Treason From The Left (A review of my new book)

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.

A full pallet of my books is 896 books, or 56 cartons of 16 books each. This makes a cube the size of a regular wood pallet. Currently I have about 6,000 books in the warehouse. The printing company is close to the fulfillment warehouse, so shipping between them is negligible. (The printing company uses their own truck.) The warehouse/fulfillment company ships UPS or FedEx ground, whichever is cheaper to a given zip code, and gets a better price than I would get shipping from home.

I had one full pallet of FEAT shipped to me in FL, it cost about $350. This was because I had 700 pre-orders for signed copies. But if I had them all shipped here, my entire 2 car garage would be totally full, and I would end up paying twice for shipping every carton. (Trucked on pallets to me, then UPS/FedExed out to customers.)

Only about 10% of my business are these signed copies. A new book is an unusual situation, those 700 preorders are only related to the new book release. 50% of my books go in case quantities from the warehouse in Michigan to Amazon, mostly in TN, which is much closer than FL to TN. The other 40% go to a number of other wholesalers in case quantities.

So I have to balance the unit cost per printing (either 2,000 or 3,000 books at a time, normally), the warehouse cost, and shipping costs. I find the best balance at those printing sizes, warehoused and shipped all from Michigan, near the printer. I could save a little by buying 4 or 5,000 books at a time, but then my warehouse costs would eat up that saving.

I hope that we’re not too far down that road to turn back.

I am so sick of battling the dimwits ready to trade freedom for security from terrorists. When was the last time that a bomb went off in the US? Think that it stopped because of TSA idiots going through little girls underwear? Or the security patrols standing around on the subway looking for "suspicious" behavior, whatever that means. Or maybe some FAA bureaucrats who don't tell the Air Force about a high jacked plane because they are arguing about who if anyone has the job of telling the Air Force?

Or rather is it that some young men and women wearing uniforms went paddling through the mud in Afghanistan getting shot at to pay a visit back home to some miscreants who needed to be sent to Allah?

I believe that in sacrificing freedoms we have further weighed our economy down with useless costs, fees activities and barriers to productive activity to the point that our "security apparatus" is the biggest threat to American strength that exists. I watch it go on every day, and want to choke the daylights out of idiots who claim to love the economic freedom offered in America, and then defend this nonsense. And by "security apparatus" I don't mean men and women in uniform trained and equipped to fight. I mean the bureaucrats who sit in dark little holes protecting what they believe to be secrets from folks who don't exist and would not want their dirty useless secrets if they could have them.

Our economy went in the toilet because there is too little productive economic activity for the burdens put on it and the borrowing door from China and Europe slammed shut on our toes. And we predict a recovery next quarter. The patient died a quarter century ago and we have been living off of out patrimony ever since. Like profligate trust fund babies who just ran through daddies' loot, we are stunned that we might have to knock off the nonsense and get back to work.

Well, me I am too important to work. I am staring over the fence at my neighbors bedroom antics to make sure that she isn't secretly concocting bombs or writing dirty ditties that encode a secret message to some terrorist to blow me up, national security asset that I am. Not that any of that nonsense actually goes on, but it could, and I am here to protect you from it.

Sorry for the rant. Something really got my goat this week and it has US Naval Academy written all over it. I guess they gave up teaching those guys honor and dignity a long time ago. Just another thing gone and unmourned.

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