True Reform
Analyzing current political crises in a thorough way based on careful research, True Reform is an expansive and passionate text.
Jess Money’s bold political science title True Reform argues that the American Constitution is problematically outdated and is in need of substantial revision.
The text’s center consists of nineteen proposed amendments to the Constitution that are revolutionary and controversial. The book preempts related dismissals by asserting that the project posed by America’s founders was also revolutionary in their time period. Building on their model, the book is idealistic to the extent that its proposals are also self-awarely unlikely to be actualized.
Framing the main crises that America and the rest of the world should address in legislative terms, the book works to make its proposed amendments seem possible. The amendments address climate change, the fallout from Fukushima, and wars on drugs and education. The amendments themselves are divided as political and financial amendments, offsetting each other in a useful way that’s designed to guarantee rights for all citizens.
The amendments reflect the overarching notion that the government has a responsibility toward everyone in the US. They suggest maximum security incarceration for white collar crimes that have far-reaching consequences and assert that the executive branch should not be able to commute sentences based on corruption, the misuse of one’s office, or the violation of election statutes. In this view, those who threaten the US must be held accountable. Term limits and campaign finance reform are also proposed, as is the dissolution of the Federal Reserve, universal health care, guaranteed supplemental income, and greater protections for those who wish to join unions.
The book is astute at presenting its problems and constructing solutions for them all. The amendments themselves are built in a thorough way, with complete titles and sections and bolstered by fact-centered research. The writing is accessible to theorists and laypeople alike. Intelligent and respectful, its tone encourages dialogue and interaction between politicians and citizens and promotes everyone’s active participation in politics.
Inconsistencies arise, as with the book’s confrontation of overpopulation, which promotes scarcity in capitalist terms, though elsewhere the book condemns capitalism and neoliberalism as having too much control over the American political system. Other contradictions in the political theory undercut the arguments, if in minor ways.
Analyzing current political crises in a thorough way based on careful research, True Reform is an expansive and passionate text.
Reviewed by
Holly Jordan
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
