Posted on 05/29/2009 6:35:47 PM PDT by Travis McGee
Will America survive the upcoming years as a "sovereign nation," or will the hideous dream of a one-world government be our fate? This is the paramount issue facing America in the 21st century; it transcends all other concerns.
Conservatives believe devoutly in the "sovereignty" of America as a fundamental requisite for the preservation of freedom and justice in the world. Those of liberal persuasion do not. To those on the left, America's fundamental cornerstones of a limiting Constitution, decentralized government, capitalism and individual freedom are the causes of war, poverty, exploitation and chaos. World order rather than individual freedom is what the power elites of liberalism seek; and they intend to do away with the founding principles of our country to achieve it. Their New World Order has no place in its plans for a sovereign America.
Thus national sovereignty is The major point of conflict between the forces of freedom and statism today. In the conservative vision of things, the leftist view is 180 degrees wrong. War, poverty, exploitation and chaos are not caused by individual freedom and limited government. They are caused by the arbitrary law that liberalism and central planning are based upon. Fomenting globalism and the merging of all countries under the yoke of centralized world government are not solutions to anything if freedom is our goal? But hubris moves the one-world liberal elites, not rationality. They are men of zeal in pursuit, not of truth, but of absolute power over their fellow men.
In Foreign Enemies and Traitors, Matthew Bracken has created a brilliant Atlas Shrugged like narrative of how this issue of "national sovereignty" might play out amidst the economic meltdown now consuming us. Conservatives throughout America will take to this tale like the colonists took to Tom Paine in 1776. And so also will libertarians, even though many of them are not enamored with the idea of the "nation-state." They will still be drawn to the individualism and patriotism of the story.
Bracken, I would guess, is a Jeffersonian conservative who traces his philosophical lineage back to John Locke rather than Edmund Burke. This means he has libertarian leanings to mix politically and culturally with conservative inclinations. He believes devoutly in the nation of America as the sublime hope for mankind, which necessitates a strong military and its judicious (rather than indiscriminate) use to maintain the nation's survival. Being an ex-Navy Seal, it is natural that he appreciates and reveres such an institution. But he also believes in a strict interpretation of the Constitution as a watchguard over our government and military. The Constitution is our North Star to guide and protect us -- but only if our leaders have the integrity to treat it as the literal document it was intended to be and faithfully uphold the oath they have taken to it. To fail to uphold this oath is treason to our country and everything for which she stands.
These two issues of national sovereignty and our leaders' faithful upholding of the Constitution transcend all our other concerns. They will determine if America survives as a free and distinct entity in the upcoming years to act as a shining beacon of liberty for the rest of mankind. In the absence of such a beacon, the lights of freedom and limited government will surely be extinguished as humanity slips back into the brutal collectivisms it has known for 5,000 years.
It is with these themes as philosophical backdrop that Foreign Enemies and Traitors tells its tale. As the story begins, the Second Great Depression (what Bracken has dubbed the "Greater Depression") rages throughout America. The country is splitting up geographically with several secessionist movements in response to a radical leftist administration recently ushered into power in Washington. But the country has also been struck with a horrific earthquake that levels Memphis, TN and the surrounding Mississippi River valley. This causes massive panic made all the worse by hordes of refugees, pillaging war lords, and the inevitable reversion to barbarism that such societal collapses bring.
In response to the chaos resulting from the economic depression, the secessionist movements and the earthquake, America's new President, Jamal Tambor, has invited "foreign troops" under the aegis of U.N. control into the country to try and suppress the rebels and establish a powerful centralized government again under Washington's grip.
Foreign troops on American soil?! "Inconceivable" will be the sentiment of almost all Americans today. But think again. America and the world have been moving toward a blurring of national sovereignties for many decades now. It wouldn't take too much of a crisis for an American President to opt for bringing in foreign troops to suppress rebellious states who choose to break away from the despotic stultification that Washington insists upon promoting. Because America's military would almost surely balk at firing on fellow Americans, it would be the only choice that a globalist President would have if he wanted to maintain the Federal Government's hold over the country.
Mr. Bracken thrusts into this mix of ideology and socio-economic tumult a cast of heroic characters with names like Boone Vikersun and Phil Carson (think Daniel and Kit if your historical memory is sluggish) -- to fight a guerrilla war in, of all places, the state of Tennessee against the overweening powers of a grotesquely corrupt Washington. Pure gold! Boone and Carson in the 21st century fighting for the Republic.
The female lead, Jenny McClure, is a winsome, feisty teenager -- just waking up to the cruelty of an adult world turned upside down -- and about as courageous as humans get. Upon reading of her trials and how she measures up to them, the emotion felt is twofold: immense awe and the hope that if life's tribulations ever presented such dilemmas to ourselves, our reactions would be equally as spirited in manner.
The book's galvanic plot is tension-packed and unfolds with startling surprises right up to the end. Numerous scenes occur throughout in which courage, patriotism, and honor come into play in such emotionally riveting ways as to bring a physical tingling sensation to the back of one's neck.
Further complicating events is a clash of governing philosophies between a "new" Constitution illegally rammed through in a panicky Constitutional Convention and the "original" Constitution which spawned America from the beginning and was the law of the land for 125 years until collectivists began degrading it with Mad Hatter's logic in the 20th century.
Overlying all this is the defense backbone of the nation -- our military forces -- and what side they must choose in this epic clash between the treasonous forces of the new-world order in Washington and the loyalist forces of freedom amidst the patriotic states. The former trumpets the new Constitution and its implementation, while the latter fights for the original version and its restoration. Which Constitution do we uphold? The military's leading generals must decide which to defend, and it makes for a crackerjack story that will keep you reading late into the night as Bracken's trio of Americanist heroes -- Boone, Carson, and Jenny -- are drawn into one escapade after another to defend the rebellious states and attempt to take the country back from a quisling President and his perverse entourage of socialist apparatchiks.
