Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches

by John W. Dean

The recent elections show how well Dean's argument meets reality.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, American, Audiobook, Government, Political Science

352 pages, Hardcover

First published August 20, 2007

About the author

John W. Dean served as White House Counsel for United States President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. In this position, he became deeply involved in events leading up to the Watergate burglaries and the subsequent Watergate scandal cover-up. He was referred to as the "master manipulator of the cover-up" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He pleaded guilty to a single felony count, in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution. This ultimately resulted in a reduced prison sentence, which he served at Fort Holabird outside Baltimore, Maryland.

Dean is currently an author, columnist, and commentator on contemporary politics, strongly critical of conservatism and the Republican Party, and is a registered Independent who supported the efforts to impeach President George W. Bush.

Reviews

[Vannessa Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Broken Governnment, Dean draws a vivid picture of how calculating and cold hearted Dick Cheney was. How George W. Bush lacked integrity and confirms how both Cheney and Bush actions looked like the actions and behaviors of sociopaths.

The following are just a few of the things you’ll learn from Broken Government

•Tom DeLay proudly admitted how he allowed lobbyists to draft legislation
•Republican leaders often broke the rule permitting fifteen minutes for voting when they were one or two votes short, because holding the vote open gave them the opportunity to apply the necessary pressure on holdouts
•…when George Bush is president, no evidence of corruption or incompetence is shocking enough to warrant congressional attention
•Congress’s neglect of oversight during the first six years of the Bush presidency, ignoring everything from homeland security to the conduct of the Iraq war, from allegations of torture at Abu Ghraih to the illegal surveillance of domestic telephone calls by the NSA
•Like a lot of laws in the Bush ear, …with virtually no input from the Democrats, who were excluded from the conference process.
•To understand the Bush Administrator, and to understand the thinking of those who now dominate the Republican Party, it is essential to understand Cheney. He does not respect the government created by our Constitution, and he has been urging presidents to ignore it—as he does—for decades.

I don’t doubt the incriminating evidence against the republicans because it’s behavior we witness on a daily basis.

Broken Government is a book that you want to purchase now so that you will be informed before you go into the voting booth.

There was so much mind blowing information in Broken Government that I’m going to buy copies for those people in my life who I know will read it.

Updated review

Broken Government is an exposé about the Republican party during the Nixon, Bush Senior, Reagan and Bush, Jr. administrations and how they, with their partners in crime, tried to make American an oligarchy (a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes).

Just a few of the things I learned (passages are taken directly from book)

Bush/Cheney presidency has benefited from Republican abuses of both the independent counsel law and Congress’s impeachment powers during the Clinton years. With no independent counsel, they have escaped a number of criminal investigations and prosecutions.

Libby was indicted and convicted of perjury, falling on his sword for his friend mentor, and boss Dick Cheney. Buss II, meanwhile, has escaped an impeachment investigation only because Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated that she would not subject him to what GOP speaker Gingrich subjected Clinton to, when, in fact, crimes and impeachable conduct far more serious than lying about illicit sexual activity in a trumped-up, politically motivated, civil lawsuit against the president have been blatantly undertaken by the Bush administration (for example, lying to Congress about the reasons for going to war in Iraq, employing torture contrary to federal criminal statutes and treaties, openly conducting electronic surveillance of Americans without warrants—to mention only a few).

During these four decades Republican presidents have appointed some of their most conservative supporters, increasingly those at the hard right-wing of the party, to the majority of the judgeships of the federal judiciary, working assiduously to tilt the federal judiciary to the right, and bringing it to a dangerous point. When conservative Republicans have controlled part, or all, of Capitol Hill, they have consistently demonstrated that they seek to run the government only for those who share their beliefs, not for all Americans.

Just a few of the things you’ll learn from reading Broken Government

Why a fifteen-minute vote becomes a three-hour vote to persuade or bribe people on the floor of the House.

Why former majority leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) proudly admitted that he allowed lobbyists to draft legislation.

