The final decisions in the Supreme Court’s election period 2021-2022 should prompt a major reconsideration on the part of climate activists and communicators.
Commentary
Here’s why. While liberal activists have spent decades trying to turn positive public opinion polls into effective policies, conservatives spent those decades creating the conservative court that simply rejected public opinion polls on gun control (60% of Americans want stricter gun control laws), climate change (65% believes that the government should do more in the field of climate change) and abortion (61% say it should be legal in all or most cases). Clearly, creating greater public concern or agreement is not enough. See the article : Politics in Two: Recent Supreme Court Decisions.
A good first step would be to systematically review what just happened. The 12 titles in this month’s bookshelf offer distinctly different but broadly affirming perspectives on issues involved in the Supreme Court’s recent rulings and on how the court itself has changed. No one, it should be noted, believes that conservatives achieved their latest success because they followed the Constitution.
The best and most direct vantage point is likely to be offered by the forthcoming book by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). He sees a decades-long strategy to conquer the Supreme Court, a strategy financed by dark money supplied by corporate interests (e.g. oil companies) and wealthy ideologues (e.g. Rupert Murdoch). Read the brochure and pre-order the book (delivered in October) at your favorite bookseller. Then turn your attention to the other titles on this month’s list, which describe different sectors of the big picture Senator Whitehouse will present.
Two titles focus on banner issues addressed by the court during this period. The first examines the National Rifle Association’s politicization of gun ownership; the other describes the religious right’s arming of the abortion issue.
Three titles review the critical role that Donald Trump played in the decades-long history of American politics and the courts; three more provide historical, economic, and demographic contexts.
But there is still hope, argue the last three titles on this list. Culturally diverse democracies are still in the experimental phase. And people are still learning to function, effectively and compassionately, in a world that is increasingly defined by social media. Management consultants often invoke the analogy of “repairing the plane while it is flying.” Americans now face a similarly frightening challenge: reinventing a democracy that will act on climate change.
Mistakes can mean that summers are too hot to celebrate the future quarter of July. And that would be unpatriotic.
As always, the descriptions of the titles are adapted from the copy provided by the publishers. When two release dates are specified, the other refers to the release of the paperback edition.
The Scheme: How the Right-Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse with Jennifer Mueller (The New Press 2022, * 304 pages, $ 26.99)
Following his book on corporate capture of regulatory and government agencies and based on his years as a prosecutor, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse turns his attention to the right-wing plan to capture the courts and how it affected Trump’s appointment of over 230 “business-friendly” judges. including the last three judges of the United States Supreme Court. Whitehouse traces the motive for controlling the justice system back to Lewis Powell’s infamous note, which provided a roadmap for companies’ influence in targeting the judiciary. Full of internal stories, the scheme draws back the curtain of the covert apparatus that has spent years trying to corrupt our policies, control our courts and degrade our democracy. * Scheduled for release in October.
Firepower: How the NRA Turned Gun Owners Into a Political Force by Matthew J. Lacombe (Princeton University Press 2021, 328 pages, $ 29.95)
The National Rifle Association has consistently managed to defeat or weaken proposed gun rules – even despite widespread public support for stricter laws and the proliferation of mass shootings and gun-related deaths. In Firepower, political scientist Matthew J. Lacombe takes readers from the 1930s to the age of Donald Trump and traces how the NRA’s enormous influence on national politics stems from its ability to shape its supporters’ political views and actions. Firepower sheds crucial new light on how the NRA has become powerful by mobilizing average Americans, and how it uses its GOP alliance to advance its goals and shape the national agenda, especially by fueling Trump’s unlikely political progress.
Dollars for Life: The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment by Mary Ziegler (Yale University Press 2022, 344 pages, $ 35.00)
In Dollars for Life, legal historian Mary Ziegler shows how the anti-abortion movement helped create and then reverse the Republican alliance between big business and conservative Christianity. RighttoLifers gained power in the GOP by changing the way campaign spending and First Amendment policies worked. The anti-abortion movement revolutionized the rules of money in American politics and persuaded conservative voters to fix the federal courts. The campaign funding landscape created by abortion enemies fueled the GOP’s embrace of populism and the rise of Donald Trump. The slow drive to extremes in American politics, Ziegler argues, had everything to do with the strange intersection of right-to-life politics and campaign spending.
