America has always lived in the tension between the promise of "We the People" and the pull of power, greed, and control. This second, 250th anniversary edition of The United States vs. Whatever This Is gives an updated look at where America stands a year and a half into the second Trump administration. It remains a bold, unflinching look at where we've been, as well as where we are headed. It moves backward through time from the present moment to forgotten lessons and the values we risk losing. The book traces both America's finest hours and its darkest turns, asking the question at the heart of it all: Who do we want to be? It's part history, part wake up call, part invitation. Let's remember the best of what America has been and act now before we lose it for good.
Concerned about what is happening in America, I did a sweep through the last 250 years of our history with a view to the present. What I found was that every era of American history is shouting to us, warning us that we are running headlong in the wrong direction.
The Founding Fathers insisted on a Bill of Rights, which is being thrown out the window. People are abducted without warrant or trial to camps. The Founders protested autocracy, yet the current administration has shut down independent checks and balances. We have a divergent Supreme Court throwing centuries-old precedents in the garbage. The Congress is simply rubber stamping things it knows are horrible.
Freedom of press is slammed as the more objective channels are shut down. Meanwhile, the wall between church and state is increasingly torn down as one particular form of evangelical Christianity is given free rein -- a destruction of the freedom of religion for everyone else. Hard fought advances in civil rights are being thrown out as if white people are the ones who have been oppressed. There is talk of "all white communities" and even taking away the right for women to vote. These are moves we couldn't have imagined just months ago. In addition, the lessons of the Gilded Age and the Great Depression are ignored, preferring rather the horrible conditions of the late 1800s and 1930s.
In this book, I work backward from the present to the past, unfolding the history we have forgotten or never knew. To this point, we have been able to rely on a system that embodied the built-in insights of the past. But this administration is bulldozing everything, including the East Wing and the Rose Garden. It is unclear if it is too late to stop it. But if we still have time, we desperately need to reverse course now. This book is a plea to return to the Constitution and the United States of America rather than let "whatever this is" continue to destroy us.
Table of Contents
Preface to the Anniversary Edition
I. What Just Happened?
1. A Fork in the Road
History will tell us which path we took.
2. Bent Toward Injustice
Right now, the arc of the moral universe is bending toward injustice.
3. The Reagan Snap Back
You can make harming people sound righteous if you clothe it in faith and flag.
4. Church vs. State
Jesus didn't run a political party. Your church shouldn't either.
5. Americans Hate Moderation
Why does America hate smart, moderate politicians?
6. Too Much Change
Why can't we let God take care of judgment?
II. Forgotten Lessons
7. Everyone Loves America
When do you actually need to know what you're doing to make the world a better place?
8. Mutual Assured Destruction
If bombs could make peace, we'd already have it.
9. Jokers of Authoritarianism
They thought Hitler was a joke. Then they gave him their country.
10. The Invisible Hand That Slapped Us
We trusted the "invisible hand" of the market once, and it punched us in the gut.
11. The Rich Get Richer
We let a few people own everything once before. Spoiler alert: it sucked for everyone else.
12. Ours for the Taking
Watch out. America's coming for everything we can get out of you.
13. America’s Closed
The Statue of Liberty has become a lie.
III. What’s to Lose
14. Dare You to Stop Me
A republic is only as good as the people it protects.
15. Three-Fifths of a Person
"States' rights" almost always has meant, "Let's do something awful."
16. Who Counts as a Human Being?
America once killed 600,000 of its own people to keep one group "in their place." Let's not do that again.
17. Tell Me My Rights
They came for everyone else's rights, and you said nothing. Now they're coming for yours.
18. No More Kings!
The Founders didn't dump tea into a harbor to trade one king for another.
19. Protest is Deeply American
Protest is very annoying. And very important.
20. The Best of America
"Let America be America again!"
Postlude (an update a year and a half in)
Appendix: American History in a Nutshell
