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Larry J. Sabato

Larry J. Sabato is the author of more than twenty books on American politics, most recently, Divided States of America: The Slash and Burn Politics of the 2004 Presidential Election (Longman, 2005) and Get in the Booth!: A Citizen’s Guide to the 2006 Midterm Elections (Longman, 2006). Dr. Sabato has served on many national and state commissions, including the National Commission for the Renewal of American Democracy and the U.S. Senate Campaign Finance Reform Panel. He is the Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics and the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Author

Politics: America’s Missing Constitutional Link

Summer 2006 | Essays

n so many respects, today’s political system is broken, and there is currently no reasonable prospect of fixing it. Our schedule of presidential primaries and caucuses is a front-loaded mess, and the Congress, the parties, and the states refuse seriously to tackle its reform. The Democrats are currently tinkering at the edges of reform, just as the Republicans attempted to do in prior years, but little will come of it because of the powerful interests with heavy investments in the status quo. Our scheme of campaign financing incorporates the worst of several worlds, and with each election cycle the process deteriorates further. Our partisan procedure for drawing legislative districts enforces vicious polarization rather than encouraging moderation and compromise. Are these calamities our fault? Certainly. But all these disasters can be traced back to the writing of the Constitution—not so much what was included in the text, but some items foolishly or thoughtlessly excluded from it.

 

The Torch Is Passed

Changing of the Guard: Power and Leadership in America. By David S. Broder. Simon & Schuster. $14.95. David Broder is America's foremost political journalist, and his syndicated columns are read as avidly as the election returns by political de [...]

A Yank at Oxford in the Bicentennial Year

“Ye Tories all rejoice and sing Success to George our Gracious King The faithful subjects tribute bring And execrate the Congress. These hardy knaves and stupid fools, Some apish and pragmatic mules, Some servile acquiescing tools, The [...]