American Catastrophe: Fundamentalism, Climate Change, Gun Rights, and Donald J. Trump by Luke Winslow (Ohio State University Press 2020, 220 pages, $ 32.00 paperback)
Most of us agree that disaster is harmful and that avoiding it is the key to human survival. In American Catastrophe, however, Luke Winslow argues that we live in a time when disaster serves not only as a dominant organizing rhetoric, but as an appealing and unifying force. Winslow uses rhetorical homology to explain how catastrophic appeals unite Americans across different religious, ecological, cultural, and political spheres. His analyzes of Christian fundamentalism, anti-environmentalism, gun rights messages, and the Trump administration reveal a consistent formal pattern. By teasing this orientation towards disaster, Winslow offers a fresh, provocative and insightful contribution to our most pressing social challenges.
Demolition Agenda: How Trump Tried to Dismantle American Government and What Biden Needs to Do to Save It by Thomas O. McGarity (The New Press 2022, 352 pages, $ 27.99)
Koch Industries spent millions in the early days of the Trump administration to secure the appointment of allies like Scott Pruitt (EPA). Ryan Zinke (Interior) and Rick Perry (Energy). In an original and compelling argument, Thomas McGarity shows how the addition of populists to the Republicans’ traditional base of free market ideologues and establishments, Republicans, allowed Trump to come dangerously close to achieving his goal of dismantling programs that Congress has launched over many decades. protect consumers, workers, communities, children and the environment. Finally, McGarity offers a plan to rebuild the protective structure and restore the power of the U.S. government to offer all Americans better lives.
Fighting the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the MAGA Media Are Destroying America by Dan Pfeiffer (Twelve / Hachette Book Group 2022, 336 pages, $ 30.00)
In Battling the Big Lie, Dan Pfeiffer explains how the right wing built a massive, billionaire-funded disinformation machine powerful enough to bend reality and almost steal elections in 2020. “MAGA Megaphone” personified by Fox News and powered by Facebook waging war against the very idea of objective truth. That’s why Donald Trump won in 2016, and that’s why the United States is unable to solve problems like COVID-19 and climate change. A functioning democracy depends on a common understanding of reality. America is tipping over because one of the parties in our two-party system considers truth, facts, and science as adversaries. Fighting the big lie is a call to arms for anyone who cares about truth and democracy.
White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America by Joan C. Williams, with a New Preface (Harvard Business Review Press 2017/2019, 208 pages, $ 19.99 paperback)
Now in paperback with a new preface, the White Working Class explains why so much of the elite’s analysis of the white working class is misunderstood, rooted in the ignorance of the class. Feminist legal researcher Joan C. Williams explains that many people have mixed “working class” with “poor” – but the working class is in fact the alleged disappearing middle class. Their dream is not to join the upper middle class, but to remain true to their own values in their own communities – just with more money. For anyone wondering why so many would seemingly vote against their own economic interests, or simply feel like a stranger in their own country, the White Working Class will be a compelling guide on how to connect to a crucial set of workers – and voters.
The Right: The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism by Matthew Continetti (Basic Books 2022, 496 pages, $ 32.00)
When most people think of the history of modern conservatism, they think of Ronald Reagan. Yet this narrow view leaves many questions: How did Donald Trump win the presidency? In The Right, Matthew Continetti gives a comprehensive account of the development of movement conservatism. He describes how it began as a network of intellectuals who developed and institutionalized a common vision until they succumbed to populist pressure. By drawing out the tensions between the desire for mainstream acceptance and the pull of extremism, Continetti argues that the more one studies the past of conservatism, the more one becomes convinced of its future. Right is important reading for anyone who wants to understand American conservatism.
Generation Gap: Why the Baby Boomers Still Dominate American Politics and Culture by Kevin Munger (Columbia University Press 2022, $ 30.00 paperback)
Baby Boomers is the largest and most powerful generation in American history. They are, on average, whiter, richer, and more conservative than younger generations. They dominate cultural and political institutions and make up the majority of voters. Generational conflicts, in which Millennials and Generation Z are pitted against the aging Boomer cohort, have become a media base. The generational difference is extended to a political fault line. Kevin Munger argues that this generational conflict will define politics for the next decade. By combining expertise in data analytics and digital culture with sharp insight into contemporary politics, Generation Gap explains why Baby Boomers remains so dominant and how quickly that can change.
Sustaining Democracy: What We Owe to the Other Side by Robert B. Talisse (Oxford University Press 2021, 184 pages, $ 29.95)
Democracy is not easy. Citizens who strongly disagree on politics should nevertheless work together as equal partners in collective self-government. Based on extensive social science research on political polarization and biased identity, Robert B. Talisse argues that when we interrupt civilian interactions with our political opponents, we endanger relations with our political allies. In the absence of engagement with our political critics, our alliances are becoming increasingly homogeneous, conformist, and hierarchical. Ultimately, our political goals suffer because our coalitions shrink and become ineffective. Why maintain democracy with our enemies? Because we need them if we are to maintain democracy with our allies and friends.
