Summary of Adam Jentleson's Kill Switch

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 I see a broken man when I think about my time in the Senate. I was standing in the inner office of the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, who had led the charge to pass universal background checks. But four months earlier, his six-year-old son had been shot dead in his first-grade classroom.

#2 The support of a broad, bipartisan majority of senators and the American public was not enough to pass the background-checks bill. Its opponents used a twentieth-century rule that was invented to curtail obstruction by ending the type of marathon filibusters that many people picture when they think of the Senate.

#3 The vote deciding the bill’s fate had taken place shortly before we found ourselves in Reid’s office, standing around in silence. As reporters filed their stories in the press gallery one floor above, we waited for Neil to speak.

#4 The republic, not a democracy argument is based on a semantic twist. When the Framers wrote the Constitution, the word democracy meant direct democracy, which was the kind practiced in ancient Greece.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669352945

IRB Media

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Book preview

Insights on Adam Jentleson's Kill Switch

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I see a broken man when I think about my time in the Senate. I was standing in the inner office of the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, who had led the charge to pass universal background checks. But four months earlier, his six-year-old son had been shot dead in his first-grade classroom.

#2

The support of a broad, bipartisan majority of senators and the American public was not enough to pass the background-checks bill. Its opponents used a twentieth-century rule that was invented to curtail obstruction by ending the type of marathon filibusters that many people picture when they think of the Senate.

#3

The vote deciding the bill’s fate had taken place shortly before we found ourselves in Reid’s office, standing around in silence. As reporters filed their stories in the press gallery one floor above, we waited for Neil to speak.

#4

The republic, not a democracy argument is based on a semantic twist. When the Framers wrote the Constitution, the word democracy meant direct democracy, which was the kind practiced in ancient Greece.

#5

The Framers were well aware of the arguments in favor of supermajorities, such as the theory that they promote consensus. But they had seen firsthand that such theories do not match reality.

#6

Madison was the man who drafted the Constitution, and he was also the man who was most concerned with the balance between majority rule and minority protections. He believed that majority rule was the best available system, aside from a few exceptions.

#7

Madison argued that the small states were being obstinate, and that the convention should decide based on population. He believed that the majority should rule, and that the smaller states would come around because they had no other choice.

#8

The small states, led by Virginia, argued that majority rule should be used to decide issues concerning interstate commerce and the navigation of waterways. They were firmly rejected. The delegates instead decided that the Senate should be a strictly majority-rule institution.

#9

When it came time to sell