If We Can Keep It
How the Republic Collapsed and How it Might Be Saved
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Narrated by:
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Peter Berkrot
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By:
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Michael Tomasky
About this listen
A game-changing account of the deep roots of political polarization in America, including an audacious 14-point agenda for how to fix it.
Why has American politics fallen into such a state of horrible dysfunction? Can it ever be fixed? These are the questions that motivate Michael Tomasky’s deeply original examination into the origins of our hopelessly polarized nation. “One of America’s finest political commentators” (Michael J. Sandel), Tomasky ranges across centuries and disciplines to show how America has almost always had two dominant parties that are existentially, and often violently, opposed. When he turns to our current era, he does so with striking insight that will challenge listeners to reexamine what they thought they knew. Finally, not content merely to diagnose these problems, Tomasky offers a provocative agenda for how we can help fix our broken political system - from ranked-choice voting and at-large congressional elections to expanding high school civics education nationwide.
Combining revelatory data with trenchant analysis, Tomasky tells us how the nation broke apart and points us toward a more hopeful political future.
©2019 Michael Tomasky (P)2019 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
The world is in turmoil. From India to Turkey and from Poland to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power. As a result democracy itself may now be at risk. Two core components of liberal democracy - individual rights and the popular will - are at war with each other. As the role of money in politics soared and important issues were taken out of public contestation, a system of "rights without democracy" took hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create a system of "democracy without rights."
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Not worth it
- By DailyShopper on 06-07-18
By: Yascha Mounk
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The Party Is Over
- How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted
- By: Mike Lofgren
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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There was a time, not so very long ago, when perfectly rational people ran the Republican Party. So how did the party of Lincoln become the party of lunatics? That is what this book aims to answer. Fear not, the Dems come in for their share of tough talk - they are zombies, a party of the living dead. Mike Lofgren came to Washington in the early eighties - those halcyon, post-Nixonian glory days - for what he imagined would be a short stint on Capitol Hill.
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A Great Analysis
- By Dan D on 09-04-12
By: Mike Lofgren
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Moyers on Democracy
- By: Bill Moyers
- Narrated by: Bill Moyers
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Abridged
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People know Bill Moyers mostly from his many years of path-breaking journalism on television. But he is also one of America's most sought-after public speakers. His appearances draw sell-out crowds across the country and are among the most reproduced on the Web. Richly insightful, and alive with a fierce, abiding love for our country, Moyers on Democracy is essential listening.
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You can't help but think critically
- By Ida F. on 09-29-09
By: Bill Moyers
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Trickle Up Poverty
- Stopping Obama's Attack on Our Borders, Economy, and Security
- By: Michael Savage
- Narrated by: Robert Louis
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Trickle Up Poverty is your best defense against the Obamanomics that are dragging the middle class, and everyone else, into a Marxist-Socialist death spiral. The Savage manifesto you hold in your hands shows how Obama is circumventing the Constitution to push through his radical agenda - and, most important, how we can restore our country to the power and prestige that Barack Obama and his corrupt and degenerate "czars" are trying to destroy.
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The book is much better than the radio show
- By Jonnie on 12-19-10
By: Michael Savage
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The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents
- From Wilson to Obama
- By: Steven F. Hayward
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Academics, journalists, and popular historians agree: our greatest presidents are the ones who confronted a national crisis and mobilized the entire nation to face it. That’s the conventional wisdom. The chief executives who are celebrated in textbooks and placed in the top echelon of presidents in surveys of experts are the bold leaders - the Woodrow Wilsons and Franklin Roosevelts - who reshaped the United States in line with their grand “vision” for America. Unfortunately, along the way, these “great” presidents inevitably expanded government - and shrank our liberties.
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Really enjoyed it
- By Jkc-007 on 02-15-17
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What It Took to Win
- A History of the Democratic Party
- By: Michael Kazin
- Narrated by: Lee Goettl
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In What It Took to Win, the eminent historian Michael Kazin identifies and assesses the Democratic Party's long-running commitment to creating "moral capitalism" - a system that mixed entrepreneurial freedom with the welfare of workers and consumers. And yet the same party that championed the rights of the white working man also vigorously protected or advanced the causes of slavery, segregation, and Indian removal.
