Can A Novelist Reform Government?

Debut Novelist Leads Way For New Revolution

Can a new fiction author of an action-thriller lead America to launch a government reform movement during this very important election season? Computer engineering instructor-turned-author Lauren Enns hopes so. He says the fate of America rests on it.

Loren’s unique work of historical fiction offers the dramatization of a story involving one man who seeks to lead a peaceful revolution to ensure that the representative democracy of our Founding Fathers remains intact. On the 225^th anniversary of when the first state ratified the US Constitution, he is releasing his new book, Sword of Liberty (September 17). He believes so much in his cause that he is offering the book for free (http://www.theswordofliberty.com/purchasebook.htm).

Sword of Liberty is about Special-Op warrior John Laurens who stumbles upon his ancestral tie to hero George Washington, and inspired to lead America back from the edge of a nation drowning in debt, corruption, and a loss of will to correct its course. In between his courageous, life-risking missions overseas, Laurens manages to illuminate Americans through anonymous letters to a newspaper. Dark forces discourse his identity and seek to silence him. Clues from the past lead Laurens to uncover a legal means to work with the system to override a failed government.

Loen, who co-hosted a weekly political radio talk show for five months last year on WFLA in Orlando, is sparking an exciting debate over the following issues:

Why America is at risk for collapsing, just as Rome and Athens did.

How a little known and forgotten clause in the US Constitution --Article 5-- can be used to recall politicians who fail to honor their promises.

How a newly proposed amendment to the Constitution could give Americans the power to initiate referenda and settle significant issues that politicians lack the will or honesty to address, such as:  deficit spending, definition of marriage, Social Security, health care reform and military spending.

What’s wrong with American government today and how to fix it.

How ordinary citizens can take back control of a government that has disappointed and failed us, regardless of which political party is in power.

“Although my novel offers an exciting and entertaining story, the goal is to raise awareness about the financial and political dangers our nation faces and the fact that we can’t trust our government to fix it”, says the author. “America needs to serve its fate now or risk permanent damage.”

Below is a  Q and A with the author:

1. Loren, what inspired you to write your new book? All my life I had an extremely strong desire to serve my country. Asthma kept me out of the military, so any future service I left to fate.  That all changed over Labor Day weekend 2005 after a chance encounter with Sec. of Def. Don Rumsfeld and an eerie visit to Arlington National Cemetery at the same moment Chief Justice William Rehnquist died just miles away in Arlington, Virginia. Taking these as motivational ‘omens,’ I decided to prepare myself for whatever future service I might offer America. And what better way, then to get inside the mind of our founders. Their biographies led me to the stories of Athens, Rome & England, which inspired them to sign the Declaration of Independence and craft the Constitution. In the tales of our democratic forbearers, I observed the greatest story of all time: mankind’s long-suffering struggle to find liberty—and the victorious culmination of that struggle in the founding of America -- a story I knew I had to share.

2. Though it’s a work of fiction, tell us about the historical basis for your book. The book has two connections to history: 1. The factual stories of Athens, Rome & England, one included to give the reader a grasp of the magnificent historical origins of America and inspire them to take the same kind of action our democratic forbearers took to defend their liberty. 2. In the story of the Sword of Liberty, I used both real historical fact and well known Greek/Roman mythology to construct a fascinating tale that almost seems real. I used Greek mythology to claim that the sword was forged by Zeus as a reward for the mythological founder of Troy who passes the sword down to King Priam (of Homer’s Iliad)—and Roman mythology to claim that Priam bestows it upon the Trojan prince Aeneas (of Virgil’s Aeneid) who carries it from the burning city of Troy, to the land of Italia where he is to found the new city of Troy—which becomes Rome. Other historical characters that I use to carry the sword include: the founder of Rome (Romulus), the founder of the Roman Republic (Lucius Brutus), the founder of the Roman Empire (Julius Caesar) and the founder of America (George Washington). 

3. You make the point that America is on the cusp of decline, that we could be on the verge of collapsing the way democracy fell in Rome and Athens.  Why do you feel this way? The arrogant way in which our politicians are starting to ignore the wishes of their constituents and the dangerous way in which they are pushing us towards bankruptcy is extremely similar to the way in which the Athenian and Roman political elite (aristocracy) abused and endangered the common people. They responded by establishing direct democratic assemblies to protect themselves and their interests from the aristocracy. That is exactly what I am suggesting that the American people do to protect our nation from its own politicians who seem bent on destroying her.

4. You pose an interesting solution to the current state of political corruption and gridlock.  Please share it with us. I am proposing a constitutional amendment to be ratified, using the Article 5 Constitutional Convention. It would establish a national initiative process—albeit with tight restrictions to eliminate the possibility of ‘mob rule’—that would allow the American people to vote directly on federal legislation. The amendment would also establish a national recall process that would allow the American people to remove the President, House of Representatives and Senators from office, and vote a new candidate in to replace them. This would give the American people the power to take action on issues in the worst-case scenario and remove politicians by a majority vote of their constituents.

5. Are there any modern-day politicians that inspire you or lead you to believe there is still hope for our country? There are a few who are worthy of admiration, but none who inspire me with any hope that they can single-handedly lead our nation back from the edge. Both parties have proven that they are equally capable of massive deficit spending, despite the risk of bankruptcy. Many have railed against it, but no one from either party has stepped forward to STOP the dangerous spending of our government. In this case, actions MUST speak louder than words.

6. We know the cons to our current government is that money and politics can corrupt the process.  How will giving citizens direct access to vote on ballot initiatives on specific issues help the country? The main purpose of the national initiative process is to provide a new check on federal power—after all, we wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t abused their power. Ideally, representative democracy would function as our founders intended—each elected official faithful to represent the interests of their constituents. Sadly, it hasn’t. Our politicians have put us in an extremely dangerous position. With a national initiative process in place, the American people would possess a mechanism that could only be used in the most extreme situations—due to its own built in limitations.  The purpose of a national initiative process would not be for the American people to weigh in on every issue. Its main purpose would be to keep our government honest, always knowing that we can intervene if they betray us.

7. What will it take to restore the American dream?  Either our politicians need to find the honesty they lost along the road of life, or we need to establish a national initiative process to keep them honest. One way or another, we’ve got to stop our nation from going bankrupt, and I’m not willing to bet the future of America on a Congressional come-to-Jesus meeting. The American people need to wake up and realize that this isn’t another annoying political problem that will go away if they just ignore it. This is an end-of-civilization type threat which will destroy our nation if we don’t tackle it head-on. Abraham Lincoln once wrote, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” A truer word was never said.

8. 2012 is a big election year.  What needs to happen this November? Without stating my personal political choices, I believe that America needs to vote for whichever candidate they believe can best jump-start the economy, eliminate deficit spending and start to pay down the national debt. Personally, I am not willing to give our politicians any more chances, but I am not the majority.

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, www.media-connect.com . Pleaen ote tha Loren is a current client of Media Connect. You can follow Brian on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person.