Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America by Bruce Berlin

Berlin starkly exposes Big Money’s increasing control of our government and calls for a grassroots, nonpartisan, nationwide Democracy Movement to fix our broken political system and revive democracy in America.

(Santa Fe, New Mexico, March 21, 2016) Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America is a call to the American people to focus the nation’s attention on a very critical issue: the United States is becoming a plutocracy run by and for the very wealthy. Part I of the book examines the country’s broken political system caused by this emerging plutocracy. Part II explores how the American people can fix this broken system and create a truly representative democracy.

Berlin defines Big Money as the power of vast sums of money to influence the outcome of elections and the formation of public policy to favor special interests. Part I of the book begins by declaring that the great political challenge of our time is: Can the American people eliminate Big Money’s control over their government before the United States becomes a full-blown plutocracy? While admitting this is a daunting task, Berlin explains that America’s history provides numerous examples of people joining together and forming grassroots movements that have made very significant advancements against great odds.

Part I continues with an in-depth examination of how Big Money and corporate America control our government through huge campaign contributions and massive lobbying efforts. Berlin illustrates in great detail how this extreme influence results in incredible damage to our country as well as to millions of Americans. Consequently, he describes the means by which the oil industry’s power over the government led to the Iraq War that resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and trillions of dollars. In another example, the author explains how Wall Street’s grip on our government resulted in the Great Recession of 2008 and tremendous harm to a great many Americans. The section concludes by asserting that the United States is at a pivotal time in its history. Will the country succumb to the power of Big Money, or will the people rise up and reclaim their right to a self-governing democracy?

Part II of the book offers a step-by-step process for Americans to come together, break Big Money’s grip, and build a political system that will work for everyone. First, Berlin notes the various elements of grassroots actions that are currently available for the formation of a Democracy Movement. He then considers the obstacles to developing a mass movement and the methods for overcoming them. From there, Berlin offers a six-point program for fixing our political system. Moreover, he shows that the movement is already underway. Finally, the book warns that the American people cannot expect a new president, whether it’s Trump, Bush, Clinton or Sanders, to save our democracy. Berlin concludes that “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” That is, only a broad-based, nonpartisan, grassroots movement consisting of Democrats, Republicans and Independent; conservatives, moderates and liberals, can break Big Money’s grip and revive democracy in America.

“A brilliant analysis of where we are and where we need to go. Read this book!”
—Thom Hartmann, author and talk radio show host

A retired, public sector attorney, Bruce Berlin has devoted himself to social justice concerns for over forty-five years. He has worked on issues from the improvement of conditions for county jail inmates to the diversification of Los Alamos National Laboratory to the advancement of U.S.-Soviet relations. Berlin is the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution, a nonprofit organization that developed broad-based, bipartisan approaches to a variety of national policy issues from security in the nuclear age to economic development and diversification. Berlin was awarded a Jennings Randolph Peace Fellowship from the United States Institute of Peace in 1988 to produce a dialogue exploring paths to a Nicaraguan peace agreement between representatives of the warring factions and US ambassadors to Central America. A co-founder and state coordinator of the New Mexico Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, he directed a lobbying effort resulting in the state legislature’s passage of a resolution supporting a US-Soviet nuclear weapons freeze. Berlin graduated from Cornell University with a major in government and the New York University School of Law. A father and Buddhist meditator, he lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is his first book.

Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America by Bruce Berlin
Paperback: ISBN: 978-0-9966232-0-9, 160 pp., $14.95
E-Book, ISBN: 978-0-9966232-1-6, $8.95160 pages
Publication Date: February 2016
Publisher: Our Time Books
www.breakingbigmoneysgrip.com
Current Affairs/Politics Non-Fiction
Distribution: Baker & Taylor

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