Provocative Political Thriller Foreshadows Elites’ 2020 Election Plan for a Single-Party America

Intentional Consequences by Charles Harris

A year ago this month, I released my provocative new novel, Intentional Consequences, on Amazon.com. The book tells the story of a geopolitical cyber conspiracy among wealthy Democratic elites, Chinese government interests and a social media company executive. The conspirators’ goal is to dominate the 2020 U.S. presidential election and restructure American democracy to single party rule that will last for generations.

The book was first published in August 2019 and the story line ends during the summer of 2019. Readers immediately called the book prescient. Although I never intended for the book to predict future events, I did hope it would show how our angry partisan politics and advanced technologies like social media are imperiling our democracy. As I said then, the story is fiction, but the issues and political strategies are all too real.

One year later, I’m amazed at how well the book foreshadowed the bitter political divisions that are racking our country and the dangers of trying to manage a black swan crisis like Covid-19 in the face of that bitterness. In those respects, the book was prescient.

Let me offer a couple of examples. (If you have not read the book yet (and you should), these will not be spoilers.

First, in one of the early chapters, Rakesh Jain, a billionaire tech company executive, and his wife, Valerie Williams, a University of Texas government professor, are talking with David Bernbach, the leading Democratic elite behind the political conspiracy. Valerie says she thinks the U.S. “is more susceptible to radical political change today than it has been since the thirties” due to “the combined effect of social and political factors we’ve never seen come together before.”

Rakesh then says, “I worry about the potential impact of a Black Swan event on this. I don’t know how we’ll find national consensus in an economic or wartime emergency if the American public can’t decide who to believe or what the facts are. Trump calls everything he disagrees with ‘fake news’. The Democrats and much of the media are doing everything they can to destroy the President’s credibility, both to make it hard for him to govern and to defeat him in the next election. If America gets into a crisis and the public doesn’t believe their president, who will they believe? Nancy Pelosi? AOC and her gang? Upwards of 20 Democratic presidential contenders? The military? And how will we decide?”

To which Valerie responds, “In our modern history, we’ve never faced risks like these before. It’s easy to blame Trump for his role in undermining presidential credibility and creating confusion about American foreign policy, but the Democrats and the liberal media are far from innocent beneficiaries. They know exactly what they’re doing. I’m not sure whether they fail to appreciate the unintended consequences that could follow, or they just don’t care about the results.”

The second example occurs later, in a chapter that includes a website post of a purportedly leaked secret preview of the Democrats’ Action Plan for a Single-Party America. I portrayed the leaked post as part of a strategy to “stir the pot” and incite political fear and anger. When I wrote the book, I intended the post to be a radical “to do” list. It's chilling to realize that only one year later, this fictional post captures the mainstream thoughts of many leading Democrats and their allied media. It’s also troubling to realize how few voters understand that “centrist” Joe Biden and many Democratic Congressional candidates support a lot of these radical restructuring measures.

In the book, the “Single Party Action Plan” was presented as a secret plan on a political website (ironically named RevengeMatters.com—the name of my latest book). Excerpts of the fictional post on that site appear below:

Secret Preview of Democrats’ Action Plan for a Single-Party America

By the RevengeMatters Team

RevengeMatters has gained exclusive access to a draft of the Democrats’ secret plan to position themselves for single-party rule in 2020. The remarkable paper calls for stripping away the existing procedural safeguards in the House and Senate, packing additional Justices onto the Supreme Court and enacting key legislation to assure progressive control for decades.

The draft was provided by a reliable source with high-level access to Democratic strategy. The Democrat candidates for President and the Democrat members of the House and Senate we showed this to all refused comment. We have been unable to reach Speaker Pelosi. Although we expect to hear the no comment responses turn to denials and allegations of fake news, the plan resonates with existing conversation within the party. It also reflects the increasing influence of the progressive wing of the party. The individual items listed on the action plan are not new. What is new is the party commitment to implementing the ideas in the 2020-2024 timeframe you’ll see in the plan.

We are printing the entire document below so you can make your own assessment. For clarity, the Additional Commentary is part of the document we received.

CONFIDENTIAL DRAFT – DO NOT DISTRIBUTE

Single Party Action Plan (SPAP) 2020-2024

With Democratic control of the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate in 2020, the following steps will accomplish lasting realignment of American politics and usher in progressive single-party rule for decades.

This Action Plan is based on the following important realities:

First, to achieve success, long-standing Congressional norms must be altered at the outset. This action should be taken only if we have the discipline to follow this plan to completion.

Second, the current imbalance in the Supreme Court must be corrected before any important legislation is enacted. Having a clear majority of the Court is essential to protecting far-reaching legislative changes from judicial interpretation or override.

Third, structural reforms must be prioritized ahead of platform and policy legislation.

