Thomas Byrne Edsall

This is a frightening and very prescient perspective and summary of the political and social effects of the current economic crisis.

Our dear author is not optimistic. Nor does he have reason to be. Fiscal and economic pressures hit the political world as hard as they do the common citizen. Austerity seems tempting, but will hit everyone hard, and may yet make some of the issues worse if the economy and fiscal policies are hit too bad. Case in point: Southern Europe.

The parties become more polarized and angry. Venerable compromisers are thrown out of their seats which they held for 20 years and replaced by rabble-rousers. Republicans retreat further to extremism. Democrats are internally conflicted and splinter. Citizens want to cling to their tenuous social welfare programs, but view others as moochers, or somehow undeserving of them, entitled.

In the United States, where race and poverty are already intertwined, this will only worsen the effects. Parties must move on racial boundaries in order to maintain power bases - Democrats to Latinos and Blacks, and Republicans to whites and the Baby Boomers, which are literally dying off of old age. Texas may yet turn Democrat by 2020 unless something big happens.

As fiscal policy becomes more and more difficult to implement, or even discuss, the electorate may give into fear or the tempting promises of extremism or populism or the pleasant lies of conspiracy theory.

Although it does overlook the Obama administration's mistakes in handling the recession, including hiring some noticeably corrupt and conflicted individuals, as well as oversimplifying the view of the elderly (and the talk of Soc.Sec. and Medicare cuts!) this is still a very worthy book to have, as the most important election since 2000, or 1968, or 1932 approaches.… (más)