FROM THE AUTHOR
I wrote this book not just to entertain, but to awaken. The Killing of Bere Baudin portrays life four decades from now, in an America that has replaced democracy with Trumptocracy, an autocratic form of government. A dictator and 27 private corporations control the schools, government, police, and courts. Everything has been privatized. There is no “public”; no voting; no Bill of Rights. Although this book is a work of fiction, the notion that the United States or other democracies could embrace autocratic forms of rule is no longer in the exclusive realm of science fiction. Freedom House — a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization — has documented a 7 percent decline in democratic processes from 2016 to 2020, when Donald Trump was president.* This book is not a prediction of what will come, but a warning of what could happen if Americans fail to defend democratic processes, civil liberties and due process. DD January 2022
*This decline is interpolated from data presented in Sarah Repucci and Amy Slipowitz, “Democracy Under Siege,” Freedom in the World 2021 (New York: Freedom House, 2021), p. 10, retrieved December 29, 2021, from <https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2021/democracy-under-siege> and other Freedom House reports. The study found that democratic processes declined 11 percent from 2010 to 2020.
