An important element associated with President Barack Obama's legacy, along with being the first African American President, will be the polarization experienced by the two political parties. The subject of polarized politics has been a matter of intense debate since Obama's arrival in office, as legislation like the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and events like the “fiscal cliff” portrayed American politics as deeply divided and dysfunctional. John Dumbrell has edited Issues in American Politics to continue this debate, with a variety of articles covering multiple topics of importance in contemporary America. This courageous attempt to tackle a subject of such immense proportions successfully provides readers with a widespread account of most of the major issues in America, along with their implications for the future. However, because of the overwhelming nature of the topic, Issues in American Politics provides insight from only the high-profile actors, which results in the omission of topics that divide Americans not directly involved in political legislation or its coverage.

The structure of Issues in American Politics provides the opportunity to analyze and contrast differing viewpoints on certain subjects while also establishing a continuous dialogue. John Dumbrell has split the collection of articles into two subdivisions that congregate around how polarization has affected Obama's presidency and the effects of polarization on other institutions in American government. Within each subdivision, two chapters are generally used to provide separate accounts of specific issues in order to foster a more balanced understanding. There are chapters on health care by Daniel Béland and Alex Wadden and on the election process by Phillip John Davies that stand alone, but they do flow with the other sections found within this volume.

Polarization in politics is damaging to the social fabric of a nation not because of the inability to compromise or the relentless arguing on various points, but because it normalizes the tendency to see political opponents as malign figures driven by evil intent. George C. Edwards highlights this in his chapter “Barack Obama and the Strategic Presidency” by quoting the following statement from Democracy Corps: “The conservative GOP base believed Obama ‘is ruthlessly advancing a “secret agenda” to bankrupt the United States and dramatically expand government control to an extent nothing short of socialism’” (15). While this account relates to politicians in government office, John E. Owens highlights in “The Onward March of (Asymmetric) Political Polarization” how “increased polarization within the Congress … has increased partisan-ideological sorting and polarization within the electorate” (103).

Along with presenting the dangers of polarization to the United States, Issues in American Politics also investigates how it is warping or preventing decisions that need to be taken on key issues. Iwan Morgan emphasizes in “The Quest for Renewed Economic Prosperity” how polarization is inhibiting economic recovery, and further states, “It will take time and lots of luck to restore economic wellbeing” (80). Béland and Waddan, in “Health Politics and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” emphasize how hard it was to enact health care legislation, as “it generated strong opposition from Republicans and their Tea Party supporters” (44).

However, with the exception of Owens and Andrew Wroe in their debate concerning polarization among the public, average Americans are largely hidden behind political personae and institutions. While it is natural to assume that Americans find voice through their representatives in a democratic system, the low approval rating of Congress (15 per cent in April 2013)Footnote ¹ and the recent 2012 elections witnessing only an approximate 58 percent turnoutFootnote ² signify another polarization that is not present in Dumbrell's collection: polarization between Americans and their political institutions and parties. While Clodagh Harrington and Clive S. Thompson approach the topic in their respective chapters on the Tea Party and Sarah Palin, these provide only a glimpse of the disconnect Americans feel from their government and political parties.

As a result, issues relating to the polarization mentioned above are notably absent. There is no mention of how uneasy Americans are about their country's security policies (even before the leaks we are witnessing today) or about the general continuation of President George W. Bush's War on Terror. Furthermore, the volume includes articles on Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, but there is no article dedicated to the Occupy phenomenon and its influence on the 2012 election. Most importantly, gerrymandering is conspicuously absent, which many identify as one leading cause of the polarization in Washington, DC.

Yet Issues in American Politics does lead one to these questions. It provides the foundation for the reader to dig deeper into American society and to look behind the grand settings of Washington, DC to uncover how Americans feel about their country. Ultimately, after imbibing all the information concerning the dysfunctional nature of party politics today, readers should find themselves asking one question: what can we do about it?