We were in the parking lot sharing a six-pack, as college sophomores will do. We didn’t hear the shots. We only heard wailing, people shouting and swearing. Then the cops arrived, sirens blaring.
For a moment, time froze. Like a car wreck, everything moved in slow motion. The EMTs ran into the building like it was on fire. The police cordoned off the area, and all non-essential persons were pushed back. News crews, already on scene, scrambled to get the best shot for their story.
I worked on the campaign but was not high enough up on the ladder to earn an invitation inside. I convinced my pals to accompany me with the promise of cute girls working on the campaign. Bobby was a chick magnet.
We didn’t know exactly what happened, but we guessed something bad. We didn’t find out until the ambulance had already carried Bobby off to Central Receiving Hospital. One of the hotel security staff explained what was happening as they rushed us out of the immediate area.
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy had been shot.
I was working at Disneyland, on summer break from my Political Science, Pre-Law studies. Only two days earlier, I watched Bobby stroll through the amusement park. He had “IT.” People stopped in awe as he took in the sights.
Only four days later, he was dead.
The fateful night Bobby was shot awakened my interest in the dark side of governance and politics. Assassinations, inciting rhetoric, smoke-filled rooms, revolution and protest. I was already a political science major, but it sharpened my focus even further. How and why did stuff like this happen? I wanted to figure it out. I found more questions than answers.
YOU HAVE OPINIONS. WHAT FACTS LED YOU TO THOSE CONCLUSIONS?
America is fighting a new kind of war. Not with tanks and missiles, but with words, numbers, images, algorithms, political narratives and carefully selected facts. Narratives can be shaped by people and institutions with something at stake—winning an election, staying in office, advancing an agenda, protecting an institution or gaining power. Every day, someone is competing for the right to tell you what happened, what it means—and what you should believe.
Republican. Democrat. Conservative. Liberal. Socialist. It doesn't matter. What if they're wrong?
What if some of the things we accept as fact don't survive a closer look? What if the numbers tell a different story? What if important pieces were left out? And what happens when we apply the same standard to the people and ideas we support that we apply to those we oppose? The New Art of War: America asks you to do something increasingly rare:
See for yourself.
Follow the evidence. Compare the numbers. Question the narrative. Avoid the stereotypes and clichés. Challenge your own assumptions as aggressively as you challenge someone else's. You won't agree with everything in this book. You're not supposed to. You shouldn’t. That’s the point.
This book explores how our governance works and the ways we can make it better. It encourages a search for facts and truth, not suppositions and innuendo. Trust no one without verifying.
Just the Facts. You decide.
Humanity is the Purpose. Everything else is just a tool.