THE 15% SOLUTION: A POLITICAL HISTORY OF AMERICAN FASCISM, 2001-2022

The idea that the Religious Right could actually succeed in taking over the United States government is a terrifying thought to all rational Americans.  Johnathan Westminster (a pseudonym) produced a futuristic historical novel telling us what might happen were this to come to pass.

The title comes from an electoral strategy employed by the Christian Coalition.  Since only 50 precent of these registered to vote actually do vote, while only 30 percent of those eligible to vote do so,only 15 percent of the voters can determine the outcome of an election.  This is why Religious Right activists such as Paul Weyrich have said those low voter turnouts actually benefits their cause.

James Madison once said that the greatest threat to Constitutional democracy does not come from sudden violent usurpation, but by gradual, silent encroachments.  The 15% Solution is a tale detailing how reactionary religious/political forces were able to subvert the will of the people and legally rewrite the Constitution until the laws of the land worked against the people rather than for them.  By the year 2001, these forces had gained control of the government, and within a few years had outlawed all political parties except the New Christian Nation party.  By 2011, a new country had been formed, called the New American Republics, led by the euphoniously named Jefferson Davis Hague.

The strategy of these new leaders was strikingly similar to the methods employed by the Nazis in the 1930s: L Locate and demonize an enemy, pathologies him, and finally criminalize him.  As a consequence homophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry became the defining characteristics of life in the New American Republics.

To illustrate how this could come about, Westminster takes the religious/political/social climate of contemporary American and shows that there are indeed forces in our midst who would establish such a society.  The author discusses California’s Proposition 187, the “scientific” racism of the book The Bell Curve, and many other factors are discussed as the author skillfully creates the takeover.

Whether the scenario painted by Westminster is actually capable of coming to pass is anyone’s guess.  There is an interesting parallel between this book and George Orwell’s famed 1984.  That year came and went, and while the situation at that time bore some similarities (some of them striking) with what Orwell predicted, the actual year wasn’t as terrifying as the novel.  As I write this, it is 2015 and the extremely rapid changes that took place in The 15% Solution have not yet transpired.  Yet the situation is decidedly worse than it was when the book first appeared in 1996:  The Republican candidates for president are all Bible-thumping Christians.  Voices of dissent to the religious and political nonsense we see in the mainstream media, while not yet outlawed, are rarely heard and never promoted.  The word “freedom” has been hijacked by the Religious Right and they use it to mean the freedom for Christians to discriminate against and force their will on everyone else.  So yes, as a country we are definitely heading in the wrong direction.  Unless thinking people awaken from their self-induced mental slumber, a scenario similar to that envisioned in this novel could very easily come to pass.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in entertaining the notion of what would happen in America should the Christian right wing take over the country.  Don’t miss it!