Overview

Before Trump even ran for President, his disdain for the rules, procedures, and norms of American democracy and the US Constitution was well-known and led prominent Republicans to repudiate him as unfit for the GOP nomination. Given the clear-eyed assessment of candidate Trump, why did the Republican Party nominate him as its presidential candidate in 2016 and then stand by him during the next four years? Much of the attention paid to Trump's rise to power has focused on his corrosive personality and divisive style of governing. But he alone is not the problem. The vulnerability is much broader and deeper. The ascendance of Trump is the culmination of nearly 250 years of political reforms that gradually ceded party nominations to small cliques of ideologically-motivated party activists, interest groups, and donors. In Democracy under Fire, Lawrence Jacobs provides a highly engaging history of political reforms since the late-eighteenth century that over time dangerously weakened democracy, widened political inequality as well as racial disparities, and rewarded toxic political polarization. Jacobs's searing indictment of political reformers concludes with recommendations to restrain the unbridled ambition of politicians who thrive on division and instead generate broad citizen engagement with tangible policy making.

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Lawrence R. Jacobs is founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance (CSPG) and holds the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Michael Butler Murray is a professional actor, narrator, and musician who has voiced over fifty-five audiobooks. His recorded titles run the spectrum from dramatic to comedic fiction and nonfiction titles varying in topics from the Middle East to understanding your dog's olfactory senses. Born on Long Island, New York, he has been performing his entire life. Over the past few decades, he has performed in slews of musicals, dramas, and improv shows across the country, has appeared in several films, and performs regularly with his guitar comedy duo, Schoolcraft & Murray. He loves stretching his legs in the great outdoors, sailing, surfing and, naturally, sitting in a quiet box reading aloud.

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