AMERICAN APOCALYPSE

A sobering look at the forces attacking the current stability of American democracy.

Steinzor, a law professor and the author of Why Not Jail? Industrial Catastrophes, Corporate Malfeasance, and Government Inaction, argues convincingly that what she calls “the six”—i.e., the major far-right groups battering the U.S. government over the last few decades—did not rise from the grassroots level, but were “pushed, top-down, by private-sector special interest groups.” These include “big business; the Tea Party and the Freedom Caucus, its descendant in the House of Representatives; the Federalist Society; Fox News; white evangelicals; and militia members.” While all of these groups have garnered national attention for years, the author examines each in depth and elucidates their shared priorities: power, money, influence, and a determination to peck away at the “size and power of the administrative state, especially agencies that protect public health, worker and consumer safety, and the environment.” Many of these agencies formed in the early 1970s during the Nixon administration and have since been diminished and defunded. During the Reagan era, corporations were empowered to combat the rules of regulations, especially at the Environmental Protection Agency. It got far worse during the Trump administration, when officials attempted to overturn car emission and other standards. The Tea Party was opposed to big government and regulation, the society safety net, and immigration, all issues taken up by the Freedom Caucus. The Federalist Society has essentially aided Republican presidents in choosing the conservative justices on the Supreme Court and elsewhere. Fox News amplifies the far-right talking points, while the white evangelicals and militia direct, often violently, the actions of their extremist leaders. The author concludes with an assessment of the failure of the left to combat these forces.

A pertinent scholarly work that highlights a host of significant obstacles to a smooth-functioning democracy.