Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union.
Author: David Swanson
Seven Stories Press

How quickly we forget. After 9/11 the patriot act was rushed through congress pushed by the high blood pressure of terrorist crisis. It was too fast a response, it was an overreaction. The patriot act was supposed fix bugs in our security to prevent future terrorism. Since then we have had two other major crisis, that have not yet had their legislative response, and as the cause of the crisis slips further into oblivion in the minds of the people, and adequate response becomes harder and harder to obtain. If you react too quickly, you are liable to overreact, but if you are too slow, the response is likely to be inadequate. There was a massive outrage against Bush's abuses of power, but the legislative response have not come through, and the bugs in the system that allowed Bush's imperial presidency remains unfixed. It is behind us, and therefor not urgent and not feasible. We still suffer from the financial crisis, but putting the necessary reigns on the financial sector to avoid repetition could stifle the slow growth, and so the response is likely to be inadequate, now that the sense of urgency has passed. We again become shortsighted and want immediate growth and jobs. The bugs in the system fade in the public consciousness.

There is no doubt that Swanson is a progressive, but the main thesis of Daybreak does not belong on the fringe of the political spectrum, but should be at home across the broad middle of political ideologies that subscribe to democracy and the rule of law.

I was jubilant when Obama won the presidency in 2008, and had the sense of hope, that the imperial presidency with infringement on basic rights had come to an end. I was thrilled to be rid of Bush, who wasn't? I was so done with him and ready to move forward to the great tasks ahead, that I did not favor the congress spending time on impeaching him and Cheney. It is all ready too painfully slow to get anything decent through Congress. However, after reading Daybreak, I realized that though healthcare reform and emission reductions are extremely important. Securing democracy is even more fundamental. What use is good legislation if the president can just ignore it? Chose not to enforce the laws, or break them him self? What Swanson advocates in Daybreak, is that congress enforce the constitution by impeaching ANY president who fails to uphold it. Only by enforcing the constitution can we expect presidents and others to uphold it.

He also has many ideas for improving the Constitution, some of which seem fairly main stream democracy, and others very idealistic. Swanson does not hold back from criticizing democrats as well as republicans, and I think anyone not fiercely partisan, but with an open mind can read this book and nod in agreement with the democratic principles that Swanson evokes. Swanson's argument is that if you bring power closer to the people (the House of Representatives as opposed to the Senate and the President), you will see fewer abuses of power. The power will be more spread out and will more easily be reigned in by the people. That also seems to have been the idea of the Founders when they wrote the Constitution.

As Swanson also points out, the United States Constitution has undergone very little development since it was introduced over 200 years ago. At that time it was groundbreaking for democracy, but today it has fallen behind. It is conservative and seems to be aimed at the prevention of government rather than the assurance of good government. There is no way the Founders could predict what the needs of good government would be in the 20th or 21st century, and the Constitution appropriately describes two methods of amendment, so that it could evolve with the needs of society.

Swanson's Daybreak is essentially a work in political philosophy with the modern United States as its starting point, but aimed at creating a more perfect union. The lessons herein apply not only to the government of America, but is principled democracy for a modern state. Readers outside the U.S.A. can read it and learn about the quirks of America, but also use the lessons to hold up against their own government.