Dangerous Convictions

What's Really Wrong with the U.S. Congress

Tom Allen

Combines a clear and compelling argument about the major source of dysfunction in American politics with the observations and insights of an insider.
Provides a scholarly, readable, revealing picture of life in Congress in these polarized times, and an inspiring challenge to the public.
Draws on a variety of intellectual sources including the work of Robert Putnam, George Lakoff, the several authors of Habits of the Heart, Thomas Merton, Isaiah Berlin, Tom Mann, and Norm Ornstein.

Dangerous Convictions

What's Really Wrong with the U.S. Congress

Tom Allen

Description

The rhetoric of the 2012 presidential campaign exposed the deeply rooted sources of political polarization in American. One side celebrated individualism and divided the public into "makers and takers;" the other preached "better together" as the path forward. Both focused their efforts on the "base" not the middle.

In Dangerous Convictions, former Democratic Congressman Tom Allen argues that what's really wrong with Congress is the widening, hardening conflict in worldviews that leaves the two parties unable to understand how the other thinks about what people should do on their own and what we should do together. Members of Congress don't just disagree, they think the other side makes no sense. Why are conservatives preoccupied with cutting taxes, uninterested in expanding health care coverage and in denial about climate change? What will it take for Congress to recover a capacity for pragmatic compromise on these issues?

Allen writes that we should treat self-reliance (the quintessential American virtue) and community (our characteristic instinct to cooperate) as essential balancing components of American culture and politics, instead of setting them at war with each other. Combining his personal insights from 12 years In Congress with recent studies of how human beings form their political and religious views, Allen explains why we must escape the grip of our competing worldviews to enable Congress to work productively on our 21st century challenges.

Dangerous Convictions

What's Really Wrong with the U.S. Congress

Tom Allen

Chapter One: Early Lessons in Congress
Chapter Two: The Federal Budget: Faith-Based Economics
Chapter Three: Iraq: Evidence Doesn't Matter
Chapter Four: Health Care: Principle before People
Chapter Five: Climate Change: Denial as Public Policy
Chapter Six: The Sources of Polarization
Chapter Seven: Finding a Path to Recovery

Dangerous Convictions

What's Really Wrong with the U.S. Congress

Tom Allen

Author Information

Tom Allen is President and CEO of the American Association of Publishers. He is a former U.S. Congressman representing Maine's 1st District from 1997 to 2009.

Dangerous Convictions

What's Really Wrong with the U.S. Congress

Tom Allen

Reviews and Awards

"With historically low ratings, Congress is regarded as 'dysfunctional' by Americans of all political persuasions. Why that is so, and what can be done to reduce excessive partisanship, is the subject of Tom Allen's well-informed and provocative book." -Former U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell

"This is an extraordinarily valuable examination of the most troubling concern of our time: the inability of our leaders in Washington to find consensus and forge compromise in the public interest. Readers will discover here a deeply penetrating analysis by an author who had unique opportunities to observe from the inside the causes and consequences of our current polarization. Anyone who wants to understand why contemporary politics so often results in failure cannot afford to miss this essential book." -G. Calvin Mackenzie, Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of Government, Colby College

"Allen, a former Democratic congressman from Maine and current president and CEO of the American Association of Publishers, offers a panoramic critique of Congress based on his 12 years in office (1997-2009), covering policy areas from the budget to health care....Allen's pragmatism and reason help frame major issues for Americans hungering for some legislative wisdom after the election." --Publishers Weekly

Dangerous Convictions

What's Really Wrong with the U.S. Congress

Tom Allen

From Our Blog

35 years: the best of C-SPAN

By Kate Pais The Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, better known as C-SPAN, has been airing the day-to-day activities of Congress since 1979, for thirty-five years as of this week. Now across three different channels, C-SPAN has provided the American public easy access to politics in action, and created a new level of transparency in public life.

Posted on March 22, 2014

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Criticisms of Obamacare

By Tom Allen The start of implementation of Obamacare has triggered a renewed, fiercer response from its critics. During my 12 years in Congress there was no comparable effort to undermine a recently enacted law, including President Bush's prescription drug bill, which almost all Democrats opposed. Why are Republican Governors and House members'with no plan to replace Obamacare'so determined to destroy it?

Posted on September 27, 2013

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Paul Ryan's worldview

By Tom Allen Paul Ryan is the most puzzling member of Congress, at least to me. I served with him on the House Budget Committee for four of my twelve years in the House. Paul is warm, personable, intelligent, articulate -- a true gentleman. Yet what he says about the federal budget and taxes makes little sense. His belief in the miraculous power of tax cuts and the crippling effect of federal 'spending' was not supported by the economists who testified at our hearings.

Posted on October 11, 2012

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