How closed rules enabled the GOP, with just a bare majority, to muscle legislation through the House with no Democratic support whatsoever.

Why during the first six years of the Bush/Cheney administration the congressional oversight had “virtually collapsed” and how Bush ignored everything from homeland security to the conduct of the Iraq war.

Why a lot of laws during the Bush era was crafted with virtually no input from the Democrats, who were excluded from the conference process.

To understand the Bush administration is to understand Cheney.

Broken Government is an important read and should be a mandatory read for high school and college students.

[Will Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dean writes here about “the often ignored processes of the federal government.” (p xv) This is a book that is rich in analysis, information that was new to me, references to other writers in the covered fields.

It was interesting to learn of Nixon’s involvement with Supreme Court politics. When Earl Warren attempted to step down in the fall before Nixon ascended, he got Congress to foil any attempt by LBJ to make an appointment. LBJ had attempted to make Abe Fortas Chief Justice. When Nixon came in, he not only appointed his own guy, Burger, but threatened Fortas with serial investigation as a way to force him to resign, allowing Nixon to fill his seat. Dean points out that the Democratic presidents hewed to the straight and narrow with their nominations, choosing well-qualified moderates, and consulted with Republicans.

He looks at the neocon push for a unitary executive and explores the implications for our freedoms and for the separation of powers.

He presents some interesting facts and offers a seasoned analysis.

Dean is a gifted writer, and clearly speaks with the knowledge of an insider. He has seen the error of his ways and now writes on the dangers of unaccountable government. His revelations are a warning and a gift to us all.

P 21
Out of curiosity, I have from time to time checked to see what people do when they leave high level government service, in particular the subcabinet-level appointees and members of the White House staff. There is a rather consistent pattern of those who work in Republican administrations going on to join businesses and profiting from their government experience, while those from Democratic administrations continue with some form of public service, whether returning to academic life, affiliation with non-profit and charitable foundations, and even further government service. Of course there are many exceptions to these patterns, but what I did discover confirmed what I had come to realize when I was active in the inner circles of my old party: Republicans seek federal power because it can help them achieve their agenda, and it also helps them in their careers. Few are driven to assist their fellow citizens, or to serve their country. It is power that attracts them; it is a tropism for authoritarian personalities, like the moth to the candle. Where power is concerned, Republicans consistently confirm Lord Acton’s aphorism that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

P 39 – quoting Matt Taibbi on oversight
From the McCarthy era in the 1950s trough the Republican takeover of Congress in 1995, no Democratic committee chairman issued a subpoena without either minority consent or a committee vote. In the Clinton years, Republicans chucked that long-standing arrangement and issued more than 1000 subpoenas to investigate alleged administration and Democratic misconduct, reviewing more than 2 million pages of government documents. Guess how many subpoenas have been issued [by the Republican Congress:] to the White House since George Bush took office? Zero—that’s right, zero.

P 43 - re relative earmarking - Quoting Matt Taibbi
“Congress allocated a record $71.77 billion in 2006 to special projects, more than double the $29.11 billion spent on 4,155 pork-barrel projects in 1994, when Democrats last controlled Congress, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

P 62
The polarization that divides us today can be traced to a confluence of events that developed over the course of several decades. First came the collapse of the New Deal coalition that had given the Democratic Party a monopoly in the South. As Daryl Levinson and Richard Pilades explained, this artificial “monopoly was created and sustained by the elaborate system of electoral laws and representative institutions designed, at the end of Reconstruction, to drastically disenfranchise [blacks, who were:] a substantial portion of the electorate (as much as one half in some states) with the aim of eliminating partisan competition.” Thus, “disenfranchisement artificially cemented one-party Democratic control. Only national intervention, in the form of the 1965 Voting rights Act and the constitutional decisions of the Warren Court, began to dismantle this collusive regime.” Republicans eagerly exploited this situation, as when Richard Nixon adopted a Southern strategy to win the hearts of conservative Democrats and bring assorted racists, bigots, homophobes, and gun lovers (a group that often displayed traits of authoritarianism) into the Republican Party.

