“An urgent and engaging look at how American politics have become the founding fathers’ worst nightmare” (The Daily Beast). America’s political system is dysfunctional. We know it, yet the problem seems intractable—after every election, voters discover yet again that political “leaders” are simply quarreling in a never-ending battle between the two warring tribes. As a former congressman, Mickey Edwards witnessed firsthand how important legislative battles can devolve into struggles not over principle but over party advantage. He offers graphic examples of how this problem has intensified and reveals how political battles have become nothing more than conflicts between party machines. In this critically important book, he identifies exactly how our political and governing systems reward intransigence, discourage compromise, and undermine our democracy—and describes exactly what must be done to banish the negative effects of partisan warfare from our political system and renew American democracy. “Overcoming tribalism and knee-jerk partisanship is the central challenge of our time. Mickey Edwards shows why and how in this fascinating book filled with sensible suggestions.” —Walter Isaacson, New York Times–bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci “Many Americans, whether Democrats, Republicans, independent or otherwise, would welcome a few more like [Edwards] in office.” —The Boston Globe

Since 1952, the social bases of the Democratic and Republican parties have undergone radical reshuffling. At the start of this period southern Blacks favored Lincoln’s Republican Party over suspect Democrats, and women favored Democrats more than Republicans. In 2020 these facts have been completely reversed. A Tale of Two Parties: Living Amongst Democrats and Republicans Since 1952 traces through this transformation by showing: How the United States society has changed over the last seven decades in terms of regional growth, income, urbanization, education, religion, ethnicity, and ideology; How differently the two parties have appealed to groups in these social cleavages; How groups in these social cleavages have become concentrated within the bases of the Democratic and Republican parties; How party identification becomes intertwined with social identity to generate polarization akin to that of rapid sports fans or primitive tribes. A Tale of Two Parties: Living Amongst Democrats and Republicans Since 1952 will have a wide and enthusiastic readership among political scientists and researchers of American politics, campaigns and elections, and voting and elections.

The Republican Party is the vehicle of an ideological movement whereas the Democratic Party is a coalition of social groups with concrete policy concerns. Democrats prefer a more moderate party leadership that makes compromises, whereas Republicans favor a more conservative party leadership that sticks to principles. Each party finds popular support for its approach because the American public simultaneously favors liberal positions on specific policy issues and conservative views on the broader role of government.

As Washington elites drifted toward ideological poles over the past few decades, did ordinary Americans follow their lead? In The Partisan Sort, Matthew Levendusky reveals that we have responded to this trend—but not, for the most part, by becoming more extreme ourselves. While polarization has filtered down to a small minority of voters, it also has had the more significant effect of reconfiguring the way we sort ourselves into political parties. In a marked realignment since the 1970s—when partisan affiliation did not depend on ideology and both major parties had strong liberal and conservative factions—liberals today overwhelmingly identify with Democrats, as conservatives do with Republicans. This “sorting,” Levendusky contends, results directly from the increasingly polarized terms in which political leaders define their parties. Exploring its far-reaching implications for the American political landscape, he demonstrates that sorting makes voters more loyally partisan, allowing campaigns to focus more attention on mobilizing committed supporters. Ultimately, Levendusky concludes, this new link between party and ideology represents a sea change in American politics.

Are Democrats more tolerant than Republicans? Are they more intelligent? Who spends more time at work and who spends more time watching TV? Why are Republicans happier? Who benefits more from Social Security? All of these questions, and many more, are answered in Democrats and Republicans - Rhetoric and Reality. It uses authoritative survey evidence and statistics to compare the conduct and achievements of the Democratic and Republican constituencies. Many of the findings are surprising. For example, Democrats and Republicans have different tendencies with regard to trust, self-esteem, "apparent intelligence," political knowledge, mental health, happiness, work hours, charity, and even body mass index. These general differences are quantifiable and statistically significant. The author principally relied on data from the General Social Survey and the American National Election Studies, rounded out by surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, the Gallup Organization, the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, Harris Interactive, and other organizations. Although the book is aimed at the popular market, it has all of the supporting references and statistical significance of an academic work. Interspersed among the findings are quotations from pundits, politicians, philosophers, celebrities, fruitcakes, etc. Although some of this rhetoric is strident, the book's overall tone is objective - a refreshing alternative to the bombastic polemics we often see in modern political works. The last chapter comprises several constructive lessons that can be learned from the various Democratic-Republican comparisons. This is the most comprehensive and authoritative book written about the constituencies of our two major political parties. It should be in the personal library of anyone who is interested in American politics

The Democratic and Republican Parties are virtual opposites of each other in their economic records, going back to the earliest period for which economic data were available, around 1910. More than a dozen studies have been done comparing economic growth, unemployment, average length of unemployment, stock market performance, inflation, federal debt, and other economic indicators, during Democratic and Republican presidencies and congresses, and they all show stunningly better performance when Democrats are in power, than when Republicans are. These studies are all available online, and they are all summarized and discussed in this path-breaking book, which settles, once and for all, the question of whether there's any significant economic difference between the two Parties. Not only is there a difference, but - shockingly - it always runs in favor of Democrats in power. There might be other types of reasons for voting Republican, but all of the economic reasons favor voting for Democrats. Regarding economic performance, the two Parties aren't even close. ------- CONTENTS 4: Democrats Are Better for the Stock Markets 10: Democrats Are Plain Better for the Economy 19: The Grand Old Prejudice Causes Economic Stagnation 40: Democrats Reduce, Republicans Increase, Government Deficits 46: Republicans Actually Win by Punishing the Nation 105: Conservatism Is Based Only on Faith 114: Trickle-Down vs. Percolate-Up Economics 122: Republicans Harm More than Just the Economy 123: Would Romney Be Better than Obama? 125: References/Sources