The Founders’ Warning
Democracy, Power, and the Survival of the American Republic
The United States was founded in the late 18th century as the first republic based on modern democratic rules. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights established the governing structure of the country, with a separation of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
What the Founding Fathers learned from the Greeks and Romans shaped America, and it created the model for modern democracy, which was later copied by countries around the world.
In The Founders’ Warning, Werner Neff brings the Founding Fathers into fictional dialogue with America’s present and future. Through powerful conversations across 1789, 2020, and 2040, the book examines the principles that shaped the American experiment: freedom, justice, equality, fair representation, ethical leadership, checks and balances, and the peaceful transfer of power. The author believes that democratic principles, ethical and selfless leadership in service of the people are the pillars to justice, equality, and prosperity for all.
Today, America faces a dangerous erosion of those principles. Abuse of power, political manipulation, extreme partisanship, mistrust, voting restrictions, gerrymandering, institutional decay, and the weakening of civic responsibility have placed the American republic under pressure.
The text of this book was first published under the title:
What Would The Founding Fathers Tell Us Today?
Restore Trust
Economic Solutions to Current Social and Political Issues in the U.S.
RESTORE TRUST is an invitation to take a fresh look at the current socio-economic reality in this country. Neff discusses economic solutions to dysfunctional politics and offers a conclusive call to action to restore trust and defend the needs and core values of the American people.
Neff offers opportunities and solutions to create a shift to strengthen our democracy. Poverty is a structural problem created by economic thinking errors and institutional poverty traps, revealed, and discussed in detail in this book. Neff argues that America is a welfare state.
Democratic principles are distorted. The current political system allows the wealthy and large corporations to covertly influence legislation and bend economic laws in their favor.
Economic thinking errors are the source of our entitlement society.
The working poor are a social problem created by politics. The low minimum wage does not support a most basic lifestyle and as a result, food stamps, free medical services and other social programs become necessary to cover the gap. Half of the Federal budget supports the poor and the elderly across the country. Americans, mostly the middle class, subsidize this insufficient minimum wage with their taxes and unknowingly and indirectly support the bottom line of companies that underpay their employees.
Restore Our Democracy
The Case for Equality and Justice
The gifts we inherited from our Founding Fathers are The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights: guidelines for peacefully living together. These democratic principles are based on values and needs, to guide our leaders in good times and bad.
We have also inherited unhealthy ideals and patterns from our ancestors who impact us still today and hold us hostage in the past, stuck in entitlement, racism, dominance, and inequality. Many of these ideals no longer serve us. We must reevaluate leadership and revisit our commitments to the American People.
RESTORE OUR DEMOCRACY is a reflection on history, political philosophy, and the current political and economic reality. The author takes a raw look at how our unconscious loyalty to the past continues to impact our society still, today. The book revisits the original values and principles of Democracy. Neff warns of the dangers of the current distortions of our democracy and calls it a covert betrayal on the American people.
