Name: The decline and fall of the American republic
ISBN: 9780674057036

Bruce Ackerman

The decline and fall of the American republic

Reading this book 16 years after it's original release is interesting to say the least. Checking the book reviews from the time of release that include phrases such as, "too heavy on alarmist rhetoric," are amusing and sad considering the current state of things. That said... This book is terrific as a diagnostic - for the most part. Where it fails is as a prescriptive. Ackerman correctly saw the executive branch as having collected for itself far more power than was ever really intended and that so much of what most citizens believed were actual rules were merely accepted norms just waiting for an unscrupulous president to disregard and exploit. Many columns have been written about just this topic since 2016. But where Ackerman missed is that Congress is not the victim of having its powers usurped. They have been largely willing accomplices. The average congressman would prefer to shirk their duties, blame the President (if something goes wrong) or hope the glory reflects a bit on them (if things go well.) They just want to get re-elected, then maybe retire and get that lobbyist job or think-tank sinecure. He also misses the mark on the Supreme Court though that is more an artifact of the time this book was written and the decisions that have been issued with respect to the Executive branch in the intervening years. His prescriptions are wild. They would be charitably be described as non-starters. He ends though, with Hamilton's Federalist 1 opener: "It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind." Ackerman seems to be implying hopefulness for the nation. I'm not so sanguine, unfortunately.

The decline and fall of the American republic

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