American democracy in peril: The US Senate's crucial role

Ira Shapiro's recent book, The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America, chronicles the US Senate during the Trump presidency. As a veteran scholar and former Senate staffer with bipartisan experience, Shapiro determines that the Senate and its Republican members, led by Mitch McConnell (R-KY), ultimately abandoned late Senator John McCain's (R-AZ) guiding principle 'Country first'. Can the Senate recover its purpose and help resolve legislation to address America's fundamental challenges? What does the future hold for Mitch McConnell, arguably the most powerful Republican Senate leader ever, in the context of the upcoming midterm elections in November? What do the US midterms mean for Australia? To discuss these issues, the United States Studies Centre hosted a webinar featuring Ira Shapiro and Bill Kristol, editor-at-large of The Bulwark, Director of Defending Democracy Together, former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle and one of the most incisive Republican intellectuals and commentators, in conversation with USSC CEO Dr Mike Green and Non-Resident Senior Fellow Bruce Wolpe.