By: Daniel Nardini
Three books have come out by four distinguished authors who warn in their own independent ways about the looming crisis of an America not only adrift but also heading towards disaster. The first book I wish to cite, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future, by Columbia University Professor and Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz, warns that America today is far less of a land of opportunity than we think. Stiglitz’ book is a warning that America is a more unequal and divided class society than any other first world industrial nation. His book is making it clear that a nation divided into rich and poor will not only founder but will eventually disintegrate. The more have-nots we have, according to the author, the less likely that the United States will be a dynamic free enterprise nation built on innovation as it was over a generation ago.
The next book, It’s Even Worse Than it Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the Politics of Extremism, by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, talks about how the partisan politics in our Congress and especially within our society has badly damaged bipartisanship and is undermining the machinery of government. Both authors make it very clear that when both ruling parties cannot get along, then all of society suffers and nothing important gets done. And according to the authors it is getting worse. The final book I wish to cite, Drift, by Rachel Maddow, talks about how the U.S. military and other security agencies have become so powerful that now not only does our political leadership have no problem with war being perpetual but that they have built up super-bloated militarized bureaucracies like the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Indeed, all three books I have mentioned paint a picture of a dark America that is not only in perpetual war but also in the throes of extremism that is causing this country’s problems to worsen. The inequality that exists can only get worse if America does not tackle the issues at hand such as the national debt, the war in Afghanistan and American intervention elsewhere, and the lack of political will that is making America sink deeper into the abyss. These three books are looking at three different aspects of what ails the United States, but when put together these books provide great knowledge and insight, with a great deal of data, on where this nation might go if its problems are not tackled now. All four authors provide possible solutions if, of course, the politicians have the will to listen. In the end, it is the American people who must make the best choices for this nation of ours since it is likely that the politicians will not. I recommend all three books for my readers.
The Three Warning Signs
By: Daniel Nardini
The next book, It’s Even Worse Than it Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the Politics of Extremism, by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, talks about how the partisan politics in our Congress and especially within our society has badly damaged bipartisanship and is undermining the machinery of government. Both authors make it very clear that when both ruling parties cannot get along, then all of society suffers and nothing important gets done. And according to the authors it is getting worse. The final book I wish to cite, Drift, by Rachel Maddow, talks about how the U.S. military and other security agencies have become so powerful that now not only does our political leadership have no problem with war being perpetual but that they have built up super-bloated militarized bureaucracies like the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Indeed, all three books I have mentioned paint a picture of a dark America that is not only in perpetual war but also in the throes of extremism that is causing this country’s problems to worsen. The inequality that exists can only get worse if America does not tackle the issues at hand such as the national debt, the war in Afghanistan and American intervention elsewhere, and the lack of political will that is making America sink deeper into the abyss. These three books are looking at three different aspects of what ails the United States, but when put together these books provide great knowledge and insight, with a great deal of data, on where this nation might go if its problems are not tackled now. All four authors provide possible solutions if, of course, the politicians have the will to listen. In the end, it is the American people who must make the best choices for this nation of ours since it is likely that the politicians will not. I recommend all three books for my readers.