Brendan Buschi: March 2023

Friday, March 31, 2023

Reading List Update - April 2023

My most recent reads:

The Second Amendment by Michael Waldman.

The Fight To Vote by Michael Waldman

Allow Me To Retort by Elie Mystal

How the South Won The Civil War by Heather Cox Richardson

Here's a list of the books I've read during Biden's first 2 years:

Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth
The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton
Dopesick by Beth Macy
The View From Flyover Country by Sarah Kendzior
Hiding In Plain Sight by Sarah Kendzior

Here's a list of the books I read after Trump was elected:

A Higher Loyalty by James Comey
A Very Stable Genius by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig
American Carnage by Tim Alberta
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Blowout by Rachel Maddow
Collusion by Luke Harding
Dark Money by Jane Mayer
Dark Towers by David Enrich
Democracy In Chains by Nancy MacLean
Everything Trump Touches Dies by Rick Wilson
Facts And Fears by James R. Clapper
Fascism A Warning by Madeline Albright
Fear by Bob Woodward
Fire And Fury by Michael Wolff
Friendly Fascism by Bertram Gross
House Of Trump – House Of Putin by Craig Unger
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
Kushner Inc. - Greed. Ambition. Corruption. By Vicky Ward
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
Plutocrats by Chrystia Freeland
Proof Of Collusion by Seth Abramson
Red Notice by Bill Browder
Russian Roulette by Michael Isikoff and David Corn
The Case For Impeaching Trump by Elizabeth Holtzman
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
The Mueller Report by The Washington Post
The Only Game In Town by Mohamed A. El-Erian
The Threat by Andrew McCabe
This Fight Is Our Fight by Elizabeth Warren
Tough Love by Susan Rice

Here's a list of other books I've read:

The Art Of War by Sun Tzu
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (John Ciardi)
The Bhagavad Gita translation by Eknath Easwaran

Holy Moly!

The Second Amendment

"The Second Amendment" by Michael Waldman was first published in 2014. In 2023, it's dated. It's not just dated, it's really dated. A lot has gone on since 2014 - today's majority Supreme Court justices are in the process of flipping our Constitution.

Be that as it may, it's one of the best books I've ever read about our Constitution, the process used by the men who wrote and ratified it, and understanding what it truly is - words on paper, interpreted by political appointees.

Something has clearly changed in the last 9 years. Waldman does an excellent job of introducing us to "originalism" and explaining how it was used to make gun ownership a "fundamental right".

In explaining the Supreme Court's 2008 decision in the District of Columbia v. Heller, Waldman shines the light on Antonin Scalia. Scalia wrote the majority opinion.

Heller was decided by a 5-4 vote. The case was about whether or not the District of Columbia's Code in regard to gun ownership was Constitutional.

The court ruled it wasn't. In doing so, the court reversed 200 years of established law on the matter. In doing so, the court opened the door to what has been going on at the Supreme Court ever since. In doing so, the court transformed our Constitution from a living, evolving document to a dead artifact of our political past.

I never liked Scalia. I thought he was vastly overrated and full of himself. I never saw him as a great intellect.

In death, Conservatives have canonized Scalia. He's now the poster child for how Supreme Court Justices should interpret our Constitution.

Waldman might just as well have called this book "The Consequences Of Normalizing Originalism" and used the 2nd Amendment to emphasize his position.

My take on our current court is that it's highly politicized and rendering decisions to advance a right wing, Libertarian agenda.

For those readers who just want to understand the 2nd Amendment and how it's interpretation has changed and why, this book should be your first choice.

Holy Moly!

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Thank You Michael Waldman

"The Fight To Vote" by Michael Waldman is an excellent book. I read the updated edition. I learned a lot.

Prior to reading this, I had no idea what took place in the United States when it came to voting. I fear we all take voting for granted.

Voting is key to preserving our Republic. No one knows this better than the politicians. With notable exceptions, no one has done more to limit voting than the politicians.

The politicians who wrote our Constitution knew this and made sure to limit that power to wealthy, white landowners.

Women were disenfranchised from day one. So too were poor white males. Native Americans, slaves, and other ethnic minorities weren't even considered people.

Waldman documents the whole evolution of voting going back to the ratification of our Constitution and coming forward to present day, but that's not all he does.

You can't talk about voting rights without talking about the evolution of our government and the expansion of our country and the development of our industries.

You can't talk about voting without knowing the evolution of our political parties and how their evolution is tied to campaign "contributions".

You can't talk about voting without understanding the tactics used by politicians and political parties to secure their continued election and reelection - gerrymandering, voter suppression, voter eligibility, etc.

Waldman covers it all.

In his "Conclusion" entitled "A Democracy Moment", he breaks it all down in terms of current relevance/impact. He has sections entitled "Political Leaders"; "Political Parties"; "The Courts"; and "The People".

He helps us see how each of these "entities" contributes to the Republic as it now stands and now teeters on the brink of failure.

Our voting rights have never truly been a concern of any political party. They haven't been a concern for many of us either.

In recent years, both the Democrats and the Republicans have failed to make our voting rights a primary focus - a priority.

The right to vote has been driven at any particular time in our history by us, not our politicians; by sub-groups among us who understood what impediments they were facing in terms of their rights - sub-groups that began advocating for their own particular interests.

The United States is comprised of 50 separate states often with conflicting interests. More than anything state leaders want to preserve their state's "states' rights" and those rights are often in conflict with our personal "civil rights".

What a mess!

"It turns out John Adams was right in 1776: "there will be no end of it." Once again the story of American democracy is being written. The fight to vote is at the heart of American history, It is up to all of us to advance the fight and keep it at the center of the debate today, where it belongs."

Michael Waldman, page 304.

"Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

... "

Big Yellow Taxi lyrics, Joni Mitchell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94bdMSCdw20

Read "The Fight To Vote".

Maybe if we learn about the fight we've had in order to gain our right to vote, we'll appreciate it and stop taking it for granted.

Maybe if we do that we'll continue the fight to preserve our right to vote.

If we lose this fight, we won't be getting a parking lot, we'll lose our country. We'll get fascism.

Holy Moly!

Reading List Update - March 2023

My most recent reads:

The Fight To Vote by Michael Waldman

Allow Me To Retort by Elie Mystal

How the South Won The Civil War by Heather Cox Richardson

Here's a list of the books I've read during Biden's first 2 years:

Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth
The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton
Dopesick by Beth Macy
The View From Flyover Country by Sarah Kendzior
Hiding In Plain Sight by Sarah Kendzior

Here's a list of the books I read after Trump was elected:

Here's a list of other books I've read:

The Art Of War by Sun Tzu
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (John Ciardi)
The Bhagavad Gita translation by Eknath Easwaran

Holy Moly!