Misplaced Optimism

I read most of the book with a growing sense of pessimism.  Then the authors offered comfort that America could and would be great again, would handle the crises that face us.  We will do the big things and we will work collectively to solve our country’s problems.  I wish I shared their optimism.  By their own account, the political parties are polarized.  I can see this polarization and the results of it by my own observation of the past fifteen years or so.  It’s a point that they articulate well, and then they seem to forget it.  I understand the point they make about a third-party candidate, but I don’t agree that such a candidate can have the effect they expect.