Introduction
2020 is the fifth time I’ve run for either the United States House or the United States Senate. Every time there has been voter discontent, but it’s peaking this year. I have never seen an electorate as fractured or angry or discontented as they are now.

Us Americans have a couple of options: can either wallow in our anger and discontent or we can put it to work for us, making it the fuel for us to make America America again. 

We should be angry and discontented because our country is a fiasco right now, a far cry from the American ideal many of us grew up believing in. By any measure, our government is a partisan, fractured and bickering mess. Our response to the coronavirus was late and incompetent, resulting in tens of thousands of needless deaths. We’ve been at war continuously since 1989 – over three decades – our finances are a mess and our social divides are threatening to make the problems of the 1960’s look like something out of Mother Goose. 

Now, in some respects, this really isn’t news. Throughout our history, it has always been something. America was born in war, came of age in war and war has long been our calling card. Our current racial tensions were born in 400 years of oppression and dominance. We’ve been in debt virtually our entire existence. 

But right now America is so far off its path our long-term viability is threatened. Between our perpetual wars, our mindless debt and our deep social divides I think America will be tossed aside the scrap heap of history before this half-century is out if concerned and conscientious citizens like you and me do not step in and do something at the ballot box because our country needs our help. It needs you and me – we the people – to take charge. 

America has always been as much an ideal as it has been a country, existing not only in fact but in theory, too. But the America that once meant something to the rest of the world is gone and the America that means something to Americans, too, is fading fast, too.

The good news is the solution to America’s problems looks us in the mirror every morning: 

There is nothing wrong with our country that concerned and conscientious citizens cannot solve. Collectively you and me – we the people – can make America America again. 

In this book, we will talk about the American Way, what made America America in the first place and what will make America America again both by looking at individual issues and the big picture. 

Like you do, I want a country we can be proud of and a country the world looks up to again. It will not be easy. It will require us to shed the familiar and do some things we haven’t done in a while. But it won’t be the first Americans have shed the familiar and it won’t be the first time we’ve redefined our country. 

I believe it’s a journey worth taking. It’s one we must take together and it’s one we must take right now.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The American Way: Liberty