Bracken writes vividly and integrates all the subtle nuances of today's leftist media / academy brainwash into the dialogue. His grasp of their pernicious semantic twistings is impeccable. Moreover the didacticism of the book is written into the scenes perfectly. No long-winded lectures to take away from the pace of the story; but numerous pithy and powerful expressions of what freedom, the Constitution, and America are all about come forth from his characters.
Foreign Enemies and Traitors is the final volume of the author's freedom trilogy based on the three seminal issues of gun control, immigration, and national sovereignty. It could be one of those "turning point" books of American history. If the man in the street is to become aware of how America is being destroyed, it must be through salient fiction efforts such as this. I only hope that someone like Glenn Beck or Patrick Buchanan will read it. It is a book that would explode on the charts if they started promoting it. Of course, the political left will come down on this tome like a blitzkrieg to try and kill the message of its talented author if widespread popularity starts coming his way. But that goes with the territory when one writes of patriotism and honor in an era that worships acquiescence and popularity.
This is a book that all freedom-loving Americans will enjoy immensely -- not just because it is a cogent political accounting of what America's problems are and what the military's proper response to the constitutional implications must be, but also because it is a splendidly written, scintillating story. The author has combined the two areas of "message" and "plot" together in a most persuasive and entertaining manner. Move over Tom Clancy.
Nelson Hultberg is Executive Director at Americans for a Free Republic.
I am enjoying reading this right now. Very interesting trilogy, and this one seems the best. My wife is pushing me to get through it.
I am looking forward to the last two books. I have been moving for the last two months and almost have everything put away. Although it is just to the house next door, about 1/4 mile, I have lost 30 pounds doing the move which is a good thing.
It will probably still be a month or so but I definitely am going to order both. It is rare that I come across something with which I agree so much and these definitely are just that.
That review makes me want to read them that much more.
Which book and edition did that?
How far into it are you?
FE, 2nd printing, 2007.
Now I live in Phoenix and this is not entirely unheard of for paperbacks if you take them in the car with you during the day. I’ve had it happen before, but it’s still not the norm. I’d say maybe one paperback in 50 do this.
Not far - real close to Tennessee. A long ways to go so I should buy my wife another copy, except that I have the whole weekend mostly free. I am looking forward to a good read - it’s been one thus far. Here you’re a fiction author writing about topics that just crowd my thinking these days, and you also quote my favorite economist, Von Mises, on Free Republic posts.
Thank God for the internet.
Except that Amazon is still quoting “two to four weeks delivery”.
Ordering direct from the author is quicker.
My copy has arrived! Now, to TD this well and get home and read it! (I’m looking forward to it.)
Was it hyperextended at all? If they are just spontaneously falling out, now that’s bad. The AZ heat inside a car is another factor I have not considered.
I often cringe when I see people pick up my books and literally crack the spine in the first minute by smashing it open 180* flat on a table, or wrapping the front cover and pages all the way around the back cover. “Perfect bound” books have a lot of advantages (mainly cost), but the spines are suseptible to being cracked. A lot of folks who are used to hardbacks want a perfect bound book to “lay open” like a hard back, so they force them apart and split their spines. Hardbacks have a totally different and more complicated multi-part construction that allows them to lay flat-—of course, they also cost $10 more per copy to produce.
Cool!
After all the folks I have crossed swords with over the last few months here, it is gratifying to see that someone else actually believes this.
It has been a while since we exchanged quips, partly because I am so depressed that the economy has gone exactly where economies always do when you build them on rent seeking behavior, and are able to export your inflation around the world, until you can't.
I am amazed that so-called conservatives cannot keep their firearms aimed at a real enemy, but rather, Cheney like, blast away at friends, and then go looking through their dirty linnnen baskets to see if they can find something that smells.
0 ain't my man. Bush-Cheney are not exactly the hight of constitutional conservatism towards which we want to aspire.
I don't know what the future holds, but I pray fervently that it is none of the above.
Not really sure. I would never wrap it around all the way like a magazine, but a book of that size and weight, say if I'm reading it with a meal, I will lay it flat on a table. Not sure if I did that with this particular one or not. As far as the heat is concerned, I am aware of the issue, and if I do read a book while still warm from the car, am careful not to open it more than about 90 degrees till it's had a chance to cool down.
As far as the cost of hardcovers is concerned, can you get them for $10 more even in small lots? If so, I'd happily pay $10 more than I paid to get a hardcover, and I think at least a percentage of your other readers would feel the same. These are all books I'd read at least 3-5 times. And then I'd donate them to the used book store at the library if I didn't think the library volunteers, probably all liberals, would trash them instead of giving someone else the chance to read them.
And since Amazon’s getting a cut, either you’re going to get it cheaper or Travis is going to get more for it, or some combination of the two.
Just caught a glimpse. Will chk back soon. Looks very good.
I put the money in an envelope last week and forgot to mail it. You can bet I am sending in Monday.
I do want to keep things simple though. For example, my warehouse/fulfillment company in Michigan charges monthly by the space a pallet takes. More versions of 3 books means double the pallets and more cost. They charge you for a pallet space until those boxes on it are gone.
I hope that millions of Americans still believe it, and a majority can be educated to believe it. Otherwise we are fated to become the USSA. The USSR had a beautiful constitution—on paper. It’s just that everybody “understood” that it was only for show, and if you made yourself a nuisance demanding the govt follow it, you could lose your job or just disappear.
I hope that we’re not too far down that road to turn back.
Hope you like it!
Why not warehouse and ship them yourself? How many do you print at a crack, a few thousand? Are you sailing for long periods of time?
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