Chaotic Neutral
How the Democrats Lost Their Soul in the Center
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
A recent history of the Democratic Party that identifies its chronic errors—the “pathologies” of the New Democratic mindset—and argues urgently against a return to the status quo
Why did the Democrats initially abandon their principles, and why haven’t they been able to grasp that they need a new strategy in the face of decades of diminishing returns? In Chaotic Neutral, political scientist Ed Burmila breaks it to us, tracing the party’s metamorphosis from bold defender of labor rights, civil rights, and a robust social safety net to a timorous, ideology-free, regulation-averse lifestyle brand.
Chaotic Neutral tracks the evolution (or devolution) of the Democratic Party from the New Deal era to Biden’s status-quo candidacy and the pandemic, when, even in the midst of a national crisis, the Democrats could not manage to pass sweeping progressive legislation. It is a timely analysis and, simultaneously, a timeless one that pinpoints why Dem politicians act like also-rans even when they’re in power.
Burmila doesn’t pull any punches as he describes the Democrats’ brand of futility politics, but he also doesn’t claim that all is futile, instead laying out a potent strategy for how the party might abandon its lesser-of-two-evils strategy and shift back into drive.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This irreverent polemic debut alleges that Democrats "give up when they should fight" and have a "broken" view of how politics works. Political scientist Burmila traces the roots of the problem to the breakup of the New Deal coalition between Southern Dixiecrats and Northern liberals amid the push for civil rights legislation in the 1960s, and details how the shift from bread-and-butter economic issues to more elusive demands for racial equality and women's rights contributed to the declining influence of labor unions and the increasing sway of "moneyed interests" over Democratic politicians. A new breed of pro-market, tough-on-crime, anti-bureaucracy Democrat clamored for change in the 1980s and, with Bill Clinton's election in 1992, returned the party to the White House and majority control of Congress. But the bet on the electoral dominance of the growing professional middle classes turned into a self-fulfilling race to centrist mediocrity, Burmila argues. He calls for Democrats to remember their roots as a party for the poor, the marginalized, and the working classes, and to recommit to the state's role in pursuing social justice. Throughout, Burmila combines deep research and sophisticated history lessons with acerbic wit (Donald Trump is "a store-brand dictator, the perfect synthesis of Kim Jong-Il and Don Rickles"). This smart and entertaining screed packs a punch.
