When at Times the Mob Is Swayed: A Citizen’s Guide to Defending Our Republic

by Burt Neuborne

From a leading constitutional lawyer who has sued every president since LBJ, a masterful explication of the true “pillars of our democracy”On November 9, 2016—and again on January 6, 2021—many Americans feared that our democracy was on the verge of collapse. But is it? In an erudite and brilliant evaluation of the current state of our government, noted constitutional scholar Burt Neuborne administers a stress test to democracy and concludes that our unprecedented sets of constitutional protections, all endorsed by both major parties, stand between us and an authoritarian federal namely the division of powers between the three branches, the rights reserved to the states, and the Bill of Rights.

Neuborne parses the genius of our constitutional system and the ways its built-in resilience will ultimately survive current attempts to dismantle it. While many important issue areas—women’s right to choose, LGBTQ rights, separation of church and state—risk erosion, Neuborne argues that the Constitution’s inherent defense mechanisms can buy us time. But only an active citizenry will enable us to defend our cherished rights and protections, fulfilling Ben Franklin’s charge to keep our republic.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 6, 2019

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, casual look at the constitutional and legal issues of the current Trumpian dystopia. If you're a fascist, it'll give you comfort; if you're a (lowercase) democrat (whether progressive, liberal, moderate, or even conservative), it may well give you nightmares. Regardless, anyone interested in the current politics of the Constitution or the law should probably read this book -- it's smart, timely, and simply a good read.

[Cathy Coudriet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t read this book if you don’t like to hear the truth from a person who spent their life studying the subject and an expert on the subject. Because you might have to change your mind on how you think about the Supreme Court and our democracy.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nightmare fuel for rational humans.

[Mik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was gifted to me by someone who is as concerned for our republic as I am. It began as an overview of how the 45th President is destroying the fabric of our nation and constitution and had a FANTASTIC through chapter on comparisons to Hitler. Lest you think I'm off the rails, Trump is a fan of Hitler, having possessed and supposedly (??) read "Mein Kampf", the Nazi manifesto. I used to think it was too much credit to grant Donald Trump for having read such a work, however, it's clear many of his tactics are reminiscent. The book has some solid offerings/thoughts/opinions about how to handle such threat, but I find most of them to be implausible in today's environment. That's not to say, I don't think they're great ideas, just that I have a hard time seeing past our broken system to get them accomplished. The author has a legal background and there was a LOT of "legalese" in this book, which was work as a reader who is not a lawyer. In the end, I thought it was worth it, and appreciated the hope the author provided.

[David Feinman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was dense but excellent. It clearly articulated the many acts of constitutional defiance of president 45 while at the same time sharing practical solutions for the maintenance of our republic

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chock full of great examples and ideas, personally found it a bit dense toward the end.