Must America Unite or Die?
The United States is facing serious challenges. One of the most imposing comes from our deep political divisions. Doug Schoen and Carly Cooperman’s America: Unite or Die: How to Save Our Democracy (Regan Arts, 2021) addresses how America should go beyond the division and find real solutions to problems including the Covid-19 pandemic, the aftermath of the January 6 and Black Lives Matter riots, rising crime rates, rampant public misinformation, and extreme politics – and politicians – on both sides.
We’ve been through worse. American democracy survived a Civil War, two World Wars, and a nearly half-century Cold War with Communism, after all. But Schoen and Cooperman warn that the nation’s resilience is being severely tested by factors ranging from an out-of-touch political class and rising income inequality to the influence of social media and digital news and a loss of trust in institutions.
Respected pollsters, Schoen and Cooperman start by offering an analysis of available data, then look beyond the polling figures at other statistics such as budgets, fundraising, and voter turnout, applying a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge to every issue they tackle. They’re not afraid to go outside their expertise to provide a bit of historical analysis, too.
Like other recent books on politics, America: Unite or Die focuses primarily on threats “not from a foreign adversary but from within.” The radical Left is gaining strength in the Democratic Party and the radical Right is ascending in the Republican Party, and these “diametrically opposed forces, moving further and further apart, are threatening not just our democracy but our most fundamental institutions and values,” Schoen and Cooperman write. Extreme partisanship is the clear and present danger. Personal politics aside, the authors propose a sweeping centrist agenda that touches nearly every aspect of the political system, including reforms on elections, legislative procedure, the judiciary, the criminal justice system, infrastructure, taxes, education, health care, energy, immigration, and foreign policy.
It’s a commendably comprehensive and ambitious agenda, but at times, it feels like the authors are stretching themselves too thin. Though each policy argument is supported by citation of one group of scholars or another, readers might have benefited more from greater explanation of how the authors arrived at these positions and how their proposals might be implemented. For example, they argue for nonpartisan redistricting, but they do not explain in-depth how to achieve this notoriously difficult policy objective across our diverse state legislatures. California has had a nonpartisan redistricting commission for the past 10 years, yet it just approved a map that many consider no different from the gerrymandered maps passed by partisan legislatures.
Similarly, the authors list a series of reasonable, “common sense” ideas for restricting lobbying, but avoid giving concrete information to support why these reforms are best. They even concede: “Some people will argue that the reforms we have outlined are too weak. Others will argue that they are too harsh […] We believe they strike a middle ground and will be effective without being unreasonable.” Is the goal to be inoffensive to all sides or to propose workable, effective policy solutions? At times, the authors’ proposals sound centrist for the sake of being centrist. In some instances, at least, solutions more to the liking of one side or the other are best.
Still, Schoen and Cooperman’s “both sides” approach is generally welcome. Partisans blame all problems on the other side. Even when there are issues where Republicans or Democrats are more to blame, no ideology gets everything right, and subjectivity is inevitable. We have elections to give both sides a fighting chance. If one side fails, the American people will give the other side another chance. Schoen and Cooperman recognize this reality and maintain their centrist tone throughout, attempting to mirror the manner in which arguments “for and against” issues appear in the public discourse.
No political book is the one true gospel, and both major political parties make mistakes. Schoen and Cooperman elevate the discussion in America: Unite or Die by challenging the partisan status quo and refusing to cheerlead for one side or the other.
Todd Carney is a lawyer and frequent contributor to RealClear Policy. His writing has appeared in Opinio Juris, Lawfare, Foreign Brief, Jurist, Greek Reporter, The Defense Post, Energy Central, and National Jurist, among other places. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and American University. The views in this piece are his alone and do not reflect the views of his employer.
John Waters is a writer in Nebraska.
