American Reboot

American Reboot

Author: Will Hurd

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2023-03-14

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1982160772

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From former US Congressman and CIA Officer Will Hurd, a “how-to guide with a prescription for getting the nation on the right footing” (Politico) and “a clarion call for a major political pivot” (San Antonio Report) rooted in the timeless ideals of bipartisanship, inclusivity, and democratic values. “Hurd has the biography and the charisma and the God-given political chops to put the Republican Party—and the rest of the country—on notice.” —THE ATLANTIC It’s getting harder to get big things done in America. The gears of our democracy have been mucked up by political nonsense. To meet the era-defining challenges of the 21st century, our country needs a reboot. In American Reboot, Hurd, called “the future of the GOP” by Politico, provides a “detailed blueprint” (Robert M. Gates, Secretary of Defense, 2006–2011) for America grounded by what Hurd calls pragmatic idealism—a concept forged from enduring American values to achieve what is actually achievable. Hurd takes on five seismic problems facing a country in crisis: the Republican Party’s failure to present a principled vision for the future; the lack of honest leadership in Washington, DC; income inequality that threatens the livelihood of millions of Americans; US economic and military dominance that is no longer guaranteed; and how technological change in the next thirty years will make the advancements of the last thirty years look trivial. Hurd has seen these challenges up close. A child of interracial parents in South Texas, Hurd survived the back alleys of dangerous places as a CIA officer. He carried that experience into three terms in Congress, where he was, for a time, the House’s only Black Republican, representing a seventy-one percent Latino swing district in Texas that runs along 820 miles of the US-Mexico border. As a cyber security executive and innovation crusader, Hurd has worked with entrepreneurs on the cutting edge of technology to anticipate the shockwaves of the future. Hurd, who the Houston Chronicles calls “a refreshing contract to the panderers, petty demagogues, and political provocateurs who reign these days,” draws on his remarkable experience to present “a call to Americans to consider the most contentious issues of our times more holistically” (The Atlantic). He outlines how the Republican party can look like America by appealing to the middle, not the edges. He maps out how leaders should inspire rather than fearmonger. He forges a domestic policy based on the idea that prosperity should be a product of empowering people, not the government. He articulates a foreign policy where our enemies fear us and our friends love us. And lastly, he charts a forceful path forward for America’s technological future. We all know we can do better. It’s time to hit “ctrl alt del” and start the American Reboot.


Lawyers of the Right

Lawyers of the Right

Author: Ann Southworth

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2009-08-01

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 0226768368

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A timely and multifaceted portrait of the lawyers who serve the diverse constituencies of the conservative movement, Lawyers of the Right explains what unites and divides lawyers for the three major groups—social conservatives, libertarians, and business advocates—that have coalesced in recent decades behind the Republican Party. Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than seventy lawyers who represent conservative and libertarian nonprofit organizations, Ann Southworth explores their values and identities and traces the implications of their shared interest in promoting political strategies that give lawyers leading roles. She goes on to illuminate the function of mediator organizations—such as the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy—that have succeeded in promoting cooperation among different factions of conservative lawyers. Such cooperation, she finds, has aided efforts to drive law and the legal profession politically rightward and to give lawyers greater prominence in the conservative movement. Southworth concludes, though, that tensions between the conservative law movement’s elite and populist elements may ultimately lead to its undoing.


Our Republican Constitution

Our Republican Constitution

Author: Randy E. Barnett

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2016-04-19

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0062412302

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A concise history of the long struggle between two fundamentally opposing constitutional traditions, from one of the nation’s leading constitutional scholars—a manifesto for renewing our constitutional republic. The Constitution of the United States begins with the words: “We the People.” But from the earliest days of the American republic, there have been two competing notions of “the People,” which lead to two very different visions of the Constitution. Those who view “We the People” collectively think popular sovereignty resides in the people as a group, which leads them to favor a “democratic” constitution that allows the “will of the people” to be expressed by majority rule. In contrast, those who think popular sovereignty resides in the people as individuals contend that a “republican” constitution is needed to secure the pre-existing inalienable rights of “We the People,” each and every one, against abuses by the majority. In Our Republican Constitution, renowned legal scholar Randy E. Barnett tells the fascinating story of how this debate arose shortly after the Revolution, leading to the adoption of a new and innovative “republican” constitution; and how the struggle over slavery led to its completion by a newly formed Republican Party. Yet soon thereafter, progressive academics and activists urged the courts to remake our Republican Constitution into a democratic one by ignoring key passes of its text. Eventually, the courts complied. Drawing from his deep knowledge of constitutional law and history, as well as his experience litigating on behalf of medical marijuana and against Obamacare, Barnett explains why “We the People” would greatly benefit from the renewal of our Republican Constitution, and how this can be accomplished in the courts and the political arena.


Government for the People

Government for the People

Author: Lee C. White

Publisher: University Press of America

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9780761839057

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During the turbulent 1960s, Lee C. White contributed in quiet ways to addressing and resolving the nation's most intractable civil rights problems, and played an early role in identifying and promoting environmental protection causes, as a Special Counsel to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Laced with anecdotes and humor, Government for the People is Lee White's story of his pursuits in the legislative and executive branches of government and in private legal practice. Inspired by Senator George W. Norris, Republican of Nebraska, Lee White traversed the political lines of the legislative branch of government working for two of the most highly respected and admired United States Senators, John F. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and John Sherman Cooper, Republican of Kentucky. He observed up close the workings of the Hoover Commission, charged with recommending policies to improve operations of the executive branch of government, as a right hand to former Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy. In the executive branch, White served, first, as a lawyer in the legal division of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and, later, as Chairman of the Federal Power Commission. As a lawyer in private practice and a vigorous consumer advocate, Lee White led the Energy Policy Task Force of the Consumer Federation of America during the 1970s, advocating consumer interests before Congress and public forums. His many varied and challenging post-Government activities included having a ringside seat in the 1972 presidential election as campaign manager for George McGovern's Vice Presidential running mate, R. Sargent Shriver. Based on a career devoted to the public interest aspects of legal and policy issues, and writing with as much political objectivity as he can garner, Lee White concludes his memoirs by contrasting the presidential administrations in which he served with that of President George W. Bush.