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Foreign Enemies and Traitors is a beautiful tour de force that combines the clash of values at the heart of America’s present political / economic crisis with an Atlas Shrugged like story. Conservatives in America should take to this tale like the colonists took to Paine in ‘76.
The Second Great Depression (what author Matt 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 also geologically due to a once-in-a-century earthquake that levels Memphis, TN causing massive panic confounded by hordes of refugees, pillaging war lords, and the inevitable reversion to barbarism that such societal collapses bring.
Mr. Bracken thrusts into this mix 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 plot is tension-racked unfolding with surprises right up to the end. There are countless scenes in which courage, patriotism, and honor come into play in such riveting ways as to bring that tingling sensation up and down one’s spine and the nape of one’s neck for long spells.
At stake is a clash of governing philosophies between the socialist left and the free-enterprise right, between the “new Constitution” illegally rammed through in a panicky Constitutional Convention and the “old Constitution” which spawned America from the beginning and was the law of the land for over 125 years until collectivists degraded it into a “living document” to be reinterpreted with Mad Hatter’s logic.
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 statism 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 “old” Constitution 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 — pull off one escapade after another to defend the rebellious states and attempt to take the country back from a quisling President and his squalid 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 all their pernicious semantic twistings is impeccable. Moreover the didacticism of the book is just the right amount, and integrated 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 from his characters. They possess the right length and the right emotional tone.
Foreign Enemies and Traitors could be one of those turning point books of American history. I only hope that someone like Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh will read it. It is a book that would take off like wildfire if they ever 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 it looks like widespread popularity is 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 red-blooded Americans will enjoy immensely — not just because it is a terrific 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 splendid, 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.