New book unpacks the Left's 'coup d'etat' against the United States
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The Left's control of America can no longer be denied.
This is underscored today as Steve Bannon is marched to prison for refusing to appear before the Democrat-controlled January 6 Commission — effectively silencing one of President Trump's staunchest supporters in the crucial months before America's most crucial election.
It will be even more painfully clear in a just few days, as Trump himself is sentenced on July 11 by political enemies bent on thwarting his reelection.
How could this be happening in what was once called the freest nation on earth? How could Khrushchev's prediction "We will bury you" have materialized? Why was the far Left able to stage a coup d'état and take effective control of the US government in 2020?
Author Stephen Baskerville asks such questions in his new book, titled, Who Lost America?: Why the United States Went Communist and What to Do about It.
Baskerville, professor of politics at the Collegium Intermarium in Warsaw, Poland, shifts the focus from what the Left has done — recounted often enough — to what the professional Right has done — or failed to do — making itself complicit in the effective overthrow of the Constitution.
The author writes that various features of a classic coup were present in "the junta of 2020," including:
Finally, Baskerville writes, coup organizers attempted "to entrench their control by putting opposing politicians and their supporters on trial in rigged courts."
The author lays much of the responsibility for the Left's triumph on "conservative leaders" who, "being decisively defeated," have shown "no contrition nor any desire to acknowledge their mistakes let alone learn from them."
He says it's critical to realize not only what the Left has done and is doing, but what the "rest of us" failed to do. "We have to start examining ourselves for the failure," he writes, noting that without such examination, we will not know how to advance.
Baskerville maintains that even reputable conservatives like Victor Davis Hanson point out the damage the Left has done (and is doing), but fail to mention the shortcomings of the conservatives' battle plan.
As an example, the author points to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). Though much-admired by conservatives, Baskerville writes, Hawley represents the professional conservative ruling class, and is therefore part of the problem. The senator's mantra for men in society is to man-up, get married, have families and be responsible. But he refrains, Baskerville says, from criticizing the divorce industry that thrives on perpetuating itself.
Hawley represents what the author calls the "Iron Law" of Washington: "People who are paid to solve problems acquire a vested interest in perpetuating the problem. Regardless of ideology, once your livelihood depends on the existence of a problem, you will make sure the problem never goes away."
The greatest monument to the Iron Law is the "gargantuan welfare state," a behemoth Baskerville argues made the 2020 coup possible.
The only way of defying the Iron Law is by "resuscitating citizenship." In other words, only the citizen has the incentive to confront problems effectively, because citizens are unpaid amateurs whose commitment is sacrificial of their time and more.
FATHERLESSNESS AND THE FEMINIZATION OF AMERICA
The welfare state has aided and abetted in the destruction of the family, particularly black families, according to Baskerville. This has resulted in "the elimination of fathers from the lives of tens of millions of children, transformed low-income communities into war zones and now wreaks havoc on middle class society as well."
He points out that politicians from both sides of the aisle have done nothing to alleviate the misery and may even make it worse, in keeping with the Iron Law.
Into the poverty-stricken welfare state stepped feminists, he argues, who earn their financial keep and political relevance by shifting the emphasis from "relieving poverty to promoting women empowerment and sexual freedom."
Baskerville cites scholars influenced by radical feminist Barbara Ehrenreich as saying, "Independence, even in straitened and penurious forms, still offers more sexual freedom than affluence gained through marriage and dependence on one man."
Feminist thinking, or "feminist welfare logic," as the author puts it, permeates even — or especially — the military. It manifests itself in myriad ways, but Baskerville presents one example that epitomizes the conundrum: American feminists had rallied for the Afghan war to go on, arguing that it protected women and their rights. But those who paid the fullest measure of devotion to that cause were mostly male soldiers and Marines — the men whom those very feminists loathe most.
Baskerville devotes a section called "We Are All Women Now" to unpacking the extent to which feminism has invaded every crevice of American life.
Despite the dire situation America faces after years of leftist victories, Baskerville still believes "the coup is reversible" — insisting that patriots can wrest back control of their country.
The author poses a concrete solution in his book, but has requested that this article not reveal the solution in full detail. "People may have trouble believing my solution without first reading the book," he explains. But Baskerville did tell Souls and Liberty:
"The solution will not come from changing the radical Left; that will never happen. It also will not come by continuing to rely on the feckless Right who already lost to the Left — at least not without exerting pressure that may induce some of them to act. Finally, it will
not come from nagging Americans to wake up and rise against their government. That seldom works, at least not without pressure on some of them as well."
"The effective solution will come from a small number of courageous citizens who reclaim their citizenship by exerting pressure on other citizens, who in turn will exert pressure on establishment conservatives, who in turn may act," he says.
As to the upcoming elections, Baskerville says, "If Biden, or one like him, continues to occupy the White House, it will further accelerate the decline of the United States and the West."
"But if Trump wins, that alone is not sufficient to save us," he cautions. "We must also reclaim our citizenship and act ourselves as citizens."
What sets Baskerville's book on post-2020 America apart is his analysis of why the Left's "coup d'état" occurred, and his unexpected solution — one that operates "outside the box" of conventional thinking.
Dr. Barbara Toth has a doctorate in rhetoric and composition from Bowling Green State University. She has taught at universities in the US, China and Saudi Arabia. Her work in setting up a writing center at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahmen University, an all-women's university in Riyadh, has been cited in American journals. Toth has published academic and non-academic articles and poems internationally.
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