Tripwires (Fifteen Twenty-First-Century Events That Undermined American Democracy-and How to Reclaim It)

In a trenchant work of nonfiction, the #1 New York Times bestselling author identifies a series of self-inflicted wounds on our body politic that have led to the current moment, and shows us how we can undo the harm

From regrettable court decisions to wrong-headed policy initiatives and underhanded political maneuvers, the bestselling author makes the case that our descent into authoritarianism was not inevitable. In Tripwires, Richard North Patterson, whose works of fiction have sold over 25 million copies and whose novel on presidential politics, Protect and Defend, was a #1 New York Times bestseller, points to fifteen key moments in the past quarter-century when the country mis-stepped in a way that could have been avoided but instead took us closer to the brink.

Starting with the Supreme Court’s intervention in the presidential election that brought George W. Bush to power, Patterson traces a constellation of often under-appreciated turning points that runs through the accidental accession of John Roberts as Chief Justice and the moment of crisis when the subprime mortgages came due, to Donald Trump’s demand to see Barack Obama’s birth certificate, Marco Rubio’s sabotage of his own immigration reform bill, and Mitch McConnell’s refusal to convict Trump for his attempted coup, culminating in the Roberts Court establishing presidential autocracy.

Patterson’s near-encyclopedic knowledge of recent U.S. history along with his political acumen and training as a trial lawyer allow him to show cause and effect in a truly synthetic way, building his case for our march to the dark side one wrong turn at a time. His final chapters show the way out of our current morass, offering hope for America’s future.

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