Becoming China's Bitch: And Nine More Catastrophes We Must Avoid Right Now [Hardcover]

A Manifesto for the Radical Center

America is frozen. We have failed to face our nation’s most crucial challenges—and we are about to pay the price.

When it comes to solving our country’s problems, we have become utterly paralyzed: bipartisanship has lulled us into a deadlock, preventing us from taking action. Yet we can no longer ignore the inevitable catastrophes or hand them off to Washington to fix—they must be addressed now, or we will suffer the long-term consequences.

In theNew York TimesbestsellerBecoming China’s Bitch, Peter Kiernan presents an unflinching manifesto in which he explores five factors that have sustained our national paralysis, then uncovers the ten challenges that pose the greatest threat to the future of America. Presented from a fresh yet informative Centrist perspective, these ten impending catastrophes include our semiconscious dependency on China, our lack of a centrally coordinated intelligence effort, our downward-spiraling health-care system, and the continually expanding problem of illegal immigration. In a logical, personal, and persuasive voice, Kiernan offers radical yet common-sense solutions to these challenges—solutions that every American must acknowledge and act upon before it’s too late.

With provocative insight and analytical depth,Becoming China’s Bitchis the answer to securing our country’s immediate future and restoring our national soul.
 

Acknowledgments    xi

Introduction    xiii

Part I: Why Are We Polarized?
Five Factors That Freeze Us from Doing the Right Thing

Factor One
    Genesis: The Shot Heard ’Round the Dial    5

Factor Two
    Democracy Under the Influence (DUI): Lobbyists in the Kitchen    51

Factor Three
    The Ultimate Bal*