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Timely and informative History Book
- By Asha Sceanca on 03-24-22
By: Michael Kazin
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Reason
- Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert B. Reich
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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From Robert B. Reich, passionate believer in American democracy and public servant, Reason is a guide to confronting and derailing what he sees as the mounting threat to American liberty, prosperity, and security posed by the radical conservatives, Radcons as he calls them.
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Reason
- By Ron Green on 03-13-05
By: Robert B. Reich
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Outsider in the White House
- Special Audio Edition
- By: Bernie Sanders, Huck Gutman, John Nichols - afterword
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett, Brian Sutherland
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Bernie Sanders' campaign for the presidency of the United States has galvanized supporters all over the country, drawing attention to issues of economic, racial, and social justice and spotlighting one of the most interesting and unconventional candidates in decades.
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Behind the Scenes with Bernie--- WORTH it!
- By Susie on 02-23-16
By: Bernie Sanders, and others
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Invisible Hands
- The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan
- By: Kim Phillips-Fein
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Long before the "culture wars" usually associated with the rise of conservative politics, driven individuals funded think tanks, fought labor unions, and formed organizations to market their views.These nearly unknown, larger-than-life, and sometimes eccentric personalities - such as General Electric's zealous, silver-tongued Lemuel Ricketts Boulware and the self-described "revolutionary" Jasper Crane of DuPont - make for a fascinating, behind-the-scenes view of American history.
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The Conservative battle for taking back the New Deal
- By Dr Joseph Borreggine on 05-13-24
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Pivotal Tuesdays
- Four Elections That Shaped the Twentieth Century
- By: Margaret O'Mara
- Narrated by: James Killavey
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Pivotal Tuesdays looks back at four pivotal presidential elections of the past 100 years to show how they shaped the 20th century. During the rowdy, four-way race in 1912 between Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Eugene Debs, and Woodrow Wilson, the candidates grappled with the tremendous changes of industrial capitalism and how best to respond to them. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt's promises to give Americans a "New Deal" to combat the Great Depression helped him beat the beleaguered incumbent, Herbert Hoover.
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Important book...especially this year.
- By Jim on 07-31-16
By: Margaret O'Mara
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Audacity
- How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail
- By: Jonathan Chait
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the course of eight years, Barack Obama has amassed an array of outstanding achievements. His administration saved the American economy from collapse, expanded health insurance to millions who previously could not afford it, negotiated an historic nuclear deal with Iran, helped craft a groundbreaking international climate accord, reined in Wall Street, and crafted a new vision of racial progress.
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Good and balanced view of the Obama years
- By Paul on 02-01-17
By: Jonathan Chait
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Broke
- The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth and Treasure
- By: Glenn Beck, Kevin Balfe
- Narrated by: Glenn Beck, Brian Sack
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In the words of Harvard economist Niall Ferguson, the United States is “an empire on the edge of chaos.” Why? Glenn Beck thinks the answer is pretty simple: Because we’ve turned our backs on the Constitution. Yes, our country is financially broke, but that’s just a side effect of our broken spirit, our broken faith in government, the broken promises by our leaders, and a broken political system that has centralized power at the expense of individual rights.
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Finally book that has done the reasearch...
- By dah551 on 10-31-10
By: Glenn Beck, and others
What listeners say about If We Can Keep It
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Kindle Customer
- 03-12-19
What makes America great
An interesting account of historical information that explains how we got to the position we are in today.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Matt
- 07-11-19
a Clarion call to Wake us all
this book lets us know that our democracy is in peril and we must work to defend it
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- marwalk
- 08-01-19
A must read for rectifying today's polarization
For any hope of rectifying today's dysfunctional polarization, this book is a must read. The title says it all, and the author delivers as it promises. Michael Tomasky takes the famous quote of Benjamin Franklin from 1787 and proceeds to answer it at the end, after covering in relevant detail the different ages and stages the US republic has been through. Tomasky highlights the threads and similarities of history to our own time as he traces pivotal events throughout the country's development—we are arguably in the most perilous time of national dissolution since the Civil War. If in reading this book you feel that you've been misled by your history lessons in school, it's because we have all been so misled. Historical players throughout the life of the US were as fully human as any of us are today, complete with both noble and base motives. Today's America has notable similarities to what was chronicled by Alexis de Tocqueville in the Nineteenth Century.
