Peril

"This is a book you can’t put down. Bob Woodward has been revealing what happens behind closed doors in Washington since Watergate. Woodward has the long perspective of watching the American system since the seventies and Robert Costa is a wonderful reporter. The two of them take us through the last days of the Trump Administration. What they report is shocking and their reporting remains unchallenged. Once you start reading this, you have to finish it. This came out when Biden was still popular—before Delta and Omicron and Afghanistan and inflation brought Biden down. I don’t think there is much Biden could do to save our system. Change must come from the states, who control elections. We’re not going to have another Constitutional Convention. And nothing could get out of Congress. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter Here’s what’s doable: our media organizations and informed citizens can fight the false information that continues to rot our republic. Democracy depends on a shared understanding of basic truths. I don’t have much hope that we’re going to see change coming out of the states or from Congress. Democrats control both houses very narrowly and midterm elections almost never favor the party in power. So, it’s up to us. We must change the formula of this democracy, which too often now is depending on disinformation. Social media companies have got to do far better. A republic depends on its citizens. We must get more active and more educated."