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“Our democracy works best when those who vote understand the system and the issues. Making everyone better informed only makes better citizens. Please consider joining your local League of Women Voters in 2024! Men, women, students, everyone is welcome.
“Voting is not a partisan issue. It is a right and a duty.”
Dog Days of Summer Reading
The dog days of summer are dwindling as if any of us had respite from the clarion calls of the political landscape this year. The next Presidential Election is in four months. It is an election that could cement our democracy or change the course of our country for years to come. There is more to digest than mere politics. There is context and history. So, for your consideration, here is a reading list to help you prepare, whether you are at the shore, in the mountains, on the Great Plains, in our great cities or beautiful countryside. This reading list is compiled to help you make decisions about your November vote. It shouldn’t be lost on you that we only get to make one decision. After that, the candidates we elect take over and make all the rest of the decisions for us—about our lives, our bodies, and our loved ones.
Brief descriptions are attached to each reading recommendation below. We begin with two must-reads. The first is the much-vaunted blueprint for an authoritarian government. Project 2025 is all over the news now, and its sheer size makes it a daunting read for time-pressed citizens. However, Project 2025 can easily be characterized in two sections of the document titled “Mandate for Leadership; the Conservative Promise.” If you read anything, read these two items:
- Foreward: a Promise to America by Kevin Roberts, Director of the Heritage Foundation. In fifteen pages, Roberts synthesizes the Project’s agenda in four segments, each reflecting the political ideology of Christian nationalism in loaded language like this:
“The Left has ignored the voice of everyday Americans leading to crippling inflation, biological males dominating women’s sports, rampant violence, and a crisis in education not seen in decades. Our country is all but unrecognizable.”
- A Note on Project 2025 by Paul Dans, Director of Project 2025. In this two-page set-up to the document, the Project Director’s position is clarified in one misleading and overwrought sentence:
“The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before.”
Another must-read highlights the authoritarian designs of Christian nationalism. While Project 2025 does not specifically reference Christian nationalism, the intent of imposing Christian nationalist doctrine is clear. The definition of Christian nationalism couldn’t be clearer.
Christian Nationalism and the January 6, 2021, Insurrection. Report sponsored by Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC) and Freedom From Religion Foundation. These two organizations advocate for the separation of the institutions of government and religion. The “Introduction” is written by Amanda Tyler, Executive Director of BJC. Here she clarifies the position of a wide Christian network:
- “Christian nationalism is a political ideology and cultural framework that seeks to merge American and Christian identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy. Christian nationalism relies on the mythological founding of the United States as a “Christian nation,” singled out for God’s providence in order to fulfill God’s purposes on earth. Christian nationalism demands a privileged place for Christianity in public life, buttressed by the active support of government at all levels.”
- This is Anne’s latest book on the subject of authoritarianism. In it she unveils the intricate networks of modern autocrats threatening democracy worldwide, including our own. The members of Autocracy, Inc. aren’t linked by a unifying ideology, like communism, but rather by a common enemy and the desire for power, wealth, and impunity.
- This is the first “playbook” introducing us to the “salami tactics” slicing away at democracy one sliver at a time. There are seven tactics employed by aspiring authoritarians ranging from spreading disinformation, quashing dissent, and stoking violence. Teachers of media literacy might want to make flash cards to enhance student lessons.
- In the second “playbook,” a bipartisan group builds on the foundation of the first, tipping us off as to what we can expect from aspiring authoritarians…and what we can do. This report can be used to enhance civics lessons across the country.
- Take a break from the horrors of authoritarianism and find out more about the phrases that the Supreme Court and its watchers love to throw around. Let Justice Steven Breyer be your guide as he reminds us that the Constitution is not a dusty relic. It is a living document that must adapt to the reality of contemporary life.
- This statement cites the dangers of a Christian nationalist movement as largely white, reflecting the long entanglement of nationalism and racism since the earliest days of America’s colonial settlement. In white nationalism this history is sanitized, removing the sins of genocide, slavery, Jim Crow laws, and all the many ways in which racism has saturated and sustained our society, thereby removing any need for repentance or repair.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. [Original Publication Date: 1880] The Brothers Karamazov.
- This philosophical roller-coaster is a perfect companion to the other works on this list. The “Grand Inquisitor” chapter pits Jesus preaching freedom of choice against a ruthless cardinal preaching control and authority. Dostoevsky has unwittingly given us a literary masterpiece that resonates in today’s debates between democracy and authoritarianism.
- Though more than fifteen years old, this book promotes a dominionist worldview that blurs church-state separation and is very much part of the Christian nationalist ideology. It is especially worth reading in connection with the Supreme Court’s recent decisions pitting religious liberties against civil rights. The seven areas that the “prophecy” seeks to control are family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government.
- You will want to read this book from cover to cover. Harari’s emphasis on “imagined orders” —shared myths and beliefs such as religion and nationalism—highlight how human progress depends on our ability to create and sustain collective fictions. Here’s the question. Is progress democratic or authoritarian?
- This is a wake-up call about the perilous state of American democracy. Anyone concerned about the 2024 election [and who isn’t?] can brace themselves for a chilling journey through America’s ideological battlegrounds.
- It’s 1933 and Hitler has just assumed plenary power. Because Victor Klemperer is a Jew married to an Aryan white woman, restrictions against him begin slowly. But as the cinch tightens, Klemperer decides to bear witness through 1942 in this volume, then through 1945 in the next. Otto Klemperer, a renowned conductor, was Victor’s first cousin. Otto escaped Germany and emigrated to California in 1935. Werner Klemperer, the actor, was Otto’s son. Ironically Werner stared as Colonel Klink in the television series “Hogan’s Heroes” with one stipulation. That he always be made to look the fool.
- This book presents a gripping autopsy of failing democracies. It’s not just another doom-and-gloom reference work, it’s a wake-up call packed with history and modern-day parallels. You’ll read your morning news with fresh eyes.
Project 2025: Presidential Transition Project; Mandate for Leadership; the Conservative Promise, Foreword by Kevin D. Roberts, PhD; Edited by Paul Dans and Steven Groves, The Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Ave., NE Washington, DC 20002
- Kevin Roberts is the Director of the Heritage Foundation and a major force behind Project 2025. He recently commented on the Steve Bannon inspired podcast, “War Room,” “The Second American Revolution will remain bloodless if the Left allows it to be.”
- Roth masterfully delivers a what-if tale as aviator hero Charles Lindbergh becomes President in 1940, leading America down a path of isolationism and anti-Semitism. The work is eerily plausible and disturbingly relevant.
Snyder, Timothy. [2017]
- Professor Snyder has given us 20 lessons in a pocket size book that can be referred to again and again. Snyder demonstrates with chilling historical insights how democracies can slip into tyranny, slowly at first, then all at once. Ignoring history is a luxury we can no longer afford.
- In the same year that Victor Klemperer began bearing witness to Hitler’s authoritarian rise, Wittstock documents how the fate of German writers was decided. Their demise was predicted by some, but scarcely thought possible by others.
If your go-to book or website during these times is missing, let us know. We love hearing from you. Simply Contact Us. And thank you for being informed and prepared. As the countdown to November continues, we have our work cut out for us. Registering voters. Working the polls. Getting out the vote. Defending democracy.
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