It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism Audiobook

Quotes

• “In It’s Even Worse Than It Looks, Mann and Ornstein diagnose the roots of our nation’s new legislative order. In doing so, they draw attention to the forces holding back America’s future and the changes we must make in order to overcome them.”

  — Bill Clinton

• “[Mann and Ornstein] are considered straight shooters. So their key argument is striking…Things may not only be worse than they look; the worst may be yet to come.”

  — New York Times Book Review

• “It is encouraging to see two longtime Washington wise men—Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, sensible, nonpartisan scholars and impeccably credentialed authors of good advice that no one ever follows—come out with a full-blown polemic against the Republicans who have steered Congress off a cliff.”

  — New York Times

• “Reading this book is a little like quaffing a double espresso on an empty stomach—it’s a jolt. For this reader it was a welcome jolt…Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein have been Washington fixtures for three decades. They are two of the brightest, best informed, and most scholarly students of our politics…[As] Mann and Ornstein document so vividly, at a time when only good government could help us rediscover our footing as a nation, our Grand Old Party defines itself as the party of anti-government. This is why the title of this book is so good: our situation really is even worse than it looks.”

  — Washington Post

• “The phrase ‘essential reading’ does not begin to get at the importance of this passionate warning by two of our very best political scientists about our nation’s capacity to govern itself. Mann and Ornstein sweep aside the timid conventional wisdom to inform Americans that our problems are even worse than we think they are. It is absolutely vital that this book’s findings and message enter the consciousness and consciences of journalists, politicians, and citizens who care about the future of our republic.”

  — E. J. Dionne, National Book Award nominee

• “What happens to a two-party political system when one party goes mad? That is the question posed in a powerful and angry new book by two scholars at two respected think tanks.”

  — Economist

• “This is an exceptionally important and cogent analysis of America’s breakdown in self-governance. It is an urgent warning of the consequences of our intolerant politics and governing paralysis and ways to fix it.”

  — Chuck Hagel, former US senator and distinguished professor, Georgetown University

• “One doesn’t have to agree with every one of Mann and Ornstein’s proposals to appreciate the extraordinary contribution to improving governance that they make in this important book. We could do no better than to use it as a compelling blueprint for urgently needed reform. If every member of Congress would read just one book on the subject, my wish is that it would be this one.”

  — Tom Daschle, former Senate majority leader

• “More than any time in my lifetime, the United States is challenged at home and so is our place in the world. When Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein get together to sound a loud alarm about the way our political system is being torn apart, it’s time to listen—and listen hard. Then the tough part—how do we restore some sense of common purpose, of working together to make our government work? Mann and Ornstein set out ways to rebuild political bridges, beginning right now. We’d better get to work.”

  — Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve

• “Two respected centrist scholars, Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, have written a book that moves past the bland and lazy conventional wisdom. They argue, with a truckload of evidence, that the blame in Washington lies overwhelmingly with Republicans…Both fascinating and alarming.”

  — New Jersey Star Ledger

• “[A] compelling analysis of the gridlock that characterizes America’s domestic politics.”

  — The Mitchell Report

• “Fillets the traditional media for perpetuating a principle of false equivalence in its coverage of the two parties, the effect of which, they say, has merely masked the GOP’s unalloyed march toward the fringes of the right wing…Insightful.”

  — Nation