Republicans did not so much woo Southerner conservatives as use hardball strategies to corral them, going directly after their hearts and minds with “wedge issues” to drive them into the GOP ranks. Political reporters started commenting upon this tactic in the mid 1980s. For example Washington Post reporter David Broder, while following the campaign of Republican congressman Carroll Campbell for the governor’s chair in South Carolina, reported that the congressman was asked how he, as a Republican, thought he could win the governorship of a state where crats had held the post for all but four years in the previous century. Broder said that Campbell’s answer (which he characterized rather than quoted) “was to find an issue that would drive a wedge into what [Campbell:] described as the ‘unnatural’ and ‘unstable’ Democratic coalition,” which consisted of two bases: (1) blacks and (2) low-income, mainly rural, whites. Campbell was armed with several issues to achieve that goal, “including the purely symbolic question of flying the Confederate flag over the state capitol, which still bears the scars of Sherman’s artillery. Campbell eventually won the contest and serves as governor of South Carolina from 1987 to 1995.

In fact, this rather crude political tactic was new only to the national media. In 1992, when former Nixon aide Patrick Buchanan was running against George H. W. Bush for the GOP presidential nomination, the Boston Globe visited the National archives to examine Buchanan’s White House advice to Nixon, and they discovered that is was he who was the father of the wedge issue. The Globe summed up its findings: “as an ardent right-wing strategist for Nixon, Buchanan pioneered the political technique of using ‘wedge’ issues—for example using race to divide Northern and Southern Democrats and to alienate blue-collar workers from liberal Democratic positions.

P 69
“The cardinal virtue of the Madisonian separation of powers is supposed to be that, by raising the transaction costs of governance, it preserves liberty and prevents tyranny,” citing from the dissent by justice Louis Brandeis in Myers vs the United States that “the doctrine of separation of powers was adopted by the Convention of 1787, not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power.” And, Levinson and Pildes noted, “there is reason to fear that unified governments will do too much too quickly, too extremely, and with too little deliberation or compromise.” As recent history also shows, civil liberties of all Americans have suffered with Republicans control Congress and a warrior president is hell-bent on engaging America in conflict.

P 100
When it was first conceived, the unitary executive theory was rather innocuous. But its aims were broadened quickly, and have been steadily distorted and corrupted. Simply stated, the unitary executive means that the president controls the entire executive branch, including all the independent regulatory agencies created by Congress. In national security matters, it designates the president at the “sole organ,” and as commander in chief he alone can decide when to go to war or when to make peace. In its most extreme form unitary executive theory can mean that neither Congress nor the federal courts can tell the president what to do or how to do it, particularly regarding national security matters. It establishes a unilateral presidency that overpowers the other branches, nullifies the separation of powers, thus eliminating checks and balances. It is presidential autocracy, and a totally logical consequence of authoritarian conservatism. Conservatives carried it from the Reagan presidency to the Bush I presidency, and most recently into Bush II’s administration, expanding its reach and impact along the way. It its earlier version, when it was limited to regulatory agencies, it did not go unnoticed by Bill Clinton; when he found it sitting on the shelf at the Justice Department, he could not resist employing it. But he did so much to the chagrin of conservative Republicans. Clinton realized that a theory had been designed to enable the president to reduce federal s in health, safety, and environmental matters (the goal of Reagan and Bush I and later Bush II) could also be employed to increase regulation, which Clinton did regarding the environment, health and safety.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the many reasons for ignoring third-, fourth- and fifth-party presidential candidates is that too many of them run on the mistaken belief that holding the White House is sufficient to enact policy. So far this is a fantasy. The president may propose but the Congress and the bureaucracy disposes and the courts can overrule. This is checks and balances. Proof of this naivety on the part of splinter candidates was in the case of the 2020 election.