The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure by Yascha Mounk (Penguin Press 2022, 368 pages, $ 28.00)
Some democracies are very homogeneous. Others have long maintained a brutal racial or religious hierarchy, with some groups dominating and exploiting others. Never in history has a democracy succeeded in being both diverse and equal and treating members of many different ethnic or religious groups fairly. And yet it is now central to the democratic project to achieve that goal. The Great Experiment is the rare book that provides both a deep understanding of an urgent problem and a real hope for our human ability to solve it. As Mounk argues, it is simply not an opportunity to give up the prospect of building just and prosperous diverse democracies – and that is why we must strive to realize a more ambitious vision for the future of our society.
Two Cheers for Politics: Why Democracy Is Faulted, Frightening— and Our Best Hope by Jedediah Purdy (Basic Books 2022, * 304 pages, $ 30.00)
Americans across the political spectrum agree that our democracy is in crisis. We look at our political opponents with contempt, if not terror, and many of us are willing to consider authoritarian alternatives. In Two Cheers for Politics, Jedediah Purdy argues that this heated political culture is a symptom not of too much democracy, but too little. Today, the decisions that have the greatest impact on our lives and our society, often outside the political sphere – are made by markets, bureaucrats or influencers. The result is a weakened political system and an increasingly unequal and polarized society. We have to fight back, we have given up on anti-politics, and entrust each other with the power to shape our common life. * Scheduled for release in August.
Why is contemporary realistic fiction important?
The story helps children understand human problems and relationships and thus gain a greater understanding of themselves and their potential. The story can assure children that they are not the first person in the world to have faced a particular problem.
What is contemporary realistic fiction giving one and explaining? Contemporary Realistic Fiction consists of stories rooted in reality (can actually happen), but the characters are fictionalized. This may interest you : We remember Mark Shield’s life, career and legacy. Nothing in the story connects itself to a time or event in the story, but focuses on issues that children’s lives face today, such as divorce, a new sibling, or teenage issues.
What is the value of realistic fiction?
The value of realistic fiction Realistic fiction allows readers to learn about themselves and others in a non-threatening and entertaining way. See the article : Politics should not take precedence over priorities. Sometimes the presented problems are within the reader’s own experience, sometimes they are not.
What is the purpose of realistic fiction?
Modern / realistic: Realistic fiction creates imaginary characters and situations that depict our world and society. It focuses on themes of growing up and confronting personal and social issues. This genre portrays characters who come to understand themselves and others.
What is the importance of realistic stories?
A realistic character can remind you of yourself, or they can help you understand people with a different culture, religion, gender, sexuality, level of ability, or socioeconomic status. Reading about realistic characters with different experiences can help us gain better empathy with the people in our real lives.
What is the relevance of contemporary political analysis?
An important relevant topic for political analysis is the concept of power. For this reason, we study modern political analysis to examine the different perceptions of power that stem from mainstream and non-mainstream research and their implications for the analysis of politics.
What is the importance of writing a political analysis paper? A political analysis paper aims to answer a given question regarding a particular political process, event, as well as to predict future developments. Such a paper could also analyze an event or process from the past; it therefore does not necessarily deal with current situations and cases.
What is contemporary political analysis all about?
POL 311 Contemporary Political Analysis (3 Credit Units) It examines the meaning and nature of political analysis, and it also examines behavioral, institutionalism, and political cultural approaches in political analysis, including theories of dependence, modernization, and political economy.
What is the relevance of political thought in political science?
Political thinking deals with the normative aspect of political science. In this regard, it demonstrates the limits of political science and allows us to understand what we know and what we do not know. Political thinking teaches us what questions to ask in political science.
How is public policy made at the state and local levels of government?
Local public policies are made by local governments, such as cities or counties. For example, city governments have policies that describe the health codes that must be maintained at restaurants in the city. State governments also have policies. Most states have policies related to income taxes and sales taxes.
What is public policy and how is it created at the state and local government level? Public policy is how the government deals with issues that affect the people it governs. Public policy tackles societal challenges such as the use and allocation of resources and what needs to be done to ensure the needs and security of community members.
What is public policy in local government?
Public policy is best described as the broad field of state laws, regulations, court decisions, and local ordinances. Today, the government affects all aspects of our lives. All have a share in the public policies adopted by federal, state and local governments.
How is public policy made?
Public policy is developed by officials or agencies. It is a goal-oriented or purpose-oriented action, not random or random behavior. Policies are courses of action taken over time by officials, not separate or discreet decisions.
What levels of government are involved in public policy?
Intergovernmental relations: How the three levels of government work together. The US system of government consists of three levels: local, state, and federal. The three levels work together to help implement federal programs and mandates, such as those related to education and the environment.