Tomasky shows why the relative political harmony of the 1950s was unique in the country's history, and why the conditions that spawned it no longer exist. The author documents how today's Republican Party is on a war footing—not driven by public opinion but by the wealthy libertarian and theocratic enablers who control them, and the part of the population influenced by the vast network of media and think tanks they've funded at unprecedented levels over the long term. The result has been the creation of gerrymandered districts and conservative judicial packing, crafted to guarantee the imposition of supply side fallacies and irrational hostility toward non-white persons. It's no accident that Trump defends neo-Nazis and other xenophobes, with negligible protest from any Republican who expects to remain in the party.
It's axiomatic that a republic can function only with the active and informed involvement of its citizens. But Tomasky illustrates how too many people are just consumers, and have forsaken their role as citizens. The Democratic Party so far has been an ineffective counter to the war footing of the other side. While debating actual policy issues the Democrats have not pursued a winner take all posture, in spite of the desire of many on the left that they do exactly that. Tomasky (a self declared liberal) postulates that the Democrats do not have enough liberals to form a ruling coalition—and they will need to include moderates under their tent to achieve the number of legislators and other elected officials necessary to govern (as long as Republicans lack any impulse toward bipartisanship).
Even if there were a series of electoral blue waves, Tomasky proffers the sobering thought that saving the republic will be a long term endeavor. And it will necessarily require that Americans in different parts of society get to know one another personally as fellow human beings. The author's list of recommendations is long (and I think reasonable), but he cautions that achieving them will face formidable opposition—even so, we should pursue them nonetheless. For example, one recommendation involves ranked choice at large voting for seats in the House of Representatives. Suppose a hypothetical state has 10 congressional seats, and they are currently gerrymandered to deliver 8 of them to the Republicans when 65% of the total vote statewide goes to Democrats. In ranked choice voting, a candidate must abandon a winner take all campaign approach, as that candidate will need to court support from other voters who might rank that candidate as their second choice—which might make the difference between getting a seat in the House and not. This would result in reduced radicalism and more accommodation of different interests, and actually providing representation for thousands who are currently unrepresented in gerrymandered winner take all single member districts.
One of the most hopeful signs Tomasky observes is a movement among corporate executives on their own toward social responsibility. The concern for only share holder profits and nothing else that was advocated by Milton Friedman is finally wearing thin. Corporate executives are the one group that could have some credibility with conservative voters. Let us wish them well in this endeavor—for the sake of the country, and humanity.
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- Mike Shelby
- 03-29-19
Republican MONSTERS broke our politics.
This analysis is spot on how "conservatives" have colluded to ruin the American Way! TRAITORS!
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5 people found this helpful
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- Roy Roebuck
- 12-03-22
Excellent for those seeking to preserve democracy.
History of our natural and evolving polarization, #neofeudalism's attack on democracy and the republic, and some attainable solutions.
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- John W Medina
- 06-08-19
Worthless washed-up embittered democrat screed
Rarely have I heard a historian so blatantly and comfortably allow his political biases color his interpretation of facts. His premise that political polarization used to be intra-party rather than inter-party is just flat out historically unfounded. His further, politically motivated, attribution of all polarization to Republicans is historically blind. I will never again read anything written by this hack. Why would I subject myself to his seething propaganda?
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3 people found this helpful
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- Greg King
- 09-24-19
So left it defies credibility
It is apparently way too hard for this author to balance the narrative. Had he done so he might earn the attention to which he believes he’s entitled.
This is a poorly disguised attempt to shame Republicans. Classic shame game without balance.
Too bad
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1 person found this helpful
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- Buck from Montana
- 10-21-20
Liberals???????????
I'm sure this type of think has been productive within many of our institutions but in my opinion it's an attempt to rewrite history and denounce freedom
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