Americans in vast numbers arrived, many for the first time, and voted that no matter what they did not want Donald Trump as their president. Having cast that one vote, too many then left the booth. Disinterest in or ignorance of the process of government, left too many states in the hands of the other party, and not enough votes in the Senate to ensure that the Not Trump president could readily enact policy. Putting the seal on this failure to understand is the fact that a president, without legislative votes and a balance in the judiciary is going to have to spend that much more time and effort getting anything passed. In so many words, if in 2020 you did not down vote, that is vote for people in other than the presidential race, it is your fault if you did not get the policies you wanted.

What do I mean when I say “so far”?

What former Republican White House/Nixon lawyer John Deam warning us Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches is that the republican party has been working against checks and balances for decades. At least since Newt Gingrich and in fact going back to extremist elements in Barry Goldwater’s days. (note: Dean excludes Goldwater from that portion of his party) republicans have been working to divide this nation and actively seeking to end checks and balances in favor of creating a one party state. Not just a one party sate but one subject to a unitary president.

A unitary resident goes beyond merely imperial. The president is the chief executive office of the country. What this is intended to mean is that the president ensures that laws are executed as written. Under his authority are a variety of departments that were charged, by law to be independent of politics, required to seek out the best in science, finance or other objective studies. The Center for Disease Control is about the science of medicine. The Federal Reserve Board is about the study of economics. None of these bodies are intended to be operating at the whim of whoever happens to be president. In a unitary presidency all of them are completely at the whim of the president. What medicines are approved, what constitutes work place safety, even weather predictions become a matter for the president to decide. If as agency head you do not toe the White Hose line, you are out of work to be instantly replaced by a quisling.

In the commercial world a company chief executive is given wide latitude to dictate what is truth. Toe the line or you are out of work. The only effective limit on a Chief Executive in private industry are the courts. Where it can be proven that a company is not operating safely or within other standards, typically as defined by an independent federal agency that company can be held liable. Here again, republicans have been operating, for decades to ensure a maximum of pro corporate judges and a minimum of strength in the laws and standards regulating corporate excesses.

Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches was the third in three books by John Deen. In this one he focuses on what too many shrug off as process. His point is that process is how things come to be. There is a process that makes laws about voting rights happen and another set of processes that provide the enforcement necessary to make that law operational. Is your food safe? What exactly does it mean that food is “safe” If you think that means that this year your party is in power, and they are strict about food safety, then you want to hand the process of defining safe food to your party. And of course eat nothing when the other party is in power. That is the process you get in a unitary presidency. If instead you think food safety is about how badly infected it may be with desease germs, or the level of chemical contaminants, than you do not want a unitary presidency. You also want laws that require food inspections, and courts that will enforce penalties on major failures to reach a standard level of food safely.

Dean document how one party has been dominant in steering judgeships to conservative activist judges. How successful they have been in Gerrymandering voting districts. Who by name instigated and promoted a hard line left right divide, not just among voters, but more importantly among legislators. Everything from numbers of staffing to who gets allowed to travel overseas, has been shoved into this partisan divide. Ther used to be a lot of socializing across party lines. Suddenly it can be political poison to name someone from the other party as a friend. None of this is accidental. None of this is healthy.

John Dean was writing in 2007. He has written since. Much of what he documents is already in place and more of it threatens our political future. The left/right divide, as it is today is not healthy. America as a one-party state, with a unitary president makes us more like North Korea. Please read. This is a warning from the right, about the right. It is also about all of us.

[Mattie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chilling end to the chilling trilogy of books by John Dean about the effect of the rise of "conservative authoritarian" Republican control of the government. Well researched and articulately argued, Dean manages to avoid sounding either shrill or too academic. Rather, he presents his thesis in a straightforward manner, leaving the facts and conclusions to speak for themselves. This makes for a book which is a good read, while also being quite alarming. Occasional phrases hint at a rather wry sense of humor, which enliven the writing without getting in the way of his serious subject matter.

