The short answer is YES.

I wanted to write about this briefly as I recently received the following review on my first book, 2084, which expresses serious doubt about my inclusion of constitutional principles like those that led to the adoption of our original Bill of Rights. I am not trying to be argumentative with this reviewer as he absolutely has the right to disagree with my usage of such constitutional constructs; however, this is fiction and most dystopian fiction writers go many light-years beyond my imagination in 2084 to complete their story. I would also add that this is the only review like this so far, most reviews being 5 star and giving the book rave reviews including several suggesting it should be made into a movie. Sorry to digress in defending the book for a second there, but just didn’t want you to think that this review reflects the views of readers of my 2084 adventure, just the opposite, but it does give us this opportunity to discuss a very interesting constitutional and legal principle.

Again the answer to the question, “Can we fix the abuses of our Constitution today?”, is YES. Just as the Bill of Rights was absolutely necessary to ensure that we remained a nation of states and that individual rights would be protected, now we must consider amendments that will correct the abuse and misuse of our great Constitution. Those insisting on a Bill of Rights were quite like, actually exactly like, the states today asking for amendments to the Constitution to protect individual freedoms and to reign in an out of control federal government (of course, our founders adopted the Bill of Rights to prevent an out of control federal government).

Although the anti-Federalists, such as Patrick Henry, George Mason, Sam Adams and others were the primary patriots pushing for a Bill of Rights when they saw a new Constitution was inevitable, they were also joined by Thomas Jefferson and even James Madison in working with these same patriots and the states to adopt the Bill of Rights. James Madison and other Federalists thought this mostly unnecessary. They believed without question if a power was not enumerated in the Constitution then the federal government could not leverage such power. Thankfully with the support of Jefferson and others the states were able to have a Bill of Rights ratified, but they could have never predicted that between the courts, Presidents and Congress the Constitution would be misinterpreted time and time again to give the federal government powers they were never intended to possess.

Now we are at a time when many leaders around the nation realize our federal government has far surpassed the size and scope that it was intended to be. The Supremacy Clause and the Commerce Clause have probably been the most abused pieces of our Constitution, clauses that were not intended to allow the federal government to micro-manage the states and their citizens, but they have been manipulated to allow this very thing. To add insult to injury when the states and Governors failed collectively in their mission to appoint proper representation in the US Senate, the 17th Amendment was adopted essentially throwing the baby out with the bathwater with regards to state representation in the US Senate; this mistake should be corrected.

In 2084, I go much further than a typical dystopian novel, by taking the events of today, the constant growth of the power and size of our government, especially our federal government, and take these to their “logical” and most negative ends. Honestly, in the wake of the near marshal law of the pandemic, the stifling of free speech on social media, the massive lawfare against a presidential candidate and his supporters, to jails and prisons in our nation’s Capitol being used to lock up political dissidents (ironically, this type of political grievance activism is praised by the very people that ended up sending the J6 political prisoners to prison), readers of 2084 should not be surprised by anything I predict might well happen in our near and not so distant future.

2084 immerses the reader in a world not so different from today, where government controls every aspect of peoples’ lives, and for those that are unwilling to comply they have methods, very believable methods to make them comply. But just as those scrappy rebels 250 years ago that had had enough of an imperial, all powerful government dictating their lives and their fortunes, 2084’s rebels have had enough. As a pharmacist it is only fitting that the first protagonist that hits the stage is a pharmacologist, and with my years dealing with the good and the bad of pharmaceutical giants, it is also fitting that an evil massive pharmaceutical company is the dark entity behind closed doors that facilitates much of the evil being done to our great patriots of the future.

You can call 2084 unbelievable or you might have difficulty believing the legal premises upon which some primary parts of the story are based, but our founders were smart but simple men who managed to find the same complex legal solutions, unheard of and novel at the time, while 2084’s patriots attempt to harness what they can to try and save the greatest nation on earth. Maybe I am biased but I am not seeing any political theme in 2084 that coincides with any big political theme today (IE: MAGA, Trump, etc…), but rather I follow government control to its ultimate end without touching on any political themes and we simply find a group of citizens, patriots if you will, that have had enough of someone else telling them how they must live. There is good and bad, there is life and death, and there are surprises around each turn.

No one would open 2084, and know what is going to happen, in fact, I guarantee it. I certainly understand this critic’s frustration considering his apparent political views, but I think our founders might frustrate him just the same, but by intertwining my knowledge gained from pharmaceutical sciences to legislation to Constitutional principles, I hope that 2084 gives you a thrilling ride that you will remember and enjoy.