Naomi Wolf: Give Me Liberty
Wolf, Naomi. Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008)
At more than twice the length of The End of America, Give Me Liberty is less a brief broadside against Bush than a substantive motivational guide for the post-Bush era. Wolf reminds us that our Founders set high standards for us: in speaking freely, assembling to redress wrongs, and in the civic participation that is essential to self-government.
In the interest of an empowered citizenry, Wolf shows us how to deliver a speech, write a press release, stage a protest, run a meeting, and file a FOIA request--all of which are highly relevant skills in an era when Blackwater mercenaries are deployed as an end-run around the Posse Comitatus Act.
She excoriates the "fake democracy" that hides protesters in "free speech zones" that more closely resemble cattle pens, noting that the Founders staked their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor in a revolution against the world's most powerful empire. All that we face today are the Tasers, tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets of...the world's most powerful empire. (Maybe she's not so far off base, after all...)
To nitpick for a moment, this passage is incorrect:
Section 4 [of Article II] briefly discusses removal of the president, called "impeachment." (p. 331)
Actually, no. Article II, Section 4 states the following:
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Clinton, to cite the obvious example that should slip no one's mind, was impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate; he was therefore not removed from office.
The continuing plutocratic elements in Washington have not disappeared, and demonstrate clearly that Wolf's wakeup call is still needed--although perhaps with less urgency than under a third Bush term of Geezer & Gidget. There is much useful information in Give Me Liberty, which patriots of all stripes would be wise to read and absorb.
links:
introduction
excerpt