8 Quotes & Sayings By Thomas E Mann

Thomas E. Mann is the author of five books, including The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A Very Short Introduction, a New York Times bestseller. He teaches at Harvard University and is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He edited the works of several Nobel Laureates and won the American Academy of Arts and Sciences's John W Read more

Kluge Prize in 2010. His next book, The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A Very Short Introduction (Viking, 2012), will be published in April 2013.

1
In never-ending efforts to defeat incumbent officeholders in hard times, the public is perpetuating the source of its discontent, electing a new group of people who are even less inclined to or capable of crafting compromise or solutions to pressing problems. Thomas E. Mann
2
Today's Republican Party..is an insurgent outlier. It has become ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition, all but declaring war on the government. The Democratic Party, while no paragon of civic virtue, is more ideologically centered and diverse, protective of the government's role as it developed over the course of the last century, open to incremental changes in policy fashioned through bargaining with the Republicans, and less disposed to or adept at take-no-prisoners conflict between the parties. This asymmetry between the parties, which journalists and scholars often brush aside or whitewash in a quest for "balance, " constitutes a huge obstacle to effective governance. . Thomas E. Mann
3
He (Newt Gingrich as a freshman congressman) was both passionate about his goals and coldly analytical in his means. Thomas E. Mann
4
First, his job approval ratings have been trending down for many months, a trend that has accelerated in recent weeks as the war on terrorism has been supplanted in the public's mind by corporate scandals, stock market declines, and a growing sense of economic insecurity. Thomas E. Mann
5
All of this suggests that while citizens became more comfortable with President Bush after September 11 and thought him to have the requisite leadership skills, they continue to harbor doubts about his priorities, loyalties, interests, and policies. Thomas E. Mann
6
The country has sorted itself ideologically into the two political parties, and those partisan attachments have hardened in recent years. It will take an extraordinary event and act of leadership to break this partisan divide. I thought 9/11 might provide such an opportunity, but it was not seized. Thomas E. Mann
7
But presidential approval also became a surrogate measure of national unity and patriotism. Thomas E. Mann