One of the most compelling aspects of Dean's analysis is that he takes pains to point out his own historical political affiliation and relies on analysis from other members of the "conservative" end of the spectrum. This is not the ranting of a leftie blogger. In the mode of "only Nixon can go to China" (irony intended), it may be that the only way the current march of the Republican party away from many of its moderate to libertarian members is going to be halted is for those persons to stand up, draw attention to it, and demand a change.

Following the main part of the book are several appendices which buttress and further explicate his main arguments. I recommend reading these along with the main text. Not only do add a layer of support for his main thesis but they are they interesting and well-written in their own right.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Dean has written an excellent overview of what the modern GOP has done to America's system of government. It started before the infamous "Contract on (sic) America" and may even precede the Nixon administration of which John Dean was a part. His introduction "Process Manners" explains why the American voter should pay more attention to politics than simply concentrate on one or two wedge issues. The first three of the four chapters each deals with a separate branch of government and how Republicans have used them to aggrandize more and more power. In the Congress they completely cut the minority out of the legislative process. The Republicans in Congress have acquiesced in the Executive branch's development of a 'unitary executive' (a euphemism for dictator.) Collusion between the Republicans in the Senate and Republican presidents has led to a tilting of the Judicial branch toward a fundamentalism favoring the few over the many, the rich over the poor, and corporations over everyone else, The fourth chapter "Repairing Government" doesn't seem to offer much except one should not vote Republican, and I would include not voting Conservative Democrat. There are three appendices, the largest of which discredits the prime architect of Bush's arguments on the inherent powers of the President. I recommend this book, even if it only reinforces one's factual based understanding of the current Republican party.

[Nklein98 · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Dean is definitely one of my favorite authors regarding government and specifically the time of the Bush/Cheney administration. Although this book wasn't as good as "Worse than Watergate" in my opinion it was startling to me how it is right on the money even after the 2008 election. He shows how the Republicans thrive on obstructionism when they aren't in control of the three branches of government and when they are, they believe that "government is the problem" so they are unwilling to make any changes other than bringing more power and financial gain to themselves, the wealthy and the corporations who back them. The Republicans are willing to wait for their obstructionism to come to maturity so that they can again gain power. In this book Dean shows how all three branches of government have become broken through the years from Reagan to Bush II and how it may be many more years before they can be corrected, even under the best of leadership.
As usual, Dean has impressed upon me, the reader, the need to pay attention and not accept what is touted as "truth". Another good book to read to understand the dysfunction of the Bush Administration and how it may have led to the undermining of our constitutional rights.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content of the book is pretty much what you would expect from the title. Dean describes the rise of the authoritarian style of Republicanism over the last several decades, which comes with an emphasis on "obedience, inequality, intolerance, and strong intrusive government." Dean's book illustrates how Republicans have consistently acted to "rig the system" so that it benefits their own interests, not the people's, at times in clear violation of the Constitution.

Dean's assertion is that Republicans know how to rule, but they don't know how to govern. The longer they're allowed to stay in power in this country, the worse off we'll all be. Hopefully it's not too late to fix.

Thanks to the inclusion of multiple appendices and endnotes, etc., this book is not as long a read as it appears. It's definitely informative, and it's interesting if you're into politics.

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only reason I'm not going 4 or 5 stars on this is because the information, the message is upsetting. But this was extremely educational on the processes and their history in our government. How the three branches operate and inter-operate, and how tradition has been up-ended in the last 15+ years, giving us a more authoritarian, less democratic government. This was a civics course in government that was never offered in high school. My thumb goes way up for this book, because of the immediate impact it's had on current events right now. This history explains the present - as if I got a new glasses prescription and I'm seeing politics and propaganda more clearly now.

[Cheryll · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book, my 12th grade us government
teacher identified John Dean as the only
watergate mem ber that was truly for the
rights of the individual and not the authoritarian
government
He has a chapter for each branch of the government
then explains how to fix what is
broken "the framers designed a system
that wasn't supposed to be efficient
but rather one that checks the power of its
co-equals...dictatorships are more efficient
, but not very good at protecting the liberty
and freedom of citizens ."

