SHAMELESS

A progressive political commentator offers his insights into the dysfunction that characterizes the modern Republican Party.

In his debut book, Cohen argues that the “Party of Lincoln” has been hijacked by “a burgeoning extremist faction for whom compromise is unacceptable and chaos is the goal.” Furthermore, “this reality is getting exponentially worse year after year—and as citizens, we are becoming dangerously numb to it.” The authoritarianism Republicans now represent threatens American democracy, and the assaults on decency and common sense, as made by the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, pose grave dangers. Drawing on conversations with historians, constitutional scholars, former senators, attorneys, and Biden administration cabinet members, Cohen suggests that GOP dysfunction comes from a perverse desire to break—rather than reform—a government system they believe is too large to function well. Before Trump became the party’s “racist, misogynist, anti-everything narcissist” center of gravity and just after Obama’s 2008 election win, Republicans like Newt Gingrich were laying the groundwork for a strategy built on opposition for partisan gain. Others, like Mitch McConnell, would pursue that strategy relentlessly throughout both Obama’s and Biden’s tenures as president. At the same time, they transformed “human wrecking ball” Donald Trump into the GOP standard-bearer who gave them license to “openly court white supremacists and neo-Nazis, who now march proudly down our streets.” However dismal the current political landscape, Cohen still believes that the situation can be salvaged if Americans recognize the power of their own agency. Rather than take refuge in helplessness, the author suggests that citizens must not only continue to participate in democracy, but they must also actively persuade those who have lost faith—and who now constitute the margins on which modern "elections are won or lost"—to participate as well.

A refreshingly bold and candid voice.