ACTIONS FOR 2021:

Adjust Procedural Norms in Congress.

Eliminate PAYGO, which requires any bill that increases entitlement spending or decreases revenues be offset by corresponding tax hikes or decreased spending.

Ignore the Federal Deficit in passing new programs.

Alter the Senate Filibuster, which effectively requires 60 votes to pass significant legislation (base action here on Democrat votes available after 2020).

Expand the current reconciliation process, which applies to less significant legislation (this could require replacement of the Senate Parliamentarian), or make it harder or even impossible to filibuster legislation.

Increase Supreme Court size – at least 3 to 5 new seats.

Make nominations and provide Senate consent to fill new open seats on the Supreme Court. (Note: Swear in new Justices before enacting any important legislation.)

Enact H.R. 1 – For the People Act (approved by House in early 2019).

Voting and Election Laws – increase access, enable online registration.

Campaign Finance – increase disclosure, eliminate “sidecar” SuperPACs.

Ethics – increase disclosure of individual donors, restrict lobbying.

Enact American Equality Tax Reform Package – aimed at the Super Rich:

Income Taxes;

Estate Taxes;

Wealth Taxes.

Enact Federal Data Privacy Legislation, including Tech Tax.

Enact Immigration Reform:

Immediate pathway to citizenship and voting for Dreamers;

Accelerated pathways to citizenship and voting (three-year and five-year options) for other illegal immigrants.

File Other Platform Legislation (e.g., climate, college tuition, health care, other tax reform).

ACTIONS FOR 2022-2023:

Enact Other Platform Legislation (e.g., climate, college tuition, health care, other tax reform).

Pursue longer-term (2021-2024) structural changes:

Reduction of voting age to 16 for Federal elections;

Statehood for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico;

Division of California into two states (North and South);

Direct national election of President (eliminate Electoral College).

ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:

Sweeping the Federal elections in 2020 does not assure longer-term dominance. The structural changes above are intended to assure the Democratic Party dominates all three branches of national government for decades.

H.R. 1 comprises over 500 pages of legislation, much of it seemingly benign and overdue, but some of it extensive in impact. Mitch McConnell has called it a “power grab” and the “Democrat Politician Protection Act”. It’s hugely important to our dominance.

Key to tax reform is to focus on Super Rich and not get bogged down on broader tax policy or reversing Trump’s tax legislation.

Data privacy and the tech tax will be popular with the public’s anti-Tech backlash and provide an opportunity to enact legislation that will have a chilling effect on corporate involvement in political campaigns and issues.

The immigration changes will offer an opportunity to add even more voters to the rolls in advance of 2024.

* * *

After presenting the fictional post, the book goes on to describe the reaction:

“By evening, the Action Plan was everywhere. The timing was impeccable as the media was looking for any story to keep politics in the spotlight after the letdown from the Mueller report. Blindsided, the Democrats initially did their best not to comment or even talk at all for fear of being asked. As the RevengeMatters site had predicted, the “no comments” moved to denials and accusations of fake news.

“The conservative media had a heyday, claiming the plan showed the Democrats’ true intentions to seize one-party control at any cost to democracy. To bolster the paper’s validity, they quoted articles from liberals and progressives recommending the same actions the plan espoused, and in some cases more.

“The liberal media was all over the place, not sure whether the paper was real, but recognizing the ideas were, and the paper probably did reflect ongoing conversations and maybe even a formal commitment within the party. Most of the Democratic presidential candidates willing to talk did their best to hedge their positions by vaguely saying the ideas were interesting or blaming the Republicans for making it necessary to consider all the options. For Pete Buttigieg, it was an opportunity to repeat his call for structural reforms in American democracy that would make it easier to accomplish the progressive agenda. Some of his primary opponents even suggested Buttigieg was behind the post, given how closely it aligned with some of the changes he advocated.

“Outside the leadership and the presidential candidates, progressive Democrats widely applauded the plan. By the following day, initial polling showed strong progressive support for the plan, which led key progressives in the House to pile on the bus. In contrast, polling showed the plan infuriated the Republican base, worried most independents and drew mixed support from the rest of the Democrats. President Trump was the biggest beneficiary. In another day, the media would report his overall approval rating topped 50%.”

* * *

A lot of changes have happened since I released Intentional Consequences just one year ago but the book’s description of political manipulation by both parties remains disturbingly relevant. If you haven’t read the book yet, it’s worth doing now—before the 2020 election. Chillingly real, it’s an electrifying story about what people and countries will do to manipulate political opinion in our social media world--and a vivid preview of the 2020 general election. But beyond all that, it’s an entertaining thriller filled with twists and turns, betrayals, dirty tricks, deadly assaults, virtual assassinations and a torrent of surprises.

Excerpts from Intentional Consequences are © 2019 Charles Edison Harris.