I’m confident I’m not the only person looking at this November’s presidential election through parted fingers, feeling powerless to stop what appears to be an unstoppable horror. The U.S. political system has descended into a kind of madness and dysfunction.
Worries about crime, immigration, and economic inequality and the seeming inability of our political leaders to address these problems abound. Migrants are demagogued as an invading force. White supremacists are seen as a viable political constituency. Cities are declared to be unlivable cesspools of crime. Misinformation and hate flow freely.
It’s more than sort of terrifying, to me at least.
A tremendously interesting, highly entertaining new book argues that the roots of our present-day crack-up can be found in an earlier time, and that perhaps the forces that were almost unleashed then cannot be contained now.
The book is “When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s” by John Ganz.
“When the Clock Broke” is a masterful yoking together of historiography, political science, sociological analysis, cultural criticism, and political theory, rendered in the always lively and engaging style of the author, who is most known for his independent newsletter, “Unpopular Front.”
As the subtitle suggests, the book is a tapestry of major, minor and even forgotten figures in the political landscape of the post-Reagan years, and how these figures contributed ingredients to what has become a truly toxic stew.
The book starts with David Duke, the neo-Nazi and former Klansman who was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives before making failed runs for governor, senator and then president. An overt white supremacist, Duke was thwarted by a political establishment that rallied against him, but as Ganz notes, in each of his state-level races, Duke achieved a majority of the white vote thanks to voters who approved of his racial demagoguery.
Ganz segues to Pat Buchanan, who looked at the success of David Duke and wondered if Duke’s message would go over better in a Washington-ready package like him. Buchanan’s insurgent challenge to incumbent George H.W. Bush, which focused on repelling an “invasion” at the border, threw a brief scare into the sitting president.
Out of these origins, Ganz traces the additional forces that shaped the political landscape, voter “rage” that made room for a Ross Perot candidacy in 1992 that had the Texan leading in the polls during the summer before the public got to know him and didn’t like what they saw. Another chapter looks at the rise of political talk radio, particularly Rush Limbaugh, and the effect of relentless partisan propaganda and demonization of the media on public opinion.
Each chapter shows attacks on our various institutions — political parties, governments, media, schools — that leave them badly battered. As a government fails to fulfill the needs of people, other forces fill the gap, preying on alienation for power and profit. In New York City, the mob of John Gotti and the mayorship of Rudy Giuliani are two sides of the same coin. Subsequent events have shown they may actually occupy the same face.
The subtext of Ganz’s narrative and analysis is the creation of a world where a Trump figure not only achieves power, but is able to co-opt institutions to his own venial ends, as a kind of mobster who understands how to pull the raw levers of power.
The way Ganz braids these stories makes not just a convincing case, but an engaging, and dare I say entertaining one.
And also, maybe a little bit reassuring one. We’ve been here before, and managed to stumble forward. Perhaps this can happen again.
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Twitter @biblioracle
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “The Most Fun We Ever Had” by Claire Lombardo
2. “First Lie Wins” by Ashley Elston
3. “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt
4. “The Housemaid” by Freida McFadden
5. “The Covenant of Water” by Abraham Verghese
— Lydia P., Arlington Heights
For Lydia I’m recommending one of my favorite suspense thrillers of recent vintage, the sharp and witty “Who Is Maud Dixon?” by Alexandra Andrews.
1. “The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War” by Erik Larson
2. “The Inner Game of Tennis” by W. Timothy Gallwey
3. “The Stand” by Stephen King
4. “Lovecraft Country” by Matt Ruff
5. “Resurrection Walk” by Michael Connelly
— James P., Chicago
For James, I’m recommending a book with a connection to Stephen King, because it was written by one of his sons, Joe Hill. The title is “Heart-Shaped Box.”
1. “Cosmicomics” by Italo Calvino
2. “Collected Stories” by Gabriel García Márquez
3. “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote
4. “The Stories of John Cheever” by John Cheever
5. “The Every” by Dave Eggers
— Blaine R., Milwaukee
Since Blaine is a fan of collected short stories, I’m recommending a book by a quiet, underappreciated master of the form, Charles Baxter: “Gryphon: New and Selected Stories.”
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Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.
