The Corruption of American Politics: What Went Wrong and Why

In this revelatory book that takes you behind the scenes and headlines, distinguished and highly respected Washington reporter Elizabeth Drew draws on her superb skills to detail precisely how money and ideology, and a lower quality of politicians and lower standards of political behavior, have corrupted and debased American politics over the past twenty-five years. She demonstrates the stark differences in our politics between the immediate post-Watergate period, when Americans eventually gained fresh confidence in their government and enacted a sweeping law to reform the campaign financing system, and twenty-five years later, when confidence in government and in those who govern is dangerously low. And she shows how the campaign finance system has been utterly destroyed.