If We Can Keep It - Chapter 7

I've been waiting for this chapter for a full month (it takes me way too long to read a book anymore; I really need to work on prioritizing reading more!) and I'm so excited to check out Tomasky's 14-point agenda on saving our republic. Each point will include a summary of his position, and then my response. By and large, I think they're mostly great ideas. I don't agree with all of them, but I can agree with the idea behind most of them. Without further adieu, this series finale:

If We Can Keep It - Chapters 5 and 6

 If We Can Keep It: How the Republic Collapsed and How it Might be Saved, by Michael Tomasky is a book about the history of our government, its polarization, and how we've come to our current state of fracture between our two major parties. If you haven't read my posts on Chapters 1 - 4, I would recommend checking those out for added context, but you won't have any trouble keeping up with this chapter without that background. Chapters five and six discuss how the US public and government changed over the last thirty - forty years, widening the rift between parties and people.

If We Can Keep It - Chapters 3 and 4

Chapter three discusses the Age of Consensus which according to Tomasky's timeline lasted from 1933 - 1980. That's not to say everyone always agreed throughout the decades, but intentional social factors contributed to a long period of relative American unity. Obviously that unity had major caveats, the most obvious of which is racial discrimination. But by broad strokes, America came together and the result was often positive (though not perfect) change.

If We Can Keep It - Chapters 1 and 2

If We Can Keep It: How the Republic Collapsed and How it Might be Saved was written by Michael Tomasky in 2019. I've noticed that a lot of books written about American politics before the 2020 election feel like they're missing the important context of those events. But this book shoots all the way back to the inception of our country as the Great Experiment it is, to provide historical context which is often overlooked or underestimated.