By Rowan Wolf, Uncommon Thought Journal
Note: there is a drive to move this book to the top of Amazon.com on September 1, 2009. I highly encourage folks to buy one or more copies at Amazon where it is currently $13.57 - 2 or more will give you free shipping.
I recommend David Swanson's Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union without reservation. This book accomplishes two critical things. One, it clearly documents the power grab and crimes of the Bush administration. Two, it provides a field manual for a social movement to put the people (us) back within the balance of powers.
David Swanson (co-founder of After Downing Street, creator of ProsecuteBushCheney, and Washington Director of Democrats.com) is the author of Daybreak. The book is an excellent documentation of the theft of our democracy. Swanson presents a thoroughly documented analysis of the creation of the imperial presidency. This grounding is fundamental for citizens to have the tools to counter the blather that passed as news and neo-con talking points for eight years - and continues now as the talking heads try to block any investigation of those crimes.
David Swanson also provides suggestions and strategies for an activist citizen's movement to (1) address the undermining of the Constitution and balance of powers, and (2) to return citizen voice and power to the ruling of our nation.
One of the issues that people across the political spectrum should agree on, is the long term threat that the powers stolen by the Bush presidency will pass from President to President unless they are challenged. Swanson (and most in the impeachment movement) are aware of this as well. There is a consistent effort to paint those who want thorough investigations - with prosecution where warranted and legislative remedy where needed - as wanting "revenge," or having "political" interests, or just "Bush Bashers." However, we know and Swanson makes clear, the stakes are much higher - the future of any functioning democracy in the United States.
This book is more than a "read it" book. Swanson has created a reference manual for activists. Daybreak is chock full of organizational strategy and mechanisms. It provides a vision of what a citizen involved democracy in the United States could look like - and how to get there.
My recommendation: Get it, read it, share it. Kudos and thanks to David Swanson.
Will Shirley
I've been studying David Korten's new book "After Capitalism" and I have to say I'm becoming very excited by some of the suggestions, perhaps because they mirror thoughts I've been developing for some years. Essentially what we are seeing in America today is the effects of the collapse of the capitalistic system. We've moved so far away from Adam Smith it's hard to see anything left of the principles he set forth. Small business, local business, working with the community and then we have today where big corporations come in with the specific goal of taking over local markets and destroying local commerce. WalMart is the best example. For me the best part of this discussion is the idea that the human animal evolved into a beast that is healthy in small groups, exchanging services and labor in immediate proximity to the consumer. He continues the subject by delving into the concept of the body as a cooperative system where the waste of one cell supplies another with necessary materials. This circle of supply and demand is natural and can be brought up into human communities, whereby nothing is wasted, "garbage" can at the least supply fuel for heat or power. The way we design our living areas is like a factory with no concern for human emotions or reactions. By designing with humans in mind you end up with the so-called "European model" with several residences around parks and small walkways, local merchants, mass transit and green technologies. This is a high tech version of the basic human community that we had before technology. It's natural and healthy to have commerce, but it should not be the end-all and be-all of our existence. Community and family should be what we are concerned with rather than profit.
In fact for several years I have been thinking about human communities in the same way, by working from the individual outwards, keeping the additional layers healthy and natural. Families are the foundation of civilization, they come first. Extended families and friends come next. Local community functions are next, and so on. Commerce should be Real. Things should be exchanged, not pieces of paper. Too much of our economy is destructive to basic human values and needs. It is unsustainable and will invariably lead to economic bubbles and collapses. So we need to design and develop a different social model.
Great stuff, look him up and think about it.
i realy like the work you do for all of us i would like to recomend to resite the pleg of aleagence it dosent say a democracy it says a republic and it makes me feel as if you are giving up when i read you refurring to us as a democracy. I would like to feel like i vote for a president not a dicktater
do you actually imagine that i think we have DIRECT democracy???
i just wanted you to try to replace the word when you can to help people think republic i think most people dont know the differance ,ask and see for your self.
just unable to comprehend the point of this campaign -- it's a frequent refrain