MaxQ

Would like to recommend the book "How Democracies Die" by Stephen Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.
Copyright 2018

I recommended this book in the Majors-Delta-Book Rec thread as well. In it I made a request, if one feels compelled to comment, to come to this thread in Hangar Talk, rather than hijack the mentioned book rec thread on the Delta page.

The book is succinct and an easy read. It speaks briefly to a number of pathologies affecting our Democracy without going into great depth on any of them. Since each of the problems would require their own book to treat them adequately, I felt this work hit a nice balance.
Also, it minimizes the "both sides" argument. It has some very definite conclusions while avoiding being a polemic. This IS NOT a fear and rage book.
It is a 'we have problems, this is how they have come to be, what should we do about them?' type of book. Spock would probably like their way of approaching the issue(s).

Excargodog

Doctor Spock or Commander Spock?

TiredSoul

Is it illustrated?

JohnBurke

It's an interactive pop-up book, with sounds. Just pull the string.

MaxQ

Well played

SonicFlyer

You do realize that the US is not, was not, and never has been a democracy, right?

Hubcapped

yes captain literal, i believe he does.

Myfingershurt

So weird, I’ve seen this thread a few times in passing and every time i read it as “how democrats dies.” I guess the mind really does see what it wants to see.

MaxQ

The old John Birch Society slogan: 'We are a republic, not a democracy'.
The slogan was misleading when initially used and still is. It was part of their assault on the freedoms of those they did not consider to be deserving of being part of the republic.

The USA is a democratic republic. Or, to be slightly more accurate a representative democratic republic.

To quote from the book's introduction.
"For the sake of clarity, we are defining a democracy as a system of government with regular, free and fair elections, in which all adult citizens have the right to vote and possess basic civil liberties such as freedom of speech and association."

Hubcapped

so weird, there are people running around pretending to be advocates of a free society yet they want to see citizens that dont agree with their views dead. How very………..un American