A review by keeshkid
It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the Politics of Extremism by Norman J. Ornstein, Thomas E. Mann

reading this as part of thinking about the institutional design of elections, the senate, the media, and how that ties in to the creation of how our politics operate today. this book isn’t perfect (I actually pretty strongly disagree with some of the underlying assumptions that guide this argument) but I think the idea of asymmetric polarization is really important to following and discussing contemporary American politics and provides a much more thoughtful material analysis of the actual actions of both political parties than a lot of other academic literature i was exposed to on this topic. So much of other polarization readings I did in school play right into the “both sides” nonsense that’s pervasive across so many parts of our society and I feel like this book did a better job of countering that and also discussing structures and institutions. I appreciated the discussion of the filibuster and other senate institutions (having read Confirmation Bias earlier this year, that stuff was on the brain). Anyways, no great complete thoughts on everything but glad I took the time to read this whole book and not just the excerpt I was assigned in college.

“Both sides in politics are no more necessarily equally responsible than a hit-and-run driver and a victim; reporters don’t treat them as equivalent and neither should they reflexively treat the parties that way.... What’s the real story? Who’s telling the truth? Who is taking hostages at what risks and to what ends?”.