The Inflection Election

Rep. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): “This fine book is an essential primer about the stakes in ’24. We owe Mark a debt of gratitude.” LAURENCE TRIBE: “Written with searing clarity and biting humor.” The Inflection Election: Democracy or Fascism in 2024? aims to warn busy and credulous Americans that this November will be a choice between a Party of Progress and a Party of Dangerous Extremism that may determine the path for American governance for generations. This is not a “both-sides” analysis by a journalistic spectator, but is instead a blunt “one-sided” guide by an experienced partisan—a public interest lawyer, elected Democrat, and prolific author. Mark Green makes the case for Democracy and Freedom and against Trump’s blatant Caesarism and MAGA’s fringeworthy agenda. While neither side has a prohibitive advantage as of mid-2024, the stakes are no mystery. If the GOP should now win both the White House and Congress—with a reactionary Supreme Court already in its column—a numerical minority of Americans would then enjoy a temporary governing majority that could cancel a century of progress and make the world’s oldest democracy no longer democratic. There must be a word that binds together such threats but it sure isn't “conservative” in the way Eisenhower, Reagan, or the Bushes would have understood it. For if all the corruption, lies, violence, and racism described throughout The Inflection Election were aggregated into a pointillist painting, the portrait would resemble Orbán far more than Obama. This is extremism posing as patriotism . . . whether it’s called fascism, dictatorship, autocracy, or authoritarianism. While the country can hope that the courts will hold Trump accountable, Green concludes that crushing it in 2024 is the best way to return to a healthy two-party system where losers respect the choice of voters, like in the good old days of 1789–2020. In a likely close 2024 national contest, The Inflection Election is an entertaining and informative manifesto that will become part of this year’s urgent political conversation. It is a one-stop primer that synthesizes fresh phrases, narratives and values to keep Democrats on offense and Trump’s MAGA party on-the-ropes. Green’s conclusion is that the GOP “sounds like a casting call for the delirious jury in the classic film Idiocracy, which was supposed to be a satire on reverse Darwinism, not reality TV.” November 5, 2024 is either/or time. This book explains why.