Pitchfork Populism

Pitchfork Populism is an important book, one that deserves to be on the bookshelves of all who want to understand who we are as a nation, and just where we are heading. In this profound and persuasive book, Bradford R. Kane digs deep into America’s history and provides insightful documentation that Trump reflects the split personality that was present at the creation of our country and stubbornly refuses to unify except during times of crises. ~Hon. William S. Cohen, former Secretary of Defense, former senator from Maine, and CEO of The Cohen Group

If you—like all of us—are asking yourself, What the hell is going on in America? then you need to read this book. In it, Bradford Kane has summarized the ten dynamics and trends that are reshaping American politics. Whether you like President Trump or disapprove of him, you will benefit from understanding the forces evolving in our country. Only then can we the people have the wisdom and courage to direct these forces toward a better America.

~Leon E. Panetta, chairman, Panetta Institute for Public Policy, former Secretary of Defense, former director of the CIA, and former White House Chief of Staff

Bradford R. Kane has produced a cogent, reasoned, and contextualized description of how we got to this sorry place and how we might move past it. There’s hope!

~Jonathan Alter, former Newsweek columnist, MSNBC political analyst, and New York Times–bestselling author of The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies

Pitchfork Populism puts Trump’s pernicious impact on American politics and society into historical, political, and societal context, using a frame of ten forces that make his impact on America easier to understand and to counter. ~Norman Ornstein, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute, and coauthor of One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet-Deported

Rich in detail and analysis, Bradford Kane reprises the trail of political broken glass that leads to the present and reminds us that our principles and national identity are at stake and should not be corrupted by pitchfork populism.

~Vint Cerf, internet pioneer, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, and former member of the National Science Board

As the pace of change accelerates, and as multiple forces converge to create a disorienting and confounding context for public discourse, it is important that someone asks us to pause, study the runaway currents, and reflect from the vantage point of our history and values. Bradford Kane has done precisely that. As a clear-eyed observer of our national predicaments, he helps us find our own answers to crucial questions: Why is this happening? Where are we headed? And what can we do?

~Henry Cisneros, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, former mayor of San Antonio, and co-chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Commission and Immigration Task Force

A timely and truly fascinating deep dive into the unusual and often strange developments in the current American political system. The book explores whether traditional bipartisanship is even possible in the era of Trump, amid the political earthquake he and others have facilitated. As a long-term politician and former congressman from a state with a deep history of populism, I found myself captivated. This is an important read, given our nation’s often terrifying political climate.

~Dan Glickman, senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC, executive director of the Aspen Institute Congressional Program, former Kansas congressman, and former US Secretary of Agriculture

Depending on what side of the current political divide you find yourself, 2016 will mark either the year that the United States began its decline and fall or the moment when America was made ‘great again.’ Many books will yet be written in efforts to understand just what happened in 2016 and what it means. Bradford Kane has written a primer that will be necessary reading for anyone, today or in the future, wanting to understand this tumultuous time. But Kane’s book is more than this.

Beautifully written in clear prose, it not only tells the story of how we got to this point in our history and what this juncture might bode for our future but, most urgently, how we might yet ensure the survival of the American Constitution, that great experiment in governing. ~David L. Faigman, chancellor and dean, John F. Digardi Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California Hastings College of the Law