Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Take a populist libertarian governor, throw in some free range buffalo, mix it up with a massive federal legislative program and an incident at Sturgis, and toss in some nuclear missiles for seasoning, and you have The Third Revolution. There are some minor spoilers in here, so I'll put the body "below the fold". 

I fully expected this book to be the Libertarian party's answer to Atlas Shrugged, though lengthwise, the whole book (at 335 pages) comes in at 200 pages lighter than John Galt''s speech alone. (Sit down, objectivists, I''m just funnin' yas.)

While it does have that element, complete with speeches from various personalities (and a horse named Cato), what I found was a pretty darn good story.

Governor Ben Kane, is a restauranteur-cum-politician who finds himself at the center of a growing storm. The federal government has enacted legislation taking the country closer to collectivism, which doesn't set well with folks, but for the most part no one does anything about it. The storm picks up strength when a National Guard unit called up to provide security at Sturgis overreacts and kills some bikers, some of whom are Montanans.

As resentment toward the federal government grows, the Montana legislature passes a Nullification law.

Inside the beltway, this goes over like a lead balloon, and the president and his advisers try to figure out a way to bring the lost sheep of Montana back into the fold. Back-channel negotiations fail to produce any results. Plus, there's a slight problem: someone has cracked the command-and-control systems for the nuclear missiles, and Governor Kane now has his finger on the proverbial button.

In the meantime, a wealthy entrepreneur sets his buffalo loose on the open range, as his land can no longer contain them, and he can't get federal grazing permits. Governor Kane allows him to run his herd over state (formerly federal) lands, which draws the attention of the Blackfeet and Crow who have been running their own small herds.

The story comes to a head in the Montana legislature, where both houses unanimously pass a declaration of secession, which Kane signs into law. He finds himself surprised by the support of other western governors and officials from both the U.S. and Canada, and we, the readers, are left to wonder, "What happens next?"  So, we'll have to stay tuned for Middle America.

The criticisms I have are fairly mild, and in fact, some of them may be addressed in Middle America. The treatment of the "opposition"  was a little superficial in my mind. There were some reversions to stereotype (e.g., a farmer with a John Deere hat) which isn't all bad, and I did get a little bent out of shape when it was suggested that most of the state's population didn't give a lot of thought to what the economic consequences of secession might be. While many ranchers and farmers are simple folks, that doesn't necessarily make them simpletons.

Those are pretty minor quibbles, though.

One thing that struck me was that Ben Kane has a more-than-superficial resemblance to Brian Schweitzer, from the "aw-shucks" I'm just one of the guys  shtick right down to the bolo tie. I can't help but wonder if Schweitzer wasn't a model for Kane.

Overall, it's a good "what-if?"  story, and I did like the way that the "Third Revolution"  was brought about incrementally with a series of seemingly disconnected events. That's how things happen.

I heartily recommend this book. You can read it as just a story, or as a libertarian tract, and it works in both directions. Buy it here.

If you'll pardon me, now, I have to get started on Middle America, because I need to see how Montana's going to dig itself out of this mess.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 09:39 and is filed under Montana. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.