The Publisher Says: The election of Donald Trump has sent U.S. and the world into uncharted waters, with a bigoted, petty man-child at the head of the planet’s most powerful empire. Danny Katch indicts the hollowness of U.S. political system which led to Trump’s rise and puts forward a vision for a real alternative, a democracy that works for the people.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I'm decidedly a leftist in my political stances. I would never, ever, ever vote for 45...not even for his execution.

I'm in sympathy with this book, then. Why would I only give it three-and-a-half stars? Because it's a humorous look at how the oligarchy got to control the political landscape...Obama would've been a Rockefeller Republican in the rational politics of my youth...that's short on ideas for what to do to replace the consensus.

Taking shit away from people is satisfying on a personal, vengeful level..."look! LOOK what your gullibility and stupidity have cost actual, real human beings!"...but look to the Soviet revolution for what happens when all you do is take away things with no plan for what to replace them with. Stalin. Putin. All the awful abusive cruelties and murderous outrages those men got away with by stepping into a void and saying, "obey me and I will protect you."

We got 45. And deserved him. The issue I take with this book isn't that it's wrong, it's that it's naïve and almost willfully unrealistic about what it will take to change the course of modern politics.

Explaining the problem ain't anything like enough anymore. The entrenched scream machine bellowing idiotic ideas into otherwise thoughtless heads isn't going to crank down on its own. It needs to be made unprofitable. And it needs to have a palatable-to-decent-people alternative to shove Them towards or it will fail and that catastrophe is what we're living through.

Real change for the better, please. No more cleverly insulting analyses, please. ( )

Quick and witty foray into our present moment. I don't agree with all of Katch's conclusions, but he does make a solid case for an alternative future. ( )

In Why Bad Governments Happen to Good People, activist and humourist Danny Katch offers a critical examination of the American system of government. As the publisher’s blurb points out, ‘[t]he election of Donald Trump has sent the United States and the world into uncharted water’. However, as Donald Katch shows, in this well-thought out and well-documented book, the US’ political system has been broken for a very long time and both of the main parties deserve blame for the problems that led to Trump’s election. Trump is, in fact, more a symptom than a cause. Neither party represents the majority of Americans and people are searching for an alternative, one that works for them, not just the banks and corporations. With insight and wit, he makes a good case for Socialism as such an alternative. Whether you agree or disagree with his premise, Katch offers some very interesting and compelling arguments to ponder.

Thanks to Edelweiss and Haymarket Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review ( )