Reviews of American Democracy Forever
In the comment section of this post, I welcome reviews and critiques of American Democracy Forever. Tell me what you think, people. No obscenities or hate speech, please.
10Nov
In the comment section of this post, I welcome reviews and critiques of American Democracy Forever. Tell me what you think, people. No obscenities or hate speech, please.
Comments (15)
Hi Rich, and thanks for inviting me to review American Democracy Forever. For those who are not familiar, I’d describe ADF as Rich’s thoughts, in novelistic form, about American politics from 1960 to 2020. Charlie, the novel’s hero, is a man of strong Enlightenment convictions, who gets to be a billionaire in an alternate life, and fights against Donald Trump’s lies and bullshit down through the years. I was quite entertained by this. Maybe Charlie as a character is a little too good to be true, but who doesn’t like a do-over? I really enjoyed his positive ideology and optimistic point of view.
Thanks for the good words, Mike. Your critique of Life 2, an early version of ADF, was a big help. I’m not sure how well I managed to incorporate your thoughts into ADF. Here they are from October, 2020 so you and other readers can judge for yourself.
Hi Rich,
All’s well here, and I hope with you also. Last I heard you were quarantining, and you were also worried about Lois’s health. How’s it going, my friend?
Thank you for sharing Life 2, version 10/28/2020, with me. I am actually a big fan of the do-over, and really enjoyed yours! I envy Charlie 2’s memory, maturity, and decisiveness, but I can’t help wondering if he doesn’t have it just a wee bit too easy, at least in his early years 🙂 Does Charlie 2 have any dark side at all? No character without conflict, or so I think.
For me, Life 2 is a political essay (exploring possibilities) that is wrapped up in a story. May the good outcomes come to pass! I wonder how Life 2’s Forum Clubs are related to your real-life Constitution Wiki idea; these are bottom-up, rationally guided concepts that seem very worthwhile but could also be very difficult to put into practice. I feel like your Forum Clubs are analogous to the original American colonial assemblies, and your Constitution Wiki might be analogous to the Federalist Papers. Have I got that right?
Very clever of you to introduce Charlie 3 (or technically, I suppose, Charlie 3a and 3b) at the end of the story. Every good story deserves a sequel, or in your case, many. Long may you live, and write!
Best wishes,
Mike
PS – Your manuscript is awesomely error-free. Only things I saw on first reading are p.39 beholden not beholding, and p.3 Scaramouche better than Scaramouch.
Exhilarating, Thought-Provoking & a Fun Read….
What a delight to read this fresh look at a possible different scenario of the past 60 years in US politics. Demers’ imagination provides an amusing if not desirable viewpoint of what might have been. The opinions of the lead character, Charlie Durand, as he ruminates about American technology, religion, culture and government are nothing short of fascinating. I caught myself several times with a smile on my face as I said, “YES!” out loud. The 28 questions at the back of the book make this a perfect book club read, as well. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it.
Thanks for your kind words, Barbara. I hope some book club reads ADF and discusses a few of the questions I would like to see them consider.
American Democracy Forever is a thoughtful well-written book that I greatly enjoyed. Charlie Durand is reminiscent of Ayn Rands’s work. The phrase, “Who is Jon Galt,” kept echoing around in my head. I would assume that Rich was as influenced by Ayn Rand as I was in my youth. My snobbishness and tribal loyalties lead me to reject her ideas now, although I am still enamored by competence.
It is sad that Charlie Durand lived through the turbulent sixties in his first life and did not seem to have the same commitment to societal change as he did after starting on his journey to incredible wealth.
The book leaves me wondering if we the great unwashed are destined to live subservient to the priorities of the enlightened or unenlightened well-to-do. How long will the proletariat tolerate beng pushed to the lowest level of Mazlow’s pyramid before erupting in violent frustration? It has happened before, “eh Jacque.”
American Democracy Forever leaves my mind rambling far afield of the author’s intention. For me, this is the hallmark of a great read.
Richard, thanks for your comments, though I am having trouble with your comparison of ADF to the works of Ayn Rand since i disparaged her ideas on pages 130-131 in “The Tonight Show” chapter. Yes, I did read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead when I was seventeen and was taken in by her ideas, but when I reread them when I was thirty, I realized how simplistic her strawman model of society was.
So, how does Charlie Durand compare with John Galt? As I recall, Galt is a mystery man who doesn’t really appear in Atlas Shrugged until near the end of the book when he gives a long, rambling, self-justifying speech. He really doesn’t do anything for anyone but himself, withdrawing from society because he feels he was being taken advantage of — poor boy.
In contrast, Charlie Durand works, from the beginning of the novel to do what he thinks he must to preserve American democracy. He does stay mostly in the background, as a gadfly, working through other people; so, I can see other people in ADF wondering “Who is Charlie Durand?”
Yes, Who is Charlie Durand, the secretive recluse hiding out in his well fortified digs only to be seen by the. Chosen ones.
I loved the book, well done Rich. Keep on keeping on.
I like your writing style, Rich. It’s easy to read and interesting too.
I’m probably not your target market for this book given that Charlie seems to think the Democrats can do no wrong. And I am going to be bold and predict that history will *not* be kind to either Republicans or Democrats.