[Lil Mike]

Bought this after hearing Dean speak. He touched on the current and fully impeachable executive branch, as well as their secretive & illegal abuses of power. The guy that helped bring down Nixon referred informally to the Watergate hearings as an expensive civics lesson he woulda rather watched on television as well. He's older, and still saying things most Americans never wanted to hear, but are sadly true.

[Jeannine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I didn't read his first 2 books in this trilogy, this book is an excellent read. The author is on target about what the thugs in the Republican Party (in all branches of government) have done to this country (how corporations have created a train wreck of this country). Since I didn't learn until recently that this book is a part of a trilogy, I must go back & read the other 2 books.

[kitedreams · Rating 2 out of 5]

It isn't in my nature to post a written review for a book. It is further out of character for me to post a review before finishing it but after a day and a half of listening, I feel like this book is more a collection of quotes and conclusions made by others and compiled by the author. Could it be that a dozen distractions in any given hour have encouraged me to gloss over the greater point? It is possible, but I doubt it.

[Mboconnor31 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read and overview of what John Dean calls the authoritarian right as embodied by certain leaders in the Republican Party, starting with Nixon and ending with the Bush presidencies. There is special detail to the history of the politicalization of Supreme Court appointees which I found particularly interesting in light of the current controversy over the timing of who will select the replacement of Antonin Scalia: President Obama or the next elected President.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's only gotten worse. In Broken Government, Dean writes of the inability of the GOP to effectively govern. Reading the book was a painful trip down memory lane, but it shone a spotlight on how much further the Republicans have sunk. Dean laments the deterioration of his former party, and he wrote with no knowledge of the Tea Party fiasco that was to come.

[Adrienne]

This is amazing. John Dean was legal counsel to Richard Nixon. While he is still a conservative, he argues that the Republican party serves the country better as a minority party. He discusses the process by which the government is supposed to run, and how each party does/does not follow that process.

[Lee (Rocky) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty comprehensive summary of the ways in which our political system has been destroyed by authoritarian conservativism over the last 35 years or so. Explained in ways that non-lawyers can understand. I knew a lot of what was in here from seeing the author on TV but it was enlightening all the same.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

building on his case that the W terms were "worse than Nixon", the former Nixon Whitehouse lawyer exams the ways and means of the Cheney-Bush reign and finds it criminal. Further he finds the right shifting Republican base succeeding on tilting the supreme court right while recasting the president as a dictatorial force, especially for unchecked military action.

[David]

The last of his trilogy. A close look at each of the brances of government, where it is and what needs to be done to put them back in balance. A good look at how our government has been changed by the current administration.

[Les · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic. It shows you just what is wrong with our government under Republican. We have lost our Democracy. You must read this book to understand what has happen in the past and what is happening right now. It is a great read

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this. He really explains how the government has been broken - it was a scary to see how out of balance the three branches have become. I really learned a lot and recommend it to all people interested in the political process and the progress of this country.

[MsBrie]

I do like John Dean!

[Brian Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

An investigation of the effects of three decades of Republican rule.

[Seth sacco · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most comprehensive work that disecects the evolution of political policy,process and culture under republican control. (from Nixon to Bush 2)

[Tera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does anyone who has read this book feel like going to the Capitol to protest? Love my country but fear my government.

[KP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, man, this makes me hate the Bush Administration more than I already do. A look at the imperialist executive branch, a new development in recent American politics.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed "Conservatives Without Conscience" by Dean -- looking forward to this new book by him.

[Mary Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I read this book before the election I would have quit my job and worked in the Obama campaign. It is that powerful. I have more respect for Nancy Pelosi and less for GW Bush.

[Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read on how disastrous the last eight years have been.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a member of the republican party who served with Nixon, this guy really knows his stuff!

[columbialion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal hero and American patriot Dean chronicles the real damage wracked upon the American government, under the Bush junta