Tripwires

In a trenchant work of nonfiction, the #1 New York Times bestselling author identifies a series of self-inflicted wounds on our body politic that have led to the current moment, and shows us how we can undo the harm A modern-day Tocqueville, Richard North Patterson marshals an immense amount of research to show, incisively and readably, why we are now in danger of losing our democracyand how we can recover from our current malaise. Max Boot, author of Reagan: His Life and LegendIn a trenchant work of nonfiction, the New York Times bestselling author identifies a series of self-inflicted wounds and destabilizing societal trends that have led America to the precipice of autocracy, and lays out a program or reversing the harm. From politicized Supreme Court decisions to wrong-headed policy initiatives and toxic political maneuvers, Richard North Pattersonwhose novel on presidential politics, Protect and Defend, was a #1 New York Times bestsellercombines fifteen fateful moments in the past quarter-century with an immersive narrative of the underlying economic, cultural, and political developments that made these tripwires so profoundly consequential.Starting with the Supreme Court intervention that awarded George W. Bush the presidency, Patterson examines the often under-appreciated turning points that helped undermine our polity, from the accidental accession of John Roberts as Chief Justice and the ruin wreaked by Americas subprime mortgages, to Donald Trumps demand to see Barack Obamas birth certificate, Marco Rubios sabotage of his own immigration reform bill, and Mitch McConnells refusal to convict Trump for his attempted coupculimating in the ultimate betrayal of our constitutional democracy: the Roberts Courts invitation to unbounded presidential power.Pattersons near-encyclopedic knowledge of recent U.S. history along with his political acumen and training as a trial lawyer allow him to distill cause and effect in a deeply synthetic way, building to a comprehensive account of the perverse compound of ignorance, corruption, racism, religiosity, plutocracy, and authoritarianism wrought by Trumps return to power. He concludes with a detailed program for establishing a truly equitable and democratic society, offering hope for Americas future.