The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism

by Steve Kornacki

Overview

From MSNBC correspondent Steve Kornacki, a lively and sweeping history of the birth of political tribalism in the 1990s—one that brings critical new understanding to our current political landscape from Clinton to Trump

In The Red and the Blue, cable news star and acclaimed journalist Steve Kornacki follows the twin paths of Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, two larger-than-life politicians who exploited the weakened structure of their respective parties to attain the highest offices. For Clinton, that meant contorting himself around the various factions of the Democratic party to win the presidency. Gingrich employed a scorched-earth strategy to upend the permanent Republican minority in the House, making him Speaker. 

The Clinton/Gingrich battles were bare-knuckled brawls that brought about massive policy shifts and high-stakes showdowns—their collisions had far-reaching political consequences. But the ’90s were not just about them.  Kornacki writes about Mario Cuomo’s stubborn presence around Clinton’s 1992 campaign; Hillary Clinton’s star turn during the 1998 midterms, seeding the idea for her own candidacy; Ross Perot’s wild run in 1992 that inspired him to launch the Reform Party, giving Donald Trump his first taste of electoral politics in 1999; and many others. 

With novelistic prose and a clear sense of history, Steve Kornacki masterfully weaves together the various elements of this rambunctious and hugely impactful era in American history, whose effects set the stage for our current political landscape.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062439000
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/01/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	6,211
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Steve Kornacki is a national political correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC.  His work has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Roll Call, and the New York Times, among others.  The Red and the Blue is his first book.

Editorial Reviews

An insightful, learned, and thought-provoking theory that the political tribalism of the moment is rooted in the worlds of Gingrich and of the Clintons, and the first days of the political-entertainment complex. This is an illuminating argument from a master political journalist and analyst.

Jon Meacham

The energy and insight Kornacki expresses as a political analyst on television shatters the screen and fills the pages of this carefully crafted book. . . . Engaging, entertaining, and enlightening.

Lee Miringoff

A smart and welcome take on U.S. politics over the past two decades.

The American Conservative

[Kornacki] is one of the most perceptive political analysts on cable TV. . . . A crisp and fast-paced narrative.

The Guardian

Kornacki is known for his predictive ability to read electoral tea leaves and spot trends. Now his journalistic prowess is on display in this sharp narrative tracking the steps and missteps over the last quarter-century that brought us to today’s combative political stasis.

Booklist (starred review)

Superb. . . . Kornacki recounts these events stylishly and objectively. . . . [An] absorbing narrative.

Washington Post

Steve Kornacki is America’s gift to election years.  His new book, The Red and the Blue, is every political fan’s playbook about how we got here and where we’re going.  I loved it.

Tom Brokaw

[Kornacki] is one of the most perceptive political analysts on cable TV. . . . A crisp and fast-paced narrative.

The Guardian

Kornacki is known for his predictive ability to read electoral tea leaves and spot trends. Now his journalistic prowess is on display in this sharp narrative tracking the steps and missteps over the last quarter-century that brought us to today’s combative political stasis.

Booklist (starred review)

A smart and welcome take on U.S. politics over the past two decades.

The American Conservative

It can be a strange experience these days to read a book about modern American politics and divisions that is not about Donald Trump. Steve Kornacki's The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism renders such an experience lively and fulfilling, if not uplifting, by making a mostly convincing case that the brutal 1990s political battles led by Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich had brought the country to its stark divide between "red America" and "blue America" by election night, 2000.

The New York Times Book Review - Gabriel Debenedetti

08/13/2018
Kornacki, political correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, delivers a hard-hitting look at 1990s election politics in this engrossing account of two political rivals and the cultural phenomena they shaped. Kornacki’s narrative, which covers the period from 1984 to 2000, focuses on the rise of Democrat wild child Bill Clinton and his Republican nemesis Newt Gingrich. But it also includes detailed accounts of congressional gridlock, salacious presidential scandals, and outlier billionaires’ third-party presidential runs. Kornacki persuasively argues that this “fateful decade” serves as the precursor to today’s “political tribalism.” He skillfully resurrects the scenes, culture, and major players of the time, including Pat Buchanan, George H.W. Bush, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, and Henry Ross Perot. Kornacki switches focus between Clinton and Gingrich, highlighting the growing ideological rifts between the two parties; Clinton’s push for universal health coverage and tax increases are set in opposition to Gingrich’s disdainful view of government as the breeding ground for the liberal elite and tax hikes. Kornacki credits Gingrich with a major turning point in partisan politics: the 1994 midterm’s landslide victory for Republicans in Congress, which further cemented the coming tribalism. With rich detail about ’90s pop culture and astute political commentary, Kornacki tells an enlightening tale. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Superb. . . . Kornacki recounts these events stylishly and objectively. . . . [An] absorbing narrative.

