Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein
“Why We're Polarized” is a very good book that describes how American politics became toxic and what it means for our future. Host of the Ezra Klein Show, editor-at-large and cofounder of Vox, Ezra Klein provides readers with an insightful and timely book on our political divide. This instructive 336-page book includes the following ten chapters: 1. How Democrats Became Liberals and Republicans Became Conservatives, 2. The Dixiecrat Dilemma, 3. Your Brain on Groups, 4. The Press Secretary in Your Mind, 5. Demographic Threat, 6. The Media Divide beyond Left-Right, 7. Post-Persuasion Elections, 8. When Bipartisanship Becomes Irrational, 9. The Difference between Democrats and Republicans, and 10. Managing Polarization—and Ourselves.
Positives:
1. Superbly-researched, well-written book for the masses.
2. An excellent and timely topic, how American politics became toxic and what it means for our future.
3. I really like Klein’s style. It’s a smooth, pleasant read. His tone is respectful and the facts are professorial. It’s a fair account despite his own obvious leanings.
4. The introduction sets the right tone for the rest of the book. “The first part of this book will tell the story of how and why American politics polarized around identity in the twentieth century and what that polarization did to the way we see the world and each other. The second half of the book is about the feedback loops between polarized political identities and polarized political institutions that are driving our political system toward crisis.”
5. One of the great strengths of this book is the research done and providing great historical accounts of how we got to here. “So here, then, is the last fifty years of American politics summarized: we became more consistent in the party we vote for not because we came to like our party more—indeed, we’ve come to like the parties we vote for less—but because we came to dislike the opposing party more. Even as hope and change sputter, fear and loathing proceed.”
6. Illustrates political changes over time. “Reagan, for his part, signed an immigration reform bill that today’s Democrats venerate and today’s Republicans denounce. “I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and who have lived here even though sometime back they may have entered illegally,” Reagan said.
7. Fascinating history on the Dixiecrats. “The passage of the Civil Rights Act heralded the death of the Dixiecrats. The death of the Dixiecrats cleared the way for southern conservatives to join the Republican Party and northern liberals to join the Democratic Party.”
8. An excellent chapter that looks at the science behind partisanship. “How we feel matters much more than what we think, and in elections, the feelings that matter most are often our feelings about the other side. Negative partisanship rears its head again.” Bonus, “But it didn’t matter. “For both liberal and conservative participants, the effect of reference group information overrode that of policy content. If their party endorsed it, liberals supported even a harsh welfare program, and conservatives supported even a lavish one.””
9. A look at demographics. “Obama himself was a symbol of a browning America, of white America’s loss of control, of the fact that the country was changing and new groups were gaining power. That perception carried the force of fact.”
10. Quotes that stick. “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”
11. In the second half of the book, Klein focuses on the feedback loop of polarization. “You can call this the echo chamber theory of polarization: we’ve cocooned ourselves into hearing information that only tells us how right we are, and that’s making us more extreme.”
12. The art of appealing to the masses. “You can arouse that passion through inspiration, as Obama did, or through conflict, as Trump did. What you can’t do is be boring.”
13. Interesting conclusions. Spoiler alert. “How did a candidate as abnormal as Trump win the Republican primary and end up with such a normal share of the general election vote? Weak parties and strong partisanship is the answer.”
14. American politics in a nutshell. “Individual donors are polarizing. Institutional donors are corrupting. American politics, thus, is responsive to two types of people: the polarized and the rich.”
15. The irrationality of bipartisanship. “Over the past decade, “justices have hardly ever voted against the ideology of the president who appointed them,” Epstein and Posner find. “Only Justice Kennedy, named to the court by Ronald Reagan, did so with any regularity.””
16. What America is. “America is not a democracy. Our political system is built around geographic units, all of which privilege sparse, rural areas over dense, urban ones.”
17. The differences between the parties. “Republicans are overwhelmingly dependent on white voters. Democrats are a coalition of liberal whites, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. Republicans are overwhelmingly dependent on Christians. Democrats are a coalition of liberal and nonwhite Christians, Jews, Muslims, New Agers, atheists, Buddhists, and so on.”
18. How to manage polarization. “But let’s start with the system. There are three categories of reform I think particularly worth exploring: bombproofing, democratizing, and balancing.”
19. Insightful conclusion. “My point is not that we should all go informationally Galt. But I’ll be blunt here in a way that cuts against my professional interests: we give too much attention to national politics, which we can do very little to change, and too little attention to state and local politics, where our voices can matter much more.”
20. Notes included. Many references quoted.
Negatives:
1. Klein is fair but there is no way to hide his bias; as my friend once stated, the facts have a liberal bias.
2. Lacks supplementary visual material like charts or graphs that would have complimented the excellent material.
3. As Klein himself admits, the diagnosis is far more complete than the diagnosis.
4. Focuses on process but very little on the organizations and people behind them.
5. No Table of Contents?
In summary, this was an insightful and fun book to read. Klein is a professional author, he exhaustively researches his topic and provides many useful insights. A fascinating topic conveyed with great rhythm and substance. Lack of supplementary materials aside and the fact that the book focuses on processes more than the people behind it, this is a must-read, a very topical book that provides readers with clarity on the polarization of American politics. I highly recommend it!
Further suggestions: “How Democracies Die“ by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, “Trumpocalypse” by David Frum, “Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America” by Cass R. Sunstein, “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” by David Cay Johnston, “Inequality” by Anthony B. Atkinson, “The Great Divide” by Joseph Stiglitz, “Winner-Take All Politics” by Jacob S. Hacker, “White Rage” by Carol Anderson, “Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire” by Kurt Andersen, and “A Colony in a Nation” by Chris Hayes.