Could America go nuts the way Kurt Schlichter envisioned it?
If the Wuhan Panic is any indication,
the answer is yes.
the answer is yes.
Since I’m still self-quarantining due to this insufferably long, persistent illness that’s been dogging me since the end of February, I’ve been reading a lot. And since the Wuhan Panic has shut down the Onondaga County Libraries, that means the only reading material available to me are the books I have on hand.
It’s a damn good thing I enjoy reading good books over and over again.
I started with all my Carl Hiaasen books, then spent last week plowing through all the books by Harlan Coben I have rattling around here. Then I decided to give Kurt Schlichter’s Kelly Turnbull novels another go-round.
So Saturday, I started “People’s Republic.”
One of the things people say when inexplicably criticizing the Kelly Turnbull novels is “there is no way that would ever happen in America!!!”
[Then again, that’s usually said by people who also claim Schlichter’s novels are “race war fantasy porn.” Which pretty much proves they’ve never read a single word of the Kelly Turnbull novels.]
But reading through “People’s Republic” during the Wuhan Panic has been especially enlightening to me. Because the Wuhan Panic alone takes the “there is no way that would ever happen in America!!!” argument and guts it.
If you aren’t familiar with Schlichter’s novels, I’ll sum up the premise for you:
America has split into two separate countries – The People’s Republic of North America (blue states) and the United States of America (red states).
The People’s Republic consists of the two coasts along with the northern Midwest. The United States consists of the south and “flyover” country.
Actually, it’s easier to explain just by showing you the cover of “People’s Republic:”
The hero of these novels is Kelly Turnbull — a special operator frequently called into service when the new USA needs to carry out missions within the PRNA.
[As a side note, Kelly Turnbull has joined Mitch Rapp in Dianny’s “if only he really existed, I’d marry him” list of fictional characters.]
Life within the People’s Republic that Schlichter envisions is pretty much PC/Identity Politics/Progressivism gone wild. In short, the place is a mess – where the elites live a life of privilege and everybody else lives in poverty. While the elites enjoy the best of everything, there is rationing of pretty much everything from food to electricity for the rest of the people.
Now I’ve always found Schlichter’s dystopic version of America eerily believable because Leftists today use political correctness and identity politics as a way to amass and maintain power. So it isn’t exactly a stretch to imagine that “People’s Republic” would be exactly what you’d get if they ever gained unfettered control over a country.
But with the Wuhan Panic, the “good grief, this is starting to sound like non-fiction” element gets kicked up to Spinal Tap 11.
For example…
In the People’s Republic, citizens are encouraged to report their fellow citizens for wrong think and wrong behaviors — like “food injustice” (whatever the hell that is).
And reading this during the Wuhan Panic gives “People’s Republic” a level of realism it didn’t have the last time I read it.
Thanks to the Wuhan Panic, we are being encouraged to narc on our neighbors for violating these government-imposed lockdown orders. And I’m reading “People’s Republic” and thinking “Yeah, this totally could happen in America because too many real-life Americans are stepping up to act this way right now.”
In the People’s Republic, leaders determine what products the people can and cannot purchase. You know, just like Governor Karen of Michigan. When I first read “People’s Republic,” I was surprised to see Michigan went blue after the Split. Now? Thanks to the Wuhan Panic, I’m thinking Schlichter was pretty damn prescient. Did he foresee Governor No Garden Seeds?
In “People’s Republic” the elites are not subjected to the same kind of draconian edicts as the regular folks. Nor do they have to endure the nonsensical propaganda that all the people who live outside of the elite’s walled enclaves are forced to endure.
Thanks to the Wuhan Panic, we have prats like elitist Chris Cuomo who can go on live television and lecture everyone about not breaking quarantine despite the fact that Chris Cuomo himself broke quarantine while sick with the Wuhan virus. And nobody in our garbage elite has a problem with that. Then his propaganda network stages a completely phony “This is the moment Chris Cuomo finally emerged from his quarantine” segment as if he never did break quarantine – and they think we unwashed masses will totally fall for it.
And I’m reading “People’s Republic,” and thinking to myself, “The Martin Rios-Parkinson character would totally pull what Chris Cuomo pulled.”
The leaders of the People’s Republic paint the red states as full of backward, racist, slack-jawed dummies who don’t know how to take care of themselves. But they completely gloss over just how bad life is within their own blue states.
And isn’t that exactly how the media and those in blue state metropolitan areas are treating the red states’ response to the Wuhan Panic?
They sneer at Florida or North Dakota and claim those stupid red staters are going to kill people because they won’t follow the same stringent lockdown as New York or California. Meanwhile, Andrew Cuomo is treated as some kind of superhero despite the fact that he is overseeing the state that has more cases and deaths than any other state in the union.
It’s totally insane and backassward.
Just like the People’s Republic.
America’s response to the Wuhan Panic is taking the “fiction” out of these works of fiction in ways I never imagined.
The more I read it, the more valid Schlichter’s concerns become. He writes in his forward that this isn’t the future he wants, but it is the future we’ll get if we do not find a way to turn this madness around.
And madness right now is the order of the day.
So if you’ve never read these books, now — while Americans are turning into utter lunatics over the Wuhan Panic — would be the perfect time. You’ll find yourself marveling at just how prescient Kurt Schlichter is.
And if you want more background info on the Kelly Turnbull books, I’ve written three posts about them:
Or, you could just go to Amazon and order them. In fact, check out all of Kurt Schlichter’s books at Amazon – not just the four Kelly Turnbull novels, but his non-fiction books as well — including his latest “The 21 Biggest Lies About Donald Trump (and you!)” which comes out in July.
Hopefully the fifth Kelly Turnbull novel gets released soon because I can’t wait (and not just because if he was real, I’d want to marry him).
In the meantime, I’m more than happy to reread the first four again and again. Even though reading them during the Wuhan Panic is creeping me the hell out.