Tripwires: 15 Twenty-First-Century Events That Undermined American Democracy―and How to Reclaim It

Summary

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

“A modern-day Tocqueville, Richard North Patterson marshals an immense amount of research to show, incisively and readably, why we are now in danger of losing our democracy—and how we can recover from our current malaise.” —Max Boot, author of Reagan: His Life and Legend

In a trenchant work of nonfiction, the New York Times bestselling author identifies a series of self-inflicted wounds and destabilizing societal trends that have led America to the precipice of autocracy, and lays out a program or reversing the harm. From politicized Supreme Court decisions to wrong-headed policy initiatives and toxic political maneuvers, Richard North Patterson—whose novel on presidential politics, Protect and Defend, was a #1 New York Times bestseller—combines fifteen fateful moments in the past quarter-century with an immersive narrative of the underlying economic, cultural, and political developments that made these tripwires so profoundly consequential.

Starting with the Supreme Court intervention that awarded George W. Bush the presidency, Patterson examines the often under-appreciated turning points that helped undermine our polity, from the accidental accession of John Roberts as Chief Justice and the ruin wreaked by America’s subprime mortgages, 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—culimating in the ultimate betrayal of our constitutional democracy: the Roberts Court’s invitation to unbounded presidential power.

Patterson’s near-encyclopedic knowledge of recent U.S. history along with his political acumen and training as a trial lawyer allow him to distill cause and effect in a deeply synthetic way, building to a comprehensive account of the perverse compound of ignorance, corruption, racism, religiosity, plutocracy, and authoritarianism wrought by Trump’s return to power. He concludes with a detailed program for establishing a truly equitable and democratic society, offering hope for America’s future.