Summary of David Pepper's Laboratories of Autocracy

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 I was not being cute when I said I was from the Midwest. I meant it. The Midwest is a bunch of smaller states further west and north. Ohio is not just one major city, but a host of them, and countless mid-sized cities to go with them.

#2 Ohio was the center of it all, as it was the state whose combination of big cities and small towns and farmland approximated the mix found in the nation more than any other state.

#3 Ohio was a swing state, and it was often the final state that decided which candidate would become president. It was a balance of big city, small town, suburban, and rural areas, which meant that the candidates had to appeal to a diverse set of voters.

#4 As an Ohioan on the East Coast, I learned that everyone had some connection to Ohio. It made Ohio feel more central.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822524361

IRB Media

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Insights on David Pepper's Laboratories of Autocracy

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I was not being cute when I said I was from the Midwest. I meant it. The Midwest is a bunch of smaller states further west and north. Ohio is not just one major city, but a host of them, and countless mid-sized cities to go with them.

#2

Ohio was the center of it all, as it was the state whose combination of big cities and small towns and farmland approximated the mix found in the nation more than any other state.

#3

Ohio was a swing state, and it was often the final state that decided which candidate would become president. It was a balance of big city, small town, suburban, and rural areas, which meant that the candidates had to appeal to a diverse set of voters.

#4

As an Ohioan on the East Coast, I learned that everyone had some connection to Ohio. It made Ohio feel more central.

#5

Ohio is still an economic giant, but the things that are wrong with it are specific to it and not necessarily problems shared by other states.

#6

Ohio has been experiencing dramatic decline in core areas, propelled by a self-reinforcing downward spiral.

#7

Ohio is one of the worst states for Black people, and the problems only continue to grow as a result.

#8

Ohio, once a state with moderate politics, has become one of the most corrupt in the country. And this is happening during a period of deep atrophy in Ohio politics and government.

#9

Ohio has some of the most extremist lawmakers in the country.

#10

There is a connection between the political atrophy in Columbus and the anemic public outcomes described above. These aren’t parallel, unrelated tracks. There’s direct causation between the corrupt and extreme politics of the statehouse and poor public outcomes.

#11

Ohio’s downward spiral is the result of a broken government institution in the state legislature, the General Assembly.

#12

The problem of broken government and broken democracy is not limited to Ohio. It is happening in state after state, and the country as a whole is seeing this happen.

#13

State legislatures and legislators have a huge gap in knowledge between those who work in them and the public.

#14

The disconnect