A provocative and timely examination of how the American political parties have brought us to a crossroads for democracy-and where these new paths lead for the fragile American republic. Our recent elections have been anything but normal. In Democracy on the Edge, leading political scientists John Kenneth White and Matthew R. Kerbel unravel the elections of 2020, 2022, and 2024 to show how each represented a flashpoint in the reordering of political priorities and electoral coalitions. The consequences have the potential to redefine our politics and shape our democracy for years to come. In 2020, American voters temporarily removed an authoritarian leader, only for this leader to instigate an insurrection attempt on January 6, 2021. The midterm election of 2022 broke with precedent on the basis of the public's response to the historic overturning of Roe v. Wade and the fallout from J6, as voters rejected election deniers and MAGA candidates across the board. In 2024, however, voters could not reject this threat to democracy a third time, and Trump's return to the White House has instead left the country at a crossroads and a moment of peril. In unpacking recent electoral cycles and placing them in broader historical context, White and Kerbel show that both major parties face unique difficulties. After Barack Obama's election, Democrats believed they were on the cusp of securing a majority that heralded a new era of political realignment around their multiracial dominance. That majority has not yet materialized. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's hostile takeover of the Republican Party has transformed the GOP into a party completely beholden to him, embracing election denialism, conspiracy theories, and policies that are far out of step with the country beyond his base. The efforts of Republicans and Democrats are buffeted by dramatic and unpredictable cultural and economic shifts. The generational divide between Baby Boomers and Gen X on one side and Millennials and Gen Z on the other has become a fault line of lived experiences, cultural values, financial realities, and political beliefs. This is all further complicated by chaotic realignments on lines of race and gender. And underneath it all is a political system under unprecedented pressure. Our democracy faces its most severe test since the Civil War. The aspirations contained in the Declaration of Independence and the systems built by the Constitution are no longer universally accepted. The Republican Party, led by Trump, seeks to accelerate the accumulation of presidential power and limit the Constitution's phraseology of "We, the People" to "We, the Wealthy" or "We, the Cultural Warriors." The final denouement of this political saga has yet to be written, but Trump's election leaves us with the possibility of two unfamiliar outcomes-a brand of American authoritarianism or the establishment of a multicultural republic. At the close of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a bystander what kind of government the framers had wrought. Franklin's famous answer was, "A republic, if you can keep it." Keeping the republic will depend on the fallout from the last three unprecedented election cycles. Ultimately, our future is up to us.
John Kenneth White is emeritus professor of politics at The Catholic University of America. In addition to his regular column in The Hill, he is the author of many books, including Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism, also from Kansas. Matthew R. Kerbel is emeritus professor of political science at Villanova University. He is the author of the popular political Substack Wolves and Sheep. In addition to many other books, he is the coauthor, with John Kenneth White, of American Political Parties: Why They Formed, How They Function, and Where They're Headed, also from Kansas.
"John White and Matthew Kerbel provide a learned and insightful analysis of America's present discontents. The 2020, 2022, and 2024 elections, they argue, are part of a larger struggle for the destiny of the American republic-as momentous a time in American history as three epochs that have redefined the nation's social contract: the Revolution, Civil War, and New Deal. Democracy on the Edge depicts a Fourth Republic in the making, a riveting, clear-eyed tale of a nation positioned at a momentous crossroad. The American people, White and Krebel show persuasively, face a profound choice between the darkness of authoritarian rule and the light of multiracial democracy, an unprecedented chapter in the never-ending struggle to define who we are as a people."-Sidney M. Milkis, White Burkett Miller Professor, Department of Politics, University of Virginia, and coauthor of Subverting the Republic: Donald J. Trump and the Perils of Presidentialism "White and Kerbel's chilling account should awaken all citizens concerned about the fate of the American experiment. The authors skillfully decipher the generational, cultural, racial and gender cleavages that played a role in rendering the nation's political parties and its once formidable institutions incapable of rebuffing Trumpism. Their analysis of recent electoral results provides a remarkably insightful window into the road to decline. Yet the authors end on an optimistic note, reminding us that the fate of the republic remains in the hands of a citizenry that has within its grasp the power to reject the most demagogic and destructive president in the nation's history."-Stephen F. Knott, author of The Lost Soul of the American Presidency: The Decline into Demagoguery and the Prospects for Renewal "This lucid and moral work of contemporary history contextualizes critical events while offering fresh reminders of overlooked moments and new angles of vision on our troubled times. It's the best book so far for understanding the full toxicity of the Trump Era."-Jonathan Alter, author of His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life "Democracy on the Edge offers a real and at times raw assessment of the American experiment. White and Kerbel make clear elections are not just an exercise between Democrats and Republicans but rather a much deeper expression of our discontent, political realignment, racial currents, and generational faultlines-all of which have, in successive election cycles, threatened the stability of our Republic. From tariffs and culture wars to housing affordability and animosity towards immigrants, both political parties no longer define or shape the course of American politics. We do."-Michael Steele, Former Chairman Republican National Committee "Most political science recaps of recent elections are forgettable. Not so here. With historical perspective and muscular prose, White and Kerbel serve as thoughtful and eloquent guides to the present scene, emphasizing just what Donald Trump hath wrought to his once-proud party, and how Democrats have been lackluster in response."-Daniel Schlozman, coauthor of The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics "Like the Master Clock that sits at the Naval Observatory, White and Krebel measure the political time of Donald Trump with extreme precision. Down to the second, these two skilled scholars of democracy track what has come before as well as what this portends for the future of the republic. Read this timely book."-Heath Brown, Professor of Public Policy, City University of New York, John Jay College, and author of Roadblocked: Joe Biden's Rocky Transition to the Presidency "John Kenneth White and Matthew R. Kerbel write an engaging and authoritative account of an America passing through increasingly intense zero-sum elections. They are right that it will likely end with America as either an autocracy with an authoritarian president or as a multi-racial and multi-cultural democracy."-Stanley Greenberg, Principal of Greenberg Research, Democracy Corps, Climate Policy & Strategy
