The Unraveling: Reflections on Politics without Ethics and Democracy in Crisis
By Bob Bauer
Roman and Littlefield, 2024
Bob Bauer is a member of a venerated genus - “Old Washington Hand” - subspecies Democratic election attorney. His is a name heard many times over the years, mostly in the role of supporting actor in some partisan foofaraw. “The Unraveling” covers key aspects of the modern (1981-) political era culminating in the Trump 1 years and the election of 2020. With a forward written by Jon Meacham, the readers could reasonably expect a well informed journey through these years, an expanded version of “Morning Joe” content wise. What they got instead was more complicated, part concise history with cogent analysis and
part opaque personal rumination, all from a person both proud and slightly ashamed of his accomplishments.
“The Unraveling’s” twelve chapters are divided into two categories, historical and ruminative. The former (on media, money, impeachment, Election of 2020, working for President Obama, etc.) were generally fact based, well presented and easy to follow. The latter (e.g. “Politics and the Warrior Mentality” or “On the Nature of Political Ethics”) were interesting but also a little dense and meandering, aggravating at times but clearly consistent with the “reflective” tone set in the subtitle.
Sprinkled throughout all the chapters was a series of “(add term here) -gates” that helped define Bauer’s career. Find a Washington-based contretemps from the Reagan years onward – Jim Wright, Tony Coelho, Tom “the Hammer” Delay, Frank McCloskey, Long Form birth certificate, Willie Horton, Kenneth Starr, Valerie Plame & Joe Wilson, Dick Gephardt, Paula Jones and Rick McIntyre – and Bauer was involved in some fashion. Seeing them again certainly reminds one that however they seemed at the moment their significance has been dimmed by time, and if readers remembered something about all the items on that list they might need to get outside more during their remaining remaining years.
Being a tough political operator was hardwired into Bauer’s DNA; his father was a Jewish Austrian emigre who escaped Nazi persecution and saw liberal politics as a bulwark against repression, in some cases a matter of life and death (5). It’s fair to say that throughout all this Bauer was a willing if not exactly happy warrior, at least in hindsight. Unlike many Washington types, he’s more self aware than self promoting, more than willing to admit his missteps, many of them, to the point where the reader might wonder if he wrote “The Unraveling” as an act of penance. With this trait Bauer clearly could never work for Donald “never admit a mistake” Trump even if their ideologies aligned, making it a little ironic that “The Unraveling” misspelled the name of that policy’s forefather, Roy Cohn (138).
Bauer’s personal misgivings highlighted another strength: his recognition that Democratic (Party) desires sometimes must give way to democratic (overall) needs or realities; it can’t be the “childish my party right or wrong” (7). Contrasted to the many Republicans who place party (whatever Donald Trump says it is at any given moment) over democracy (see January 6, 2021), Bauer comes off as Solon speaking to a crowd of illiterates.
There is nothing currently to suggest that much of what Bauer writes about – the crucial if short term “-gates,” the amount and sources of money in politics, the stupid debates, the media’s willingness to run with juicy-sounding stories that may mean nothing, hacks ignoring history, law and the Constitution for partisan gain, etc. - is not going away anytime soon. There will be a need for more Bob Bauers; his work is thus both reminiscence and warning.