I do have a question, though. Charlie’s Forum Clubs are set up to be decentralized and bottom-up. You also say that one of the strengths of the Catholic church is its unity. These are two opposites, and I admit they can both have their place, but I’m wondering if you would comment on why you think decentralization is good for Forum Clubs but not for churches.
Thanks for your comments, Jon. In general, I do not see Democrats as faultless, only as infinitely better than today’s degenerate, Trump-dominated Republican party. To say otherwise is to make a false equivalency. But let’s put that aside.
Yes, Charlie’s Forum Clubs are decentralized and bottom-up and so are most Protestant denominations, but there is a big difference. As I discussed in the chapter on Perverted Religion the theological and social unity found in pre-Reformation Catholicism degenerated throughout the history of Protestantism into preacher-led congregations, where many preachers go for the lowest common denominator of their congregations to reap enormous wealth for themselves, ultimately resulting in the pervers “prosperity theology.” In large part, the Catholic Church more-or-less cleaned up its act and retained a theological and social unity, though there are many cracks in that unity today.
So how do the Forum Clubs differ? Unlike Catholicism, there is no central authority dictating what their members must believe or do, but there is the neural network of club Committees of Correspondance that works to analyze human, social, and political issues and attempts to find reasonable solutions to them. And from that evolves bottom-up unity. An example of that is the common liturgy of Forum Club meetings (partially derived from the Catholic Mass) that has evolved from 1960 to 1986 (see A Homecoming Party chapter), including: Pledge of Allegiance, greetings, readings from Forum club literature, singing, the discussion of CoC messages, new business, and finally partying. Charlie wonders if this isn’t the beginning of a Civic Religion?
Reading American Democracy Forever conjured images an erudite armchair-analyst curmudgeon with a stamp of Catholic guilt inside that caused him to lay awake at night worrying, “HOW could we have let this happen???” Rich took the now-familiar liberals’ roiling angst and outrage and turned it into a 21st century Forrest Gump front-seat-to-history woulda-coulda-shoulda saga.
The narrative builds upon the argument “The Founding Fathers of our nation left the US Constitution vague and dependent on citizens to act against any abuses that might occur. …We the people choose people to represent us when laws are being made or changed. The Constitution has no mechanisms other than the ballot box by which we can control our Representatives and Senators. …What’s needed is a layer of citizen action below the political parties and below the representative structure defined by the Constitution. Government cannot be truly responsive to the people without such an underlayment.”
Then, through a survey of cultural influences, from technology to religion to social media and social belonging, communications and philosophy, adding in doses of jabs and satirical humor, Rich sets out to direct his energy into imagining a parallel reality.
Responding to the MAGA horrors of the past several years with this kind of energy, discipline and creativity is admirable – better than just bloviating into the ether, which is what many of us are reduced to!
LOL! “a curmudgeon with a stamp of Catholic guilt” Carrie, you know me too well.
Yes, what is needed is a better way for people to control politicians; the ballot box by itself is insufficient. Hence the idea of an informal, self-defining layer, a neural network, of citizen organizations below the layers of political parties and Constitutional structures. I regret that I am neither young and energetic enough nor wealthy enough to go about creating such a layer, as Charlie is in ADF. In “The Long View” chapter, Charlie’s Mom provides several historical examples of citizens organizing to accomplish momentous changes to our society, but they didn’t persist over time and become an intrinsic part of our culture. My secret hope is that some billionaire will read ADF and say to themself, “Humph, I could do that!”
I must say that American Democracy Forever is a gripping read. I was amazed by the intricacy of the novel, with all the details of all the characters and the complex resurrection of the last 40 or 50 years of American democracy. The way you have torn into Donald Trump is spectacular, and I hope that you have not received any threats from him or his supporters. I particularly loved the way Charlie Durand cautioned Bill Clinton not to get sexually involved with any of the women in his administration. It’s too bad that Clinton either never received such advice or did not care to follow it. Your novel also helps readers to understand that the current outrageous actions of the Republican party began dozens of years ago, such as slashing the taxation of rich Americans in half, from 70% to 35%. With Republicans now gaining the majority in the House of Representatives it is very likely that we will see even more assaults on poor Americans: such as cutting Medicare and Social Security benefits right and left. Your novel deserves to be published by a national press so that the general public would have easy access to the truths of your work.
Thanks for the kind words, John. Your early editing of ADF’s predecessor, Life 2, was a tremendous help in making ADF free of spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors. I do a lot better now because you took a ruler to my knuckles, figuratively speaking.
I hope you liked the chapter on Education Reform because it exists because of our discussion of problems with education in the USA.
The following is a review posted on the About Me page:
Judith Anderson
I just recently finished reading American Democracy Forever (a novel) and loved the premise. It is so timely. I am recommending it to my daughters and their husbands as they are all interested in current US politics and the 2024 presidential election that will ensue.
Great new website. Your ADF Blog and Book Club Questions are provocative and comprehensive.
I especially endorse the clarity of the book’s Dedication and hope all students and activists will take it seriously. I will be sending some ADF books to local Dems in WV for their inspiration. Thanks for your imaginative writing.