economy with it (if, say, the US defaulted because the morons refused to raise the debt ceiling). Fixing the way the budget is determined. Basically, to making sure Congress cannot, by some stupid partisan action, fuck things up to the point of no return.
-- democratizing: getting rid of the electoral college (probably with something like the Popular Vote Compact, not a Constitutional Amendment), ranked choice voting with slates of congresscritters, rather than the current so very gerrymandered mess, which would also allow for some third party representation. Getting rid of the filibuster in the Senate (not 100% sure I agree with him there, but it's worth the debate) and finally giving representation to Puerto Rico and DC.
-- balancing: setting up a better way for SCOTUS appointments: not just packing the Court, but reforming how justices are picked: How to save the Supreme Court.
And then there is us. Like, all of us! He talks about two things:
-- identity mindfulness: thinking about how a given event/article/whatever is speaking to one of more of your identities. Being aware of this would help people become more aware of when we are being manipulated by the media or politicians.
-- focus more on local politics. Not only can we influence there more, but the commonalities of place can create relationships that are less polarized.
He calls all of these thing corrections, not solutions. But worth thinking about.
My small gripes about the books:
-- Klein used the generic he/him/his. I'm sure he never meant that all candidates were male, but the use of the male pronoun at this time feels exclusionary to me. I wish he'd used 'they'.
-- I don't think he truly exposed how awful the Republicans were, I think at times he gave them too much credit. Many of them are hateful, and he's very gentle this. I hope this will allow some of the center right to read this book, as I think they have things to learn :), but as a partisan (damn straight!) it was difficult to not see him shovelling the blame where it belonged.
-- He did touch on racism. Just... not enough? I dunno. I think so much of what is going on is the result of racism, and while he discussed it, I felt he was pulling punches a bit. These people are not just casual racists. They truly appear to not see the humanity of Black and brown people.
Overall, this was a great book, and well worth reading.
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