BOOK REVIEW: ‘On Compromise: Art, Politics, and the Fate of the American Ideal’ By Rachel Greenwald Smith | 2021 | Paperback, $16 | Nonfiction, politics | Available at the Seattle Public Library
From the beginning of “On Compromise: Art, Politics, and the Fate of an American Ideal,” a collection of essays by Rachel Greenwald Smith, it’s clear what she thinks of compromise.
She’s against it.
Mostly.
Smith does make it obvious that she’s not against everyday domestic compromises, such as when people take turns doing the chores nobody likes. It’s political compromise she finds objectionable, especially the tendency she sees in center-left Americans to see compromise as an idea in itself and an end rather than a means. ...