# Democracy in Chains
‘In his first big gift to Buchanan’s program, Charles Koch signaled his desire for the work he funded to be conducted behind the backs of the majority. “Since we are greatly outnumbered,” Koch conceded to the assembled team, the movement could not win simply by persuasion. Instead, the cause’s insiders had to use their knowledge of “the rules of the game”-that game being how modern democratic governance works-to create winning strategies.”

Work behind the scenes on your writing by writing ahead of schedule. Do not share your writing plans until you are ready. People won’t care. Just keep plugging away at your daily writing commitments and make it a work of art like a painting. Make each work your own. Go with your feelings and senses when writing. Use wisdom when writing. Just like Buchanan used wisdom and stealth to accomplish his dreams to change the narrative during his day. Create a winning strategy for your writing and fine tune it for each work by adapting it to each work privately and quietly and make your move to submit your work when everything is written to your hearts content.

What this book taught me was to find my own truth in the political turmoil and focus on what I can do to enact change in my own small way for those who suffer from the same mental health conditions I do. Change the narrative by writing from your heart about historical issues that you are passionate about. Master issues about master control over your emotions and life and journal to process your emotions and feelings so your heart can be free as a bird soaring high. But the change and mastery starts with you. Just as it did with Buchanan in the 1950’s.

“Change starts with one individual. Mastery starts with one idea. “- ASN

“Remembering ruling a kingdom comes with skill of discerning and the ability to get along with those that disagree with you. Find common ground with those that oppose you through listening deeply and instinctively and work behind the scenes one on one to make each relationship the greatest it can be for you both in spite of the dissatisfaction across party lines.”- ASN ( )

The fact that this book came under such a fierce political attack by the institutions it critiques should speak to its value. MacLean does a good job winding through the life of Buchanan while always drawing things back to modern day impacts. The only drawback is that unlike Dark Money this one is written with a much clearer moral voice to it, criticizing blatantly undemocratic actions and casting a clear judgment on historical figures. That said, the book is over 50 pages of bibliography with many direct quotes, so having read it it's hard to argue she misrepresents anything.

Also the final chapter is really good at tying everything together, specifically with the line "The libertarian cause .... was never really about freedom as most people would define it. It was about the promotion of crippling division among the people so as to end any interference with what those who held vast power over others believe should be their prerogatives" ( )

Compulsively readable and written with a sense of urgency...for good reason. Libertarian billionaires like Charles Koch seem to be well on their way to transforming our democracy into an oligarchy. Decades of eroding citizen's trust in our government and gutting education while filling the judiciary with those trained on James Buchanan's economic theories is ensuring that the few control the many. Turns out our Constitution and democratic system are still serving the needs of the elite white property owners at the expense of everyone else. It is both shocking and depressing. ( )

This book might be the "Silent Spring" of politics. So much of the effort to radically change what the United States is as a nation and civilized society is contained in the writing. It is hard to write enticingly about politics, but MacLean does so. She offers the wake-up call to take action to save this democracy before it is too late to do so. ( )

I was aware of the criticism of this book from some libertarian scholars prior to reading this, so I read it with a more critical eye than I might otherwise have if I had only read the positive reviews. I'm not qualified to judge whether or not the critics are wholly correct (some complaints smacked of special pleading). Full disclosure: I am in no way an economic conservative or libertarian.

McLean has assembled some solid building blocks here in terms of an intellectual backdrop to contemporary anti-government political/economic theory: the work of scholars who had an underlying distrust of government and how they came to become an influential wing of thought. We have followers of Hayek and the Austrian School, the outsized influence of Charles Koch, and so on.

Despite that, the book doesn't quite gel as it should, for multiple reasons. McLean is not an economist. She doesn't really understand public choice theory. I am far from an expert, but I would not have understood its basic foundation if I hadn't done some extra research. She highlights particular examples of Buchanan's thought, such as his report into school segregation or his work in Chile, without giving the big picture in enough detail. She also doesn't give much of the theoretical basis of other influential economists and thinkers beyond a fundamental distrust of governmental institutions and belief in the market, preferring to emphasize practical policy prescriptions.

Her claim that Buchanan was crucial to the modern economic-libertarian movement is not fully supported by the text. While he was far from unimportant, McLean never fully demonstrates his direct influence. This is in part because the book is too short. The text of the book is only 234 pages, which gives you the sense of getting the highlight reel instead of seeing the entire game. McLean is also prone to using very short, out of context quotes, which makes me curious about their context. What's additionally frustrating about this book is that there is more material she could have used and did not. Several followers of this school of thought have outright suggested that the franchise be restricted, because the uninformed masses make poor choices.

There's also an air of "conspiracy!" that, again, isn't quite supported. The right wing plan may have been stealthy at one point, but it's been quite apparent for some time. More care could have been taken to draw together the applications of that movement, rather than brief paragraphs about labor and schools.

Somewhere, a great book is waiting to be written about libertarian economics and their practical application and misapplication. Sadly, this isn't it. ( )