By Jacob S. Hacker
The Republicans who run American govt this day have defied the traditional legislation of political gravity. they've got governed with the slimmest of majorities and but have reworked the nation’s governing priorities. they've got strayed dramatically from the reasonable center of public opinion and but have confronted little public backlash. many times, they've got sided with the prosperous and ideologically severe whereas paying little heed to the huge majority of american citizens. and lots more and plenty as a rule, they've got pop out on most sensible. This publication indicates why—and why this troubling situation can and has to be changed.Written in a hugely available type by means of specialist political scientists, Off heart tells the tale of a deliberative method limited and distorted by means of social gathering chieftains, of unresponsive strength agents subverting the preferred will, and of laws written through and for robust pursuits and intentionally designed to mute well known discontent. within the top culture of engaged social technological know-how, Off heart is a robust and proficient critique that issues the best way towards an improved starting place for American democracy.
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Extra resources for Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy
Sample text
When 47 48 ABANDONING THE MIDDLE Bush entered office in 2001, forecasts of large surpluses raised a fundamental issue of priorities: How should these considerable but finite resources be allocated among competing demands? Voters’ opinions on this question were varied, but the basic sentiment of the vast majority can be summed up with confidence. When voters were prompted to consider the inevitable tradeoffs, tax cuts were assigned a very low priority. Even Americans who favored the general idea of tax cuts offered little support for the massive scale or skewed distribution of the 2001 bill.
On a left-right ideological spectrum in which the left champions a strong role for government in protecting the environment, regulating business, and providing economic security and the right supports a more limited role for government in these areas and champions private property rights, they are generally quite far to the right. They are not just far to the right of the Republican leadership of a generation ago. They are also far to the right of the programs and policy ideals established in the past three to four decades of bipartisan public policymaking.
Versus Medicare, the margin is 65 to 25 percent. Even when Social Security is taken out of consideration, 69 percent of respondents preferred using extra monies on “education, the environment, health care, crime-fighting, and military defense” rather than a tax cut, which garnered just 22 percent support. These sentiments did not disappear when the tax cuts passed. Even after benefits began to flow to voters, large majorities said they would be willing to forgo their continuation in favor of alternative uses of the funds.
