Why No One's Satisfied With US Democracy Timothy Shenk | TMR

Realigners is a book by Timothy Shenk that examines the concept of "realignment" in American politics. Shenk's book focuses on the role of partisan hacks and political visionaries in shaping these realignments. He argues that partisan hacks are motivated by short-term political gain and are willing to compromise their values to achieve it, while political visionaries are driven by a long-term vision for the country and are willing to take bold actions to achieve it. The book explores how these two groups have interacted throughout American history and how their struggles have shaped the course of the nation's democracy.

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And we are joined Now by Tim shank. Tim is a historian professor at George Washington University and author of realign partisan hacks political Visionaries and the struggle to rule American democracy. Tim thanks so much for being here today. Thanks so much for having me Emma. Of course. So your book really looks at The History of the United States through moments of realignment as your title suggests. And also the majorities that were Central to those moments of realignment and the people that were kind of Representative of those majorities or leaders in certain ways. It's easy to see how the Trump election might have inspired you. but why did you decide to broaden the scope to just like American history generally. Well part of it was just the shock of the moment you know. I started really thinking about what this book would look like the day after the election in 2016. Just because at the time I just finished doing a PhD in American history. especially focused on American political history. And I was just gobsmacked by what happened. So kind of out of Shame and frustration that I felt like I should have known better and I wanted to get a handle on what had happened. And the more I dug into the reading and the research for it the more I came to think that at least one fundamental part of the story about how someone like Trump gets elected in the first place is a broader frustration with how the system works. And I came to think that so much of that frustration comes from the fact that neither party has a majority which means it's so hard to get things done which leads to this really weird feeling I think that characterizes politics today.