How Donald Trump became president and can America be great again? A look at the history
- In ‘If We Can Keep it’, author Michael Tomasky offers a highly readable lesson in US history and politics arriving at Trump in power today
- He doesn’t blame Trump for where the US is right now, but credits him with lighting the fuse that exploded into partisanship
If We Can Keep It, by Michael Tomasky. Published by Liveright. 4 stars
Like his earlier four-page letter of absolution, US Attorney General William Barr’s press conference last Thursday quickly degenerated into fan fiction.
Back on planet Earth, Russia wanted to boost Team Trump, his minions were ready and willing and the president was predictably obstructive. Instead of indicting him, Bob Mueller damned him. On Good Friday, the president was left to tweet profanely and profusely. To quote John Milton, “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”
And entitlement is not limited to the Oval Office. Operation Varsity Blues and Charlie Kushner buying Jared a seat at Harvard are vivid reminders that college admissions can be rigged for the sake of mammon and parental posterity.
Enter the Daily Beast writer Michael Tomasky with If We Can Keep It, a look at America’s journey to this point. Under the subtitle, “How the Republic Collapsed and How it Might be Saved”, Tomasky offers a highly readable lesson in US history, politics and civics. He contends that partisanship, not unity, is the country’s political state of nature, and furnishes suggestions as to how we might step away from the brink.