Washington Post

Steve Kornacki is America’s gift to election years.  His new book, The Red and the Blue, is every political fan’s playbook about how we got here and where we’re going.  I loved it.

Tom Brokaw

Steve Kornacki brings to The Red and the Blue the same intensity, rigorous reporting and incisive analysis that captivate his television audiences. This book sucked us right in and taught us something new about politics on every page.

Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes

Steve Kornacki brings to The Red and the Blue the same intensity, rigorous reporting and incisive analysis that captivate his television audiences. This book sucked us right in and taught us something new about politics on every page.

Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes

An insightful, learned, and thought-provoking theory that the political tribalism of the moment is rooted in the worlds of Gingrich and of the Clintons, and the first days of the political-entertainment complex. This is an illuminating argument from a master political journalist and analyst.

Jon Meacham

Superb. . . . Kornacki recounts these events stylishly and objectively. . . . [An] absorbing narrative.

Washington Post

09/01/2018
NBC News political correspondent Kornacki writes an instructive assessment of the contentious politics of the 1990s, arguing that the intensity of today's partisan climate is rooted in the battles between former U.S. president Bill Clinton and his chief antagonist Newt Gingrich. Kornacki devotes almost 100 pages to the run-up to the 1992 election to offer a revealing account of how Gingrich rose from obscurity to become the leader of the Republican insurgency and then Speaker of the House. While some of his success was owing to luck and fortuitous timing, it was Gingrich's tenacity and eagerness that won him eventual power in Congress. Clinton's rise and fall is equally fascinating. The supporting cast in this book is irresistible: Mario Cuomo's hesitations, Jesse Jackson's impact on the 1988 primaries, and Ross Perot's political movement that gave President Trump his first political opportunity. The brief account of Trump's flirtation with a presidential run in 2000 presents a cautionary tale and foretaste of what was to come 16 years later. VERDICT This work reads like a novel with many footnotes and is ideal for anyone interested in contemporary American politics. [See Prepub Alert, 4/30/18.]—Thomas Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, PA

Library Journal

2018-07-31

Tired of the political squabbling and incivility of our day? Blame it on hanging chads—and Newt Gingrich.

According to NBC and MSNBC political correspondent Kornacki, the notion that there are two Americas, more or less equal in strength, dates precisely to Nov. 7, 2000, "the product of an entire nation torn perfectly in half." The rupture took time to build, though; one climacteric was the civil rights movement of the postwar era, which led to the formation of a Southern, segregationist wing of the Democratic Party that would in time switch to the Republicans and take the South with them. When Bill Clinton came along in the 1990s, he brought a "New Democratic" style meant in at least some regard to woo the region back into the fold, but Republican firebrand Gingrich would have none of it. Instead, he practiced a slash-and-burn, us-vs.-them politics that verged on civil war. Few of his allies liked him, but indeed, "even if they still despised him, they had to respect him" after he toppled Speaker of the House Jim Wright with a decidedly malign but effective campaign. Gingrich, rising to that position, took it as his brief to "obliterate all that modernism had created," and were it not for his considerable failings, he might have succeeded—unfortunately, others have continued that project. After eight years of Gingrich versus Clinton, and after some serious missteps on the part of Clinton's would-be successor, Al Gore, the electoral map took the form it bears now, with blue states north of the Mason-Dixon Line and red ones mostly below it—and with intractable differences that all but guarantee the impossibility of any future candidate's winning by a transnational landslide as Ronald Reagan did.

Revealing reading to think about before the midterms heat up.

Kirkus Reviews

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