[This books author, writes reviewer Maiello, believes the tale of
the shifts in U.S. party politics "is best told as a struggle among
people to build the majorities necessary to win elections and to pass
meaningful legislation into law." ]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

REALIGNERS: PARTISAN HACKS, POLITICAL VISIONARIES, AND THE STRUGGLE
TO RULE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY  
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Michael Maiello
November 8, 2022
Washington Independent Review of Books
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_ This book's author, writes reviewer Maiello, believes the tale of
the shifts in U.S. party politics "is best told as a struggle among
people to build the majorities necessary to win elections and to pass
meaningful legislation into law." _

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_Realigners
Partisan Hacks, Political Visionaries, and the Struggle to Rule
American Democracy_
Timothy Shenk
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 9780374138004

Political division has defined American politics since at least the
Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2008, but maybe back to 2000, which
featured the first of two presidential elections this century to
install a president who’d won the Electoral College but not the
popular vote. We’ve had slim congressional majorities and massive
public protests ever since. And no leader or movement has emerged to
transcend the differences of opinion that permeate the public mind.

Sometimes, it feels naive to hope one ever will again.

Historian Thomas Shenk argues in _Realigners
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leadership before, in more divided and precarious times, including
during the Civil War and the Great Depression. Our present
dysfunctions reveal a failure of leadership, yes, but not a failure of
_the idea_ of leadership. There has always been, as the author
describes, a “Golden Line” between the elite and the governed in
American politics. Our present elite has failed to build convincing
electoral majorities. Nothing will change until they do.

Going back to the writing of the U.S. Constitution, elections are what
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and their wealthy and influential
collaborators imagined gave moral justification for the government to
exert power over a population of individuals who saw themselves as
free and self-governing. Hamilton and Madison may have been concerned
with the tyranny of kings, but they were more worried that the newly
independent country would fall into anarchy, particularly as local
communities challenged the federal government’s right to collect
taxes to pay down Revolutionary War debts.

The creation of the Constitution — written in secret — was the
country’s first major realignment. Though the document would need
eventual nationwide ratification, Hamilton and Madison did not want
public input on every point. Rather, they sought acquiescence to the
finished product. While the process was messy and compromises were
made, Hamilton and Madison effectively controlled the conversation and
were able to cement the Constitution into American society even
though, Shenk estimates, it never would’ve been ratified had it been
put to a yes/no vote from the people rather than their
representatives.

Throughout _Realigners_, we see this theme repeat as influential
Americans from all sides of politics orchestrate and guide public
debate to create outcomes that are, if not inevitable, at least highly
likely. Shenk’s realigners are often not the people who seek or hold
public office. (Presidents play a surprisingly small part in his
story, with the exception of Barack Obama.) Mostly, they include
political commentators, strategists, and activists like W.E.B. Du
Bois, Walter Lippmann, and Phyllis Schlafly.

Shenk’s take on history differs from most. Some historians, like
Nikole Hannah-Jones in her 1619 Project for the New York Times, look
for a narrative through-line such as slavery to tell the story of
America’s founding to its present. Others might build a narrative
out of capitalism, civil liberties, rebellion, or religion. Yet Shenk,
a progressive who was recently co-editor of the political journal
Dissent, believes the story is best told as a struggle among people to
build the majorities necessary to win elections and to pass meaningful
legislation into law. He writes:

“[R]ather than stressing continuity, a study of realignments has to
underline the importance of change. Because there’s no one thread
tying the history of American democracy together, no abiding center,
no single answer. But there is a recurring question: How can you build
an electoral majority?”

Over time, the federal government has become both more directly
democratic (by expanding the voting population and allowing for the
direct election of senators) and more powerful (particularly in the
areas of regulation, law enforcement, the military, and intelligence).
This renders it both responsive to and resistant to public will. What
matters, then, is the ability of government leaders to manufacture
consensus that allows for progress. A lot of people wanting something
just isn’t enough.

Shenk cites major popular movements that have failed to significantly
influence the government. Black Lives Matter, formed in 2013 and
reinvigorated by the 2020 murder of George Floyd, put police reforms
on the federal agenda, but Congress chose not to act on them. Years
prior, Occupy Wall Street demanded economic reforms that were largely
ignored. A decade later, about all the movement could claim credit for
was the limited (but substantial) student-loan forgiveness endorsed
this year by President Joe Biden.

Old techniques for controlling the debate don’t seem to work as well
anymore. Though it’s not mentioned in the book, Obama, a rare
president-as-realigner, tried to cut through the politics of long-term
budgeting by appointing a bipartisan panel — led by Alan Simpson and
Erskine Bowles — to make recommendations to Congress that inevitably
included cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The committee’s
suggestions went nowhere. We have to wonder if Hamilton and Madison
would’ve been effective in this era of social media, cable news, and
free-flowing information.

Shenk is an optimist, however. He looks to the Civil Rights Movement
and its 1963 March on Washington as a model for progress. The right
leaders with the right allies and the right communication strategies
can still build coalitions in the United States. And while some of
today’s loudest voices seem to enjoy — and even stoke — our
divisions, the mass of well-meaning Americans can be led to build a
better society. That’s the hope, anyway.

_Michael Maiello is an author, journalist, and playwright. He worked
for 10 years as a writer and editor at Forbes, and his work has
appeared in McSweeney’s, the New Yorker, the New York Times, and
other publications. Find his free Substack here
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* Politics
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* Party alignments
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* elections
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* U.S. elections
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