I received my copy of this book from Amazon this week and just finished it. This is a relatively short diary/review, and unfortunately I can't stay online for comments, but I wanted to get my thoughts down.
I also did a search for diaries and stories and didn't find anything that reported on the content. I will thank DK in general for telling me about the book, and motivating me to bounce it above Beck's drivel in the sales list.
David Swanson deserves recognition for past work (afterdowningstreet.org is the clear starting point) and this book - so help me to put this book in front of more readers so we can get the message out!
Join in below.
The full title is "Daybreak: undoing the imperial presidency and forming a more perfect union", published by Seven Stories Press, NY, NY. Here's the link to Amazon to purchase if you're interested.
David breaks his message into five sections. The first, "Presidential Power Grab and Actions Needed" will be most familiar to Kossaks - it provides a litany of the crimes and abuses that the Bush-Cheney administration executed in our names and discusses the details of how the executive branch has grown in power. More than just a recital, David lists extensive and detailed changes that can and should take place to roll back the abuse and restore the balance of power our civics textbooks taught us.
The next section, "Congressional Collapse" details how the congress was complicit in this shift of power and how they continue to not represent the will of the people.
Section 3, "Undoing the Imperial Presidency" takes the recommendations above and distills them into actions. His proposed actions are specific in ways that tries to show what is broken and some possible directions for fixing them. He balances his proposals with those of others to present a range of possibilities.
The final two sections, "Forming a More Perfect Union" and "Citizen Power" continue the description of changes needed and form a call to action for us all to put our "eyes on the prize" to start the long process of repairing a broken government.
If you can't tell, I loved this book. David has an impressive command of the facts and describes the flawed dynamics of governence well. Like most DK readers I was familiar with the general outlines of all of this, and the details of some of the abuses, but seeing it all put together took my breath away.
David doesn't let the fledgling Obama administration off the hook either. He condemns the continued use of the powers Bush-Cheney established and calls on the Justice Department and congress to fulfill their responsibilities under the rule of law.
In the interests of full disclosure, I can't fully support some of David's prescriptions for reform or change. Since this isn't about me I won't go into detail on my objections - that's the responsibility of the individual reader - but I respect David for putting his ideas and the ideas of others into the light so they can be discussed and advocated for or against.
In short, a book that I recommend highly and one that I hope informs and energizes the DK community.