I’m not a big novel reader, but this read was my favorite novel I’ve read in years. It is a quick read, took about 5 hours probably.
The plot centers on Kelly Turnbull a former Special Forces member who is living in a divided USA. It is the year 2034 or so and the US has split into a red and blue country, with the Peoples Republic consisting of the west coast and the northeast, and the still named USA consisting of the flyover states.
The author paints a dark picture of the People’s Republic, a dystopian wasteland much like we are seeing Venezuela devolve into. The elites live on the gated west side of Los Angeles, where Turnbull has a $5 million dollar contract job to kidnap a female defector from Texas who is now the live in girlfriend of the head of the California security services. He takes her brother along with him to help him with the snatch and grab. He is being paid by the girl’s father who desperately wants her back after she caught SJW fever and defected. The pair infiltrate the “Republic” from Utah, get to Las Vegas, then go to Reno and enter Los Angeles by driving south along Highway 99 (now called the Barack Obama Freeway).
Once getting to LA the author uses great descriptive language capturing what is always the end game situation when power hungry ideologues, driven by delusions of building a new utopia, take over a society. We saw it in the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and Year 0 in Cambodia. It’s no different here. Without functioning markets, (instead replaced by 3 year top down directed production plans) there are shortages of food with rationing for the non – elites who live outside the gates. Cars, gas, consumer goods are all in short supply. There are daily brownouts and black outs with electrical service, since the industry is being run by people with the most victim points rather than trained engineers. Everything is broken down and decrepit – except on the west side, where the government bureaucrats live, the actors, the professoriate and the media.
The author is a conservative writer for Town hall and appears on Fox News. So I can hear the 1 star reviewers already “every right wing trope in this book”, “broad brush”, “hackneyed cliche©s” blah blah blah. OK was the guy over the top? Probably, but I didn’t take it serious like a lefty would. There is a sense of the guy knows he is writing over the top which makes it humorous in a way. Do I think we could really get to the point described in his book? Society in the Republic has basically devolved to mimic system wide the nonsense going on at elite college campuses in the US (think Evergreen, Oberlin etc.). I don’t think that could happen but who knows.
So even with the over the top characterization of life in the republic he makes good points. The man that is the head of the security services is basically an opportunist. He parrots the program, but is really just in it for the perks he gets from wielding power and authority (women, nice house etc.). I’m sure that is true in many revolutions. I also liked his description of what the Judge Judy show had become. No longer is it a show about tenant disputes, neighbor disputes etc. Instead it is like a replay of the communist cultural revolution , in which people stand in a circle and shout and accuse the unfortunate individual on trial of being racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic etc. What he notes though is that the elites encourage the commoners to do this exercise because it gives them the illusion of power in a decaying society, run solely for the benefit of people behind the gate on the west side. Much like elite media , Silicon Valley, NFL football, and Hollywood take up SJW causes and encourage unrest (like tearing down statues of dead democrats), that outlet is merely palliative . Done to make the people left behind that they are making “progress”. Rather than do things like build an economy that grows at 4% and lifts everyone, or not import low skilled wage slaves to undercut labor wages, or allow inner city folks to have vouchers to enable their kids to have a chance at school, the elites distract by concentrating public attention on whether trans gender people get to use the restroom they identify with.
I liked the way the author used real names and events as he filled in detail on the USA break up. This wasn’t the focus of the book (he has a prequel coming out), but it added to the story. He talks about President De Blasio (shudder), President Clinton etc. I liked that.
The author has several e books , which I will probably get. He is readable, funny and informed. I want more.
Finally a couple of my favorite selections from the book:
While we in the US doubled down on what made America great, they doubled down on the blue state socialism that split the country apart. And exactly what we knew would happen is happening. It's a police state that functions only to keep the elite separate from the consequences of its policies.
AND
But this was not the old People's Court (TV show) where quarter wits argued over who committed what petty tort against whom. Here, some poor, pale , middle aged schlub was dragged before a jeering audience of mouth-frothing community college students and accused by a shrieking, teary-eyed creature of "microagressing me as a trans person of color by invoking his male gaze"
AND finally
The Entities headline chronicled the latest defeat for teh UCLA entities basketball team; a photo showed the wheelchair-bound center forward going for the ball against her 380 pound gender indeterminate opponent
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Well done Colonel!
Had never really thought about what if scnarios like what the Colonel is predicting. Immediately gritty and raw. Characters are exactly what the right and left are deeply all about. Taken to the extreme - this is a forecast of the 2 dominant political systems the US has.
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