Broken: Can the Senate Save Itself and the Country

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The crisis of American democracy started long before Trump became president, or a candidate for president. Our government has been failing for a very long time, and the Senate has been ground zero for that failure.  Partisanship has made the Senate dysfunctional — unable to find common ground on vital issues of the day.  In Broken: Can the Senate Save Itself and the Country?, Ira Shapiro offers an expert’s account of some of the most prominent battles of the past decade and describes what must be done to restore the Senate’s important position as a guardian of democracy against possible threats from authoritarian leadership and a polarized environment.

The Last Great Senate:  Courage and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis

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The Last Great Senate recounts the story of Senators who, working with an outsider president, Jimmy Carter, helped steer America through the crisis years of the late 1970s, transcending partisanship and overcoming procedural  roadblocks that have all but crippled the Senate over the past quarter-century.  In vivid narrative, the book offers a view of the kind of leadership that is so desperately needed to restore the nation’s upper house to greatness.  The Last Great Senate brings to life the renowned senators of the time—Ted Kennedy, Howard Baker, Henry “Scoop” Jackson, Ed Muskie, Jacob Javits, Robert Byrd and others—while capturing the Senate as an ensemble cast in a way that no previous book has.  Describing a series of legislative battles of the period, Mr. Shapiro presents a remarkable set of case studies of the legislative process in action, including the historic fight over the Panama Canal treaty and the rescues of New York City and Chrysler.  His preface to this second edition of the book provides a compelling summary of the Senate’s struggles since 1980, including the first six months of the Trump presidency. The author’s love of the Senate and his deep belief in its special role in our political system make the book an antidote to cynicism, leaving readers with some hope that the Senate can reverse its long decline to become again what Walter F. Mondale called “the nation’s mediator.”