The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America
by Ira Shapiro
From the publisher's website:
In two previous highly regarded books on the U.S. Senate, Ira
Shapiro chronicled the institution from its apogee in the 1970s through
its decline in the decades since. Now, Shapiro turns his gaze to how the
Senate responded to the challenges posed by the Trump administration
and its prospects under President Biden. The Founding Fathers gave the
US Senate many functions, but it had one fundamental responsibility—its
raison d’etre: to provide the check against a dangerous president who
threatened our democracy. Two hundred and thirty years later, when
Donald Trump, a potential authoritarian, finally reached the White
House, the Senate should have served as both America’s first and last
lines of defense. Instead, we had the nightmare scenario: today’s
Senate, reduced through a long period of decline to a hyper-partisan,
gridlocked shadow of its former self, was unable to meet its fundamental
responsibility. Shapiro documents the pivotal challenges facing the
Senate during the Trump administration, arguing that the body’s failure
to provide leadership represents the most catastrophic failure of
government in American history. The last section covers the Senate’s
performance during President Biden’s first year in office and looks
forward to the 2022 Senate elections and beyond.
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