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The Death of Politics

How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks

The New York Times opinion writer, media commentator, outspoken Republican and Christian critic of the Trump presidency offers a spirited defense of politics and its virtuous and critical role in maintaining our democracy and what we must do to save it before it is too late.

"Any nation that elects Donald Trump to be its president has a remarkably low view of politics."

Frustrated and feeling betrayed, Americans have come to loathe politics with disastrous results, argues Peter Wehner. In this timely manifesto, the veteran of three Republican administrations and man of faith offers a reasoned and persuasive argument for restoring "politics" as a worthy calling to a cynical and disillusioned generation of Americans.

Wehner has long been one of the leading conservative critics of Donald Trump and his effect on the Republican Party. In this impassioned book, he makes clear that unless we overcome the despair that has caused citizens to abandon hope in the primary means for improving our world—the political process—we will not only fall victim to despots but hasten the decline of what has truly made America great. Drawing on history and experience, he reminds us of the hard lessons we have learned about how we rule ourselves—why we have checks and balances, why no one is above the law, why we defend the rights of even those we disagree with.

Wehner believes we can turn the country around, but only if we abandon our hatred and learn to appreciate and honor the unique and noble American tradition of doing "politics." If we want the great American experiment to continue and to once again prosper, we must once more take up the responsibility each and every one of us as citizens share.

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    • Kirkus

      May 15, 2019
      A conservative takes aim at the Donald Trump presidency and how to move beyond it. A veteran Republican senior adviser for George W. Bush, Wehner (co-author: City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era, 2010, etc.) published an op-ed column in the New York Times in which he declared that he would not vote for Trump "under any circumstances. I was perhaps the first prominent Republican to have taken this position, and I did so despite having voted Republican in every presidential election since I first became eligible to vote in 1980." Here, the author explains why he considered Trump anathema as a candidate and why his presidency, if anything, has been worse than the author feared. He situates his argument within the broader context of American democracy, explaining how and why the citizenry can set right what has gone wrong. It's an extended civics lesson of sorts, one grounded in American history, the balance of powers, and presidencies good and bad. Wehner also reaches back to Aristotle for foundational philosophies of the functions of government and the body politic. "Democracy requires that we honor the culture of words," he writes, and later continues, "when words are weaponized and used merely to paint all political opponents as inherently evil, stupid, and weak, then democracy's foundations are put in peril." The author urges civility, moderation, and compromise, qualities that would seem to be at odds with the political tenor of the times, and he believes a return to a pre-polarization brand of politics would correct the course" He writes, "the task before us...is how we can rediscover, refine and recalibrate--and in some cases, reenvision and rethink--how we understand politics; to disentangle what politics has become from what it can be, to clear away some of the misconceptions, and to sketch a roadmap for recovery." In response to the spirit of populist revolution, he offers a number of other "r" words to calm the waters and restore some rationality to the process. A modest contribution to the groaning bookshelves about our divisive times.

      COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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