The Kelly Turnbull books are awesome!

Man, are these books good!

I mentioned that I started reading Kurt Schlichter’s Kelly Turnbull novels.  Saturday I read “People’s Republic.” Sunday, I started “Indian Country.” And I promised to tell you all what I thought when I finished.

Well, last night, I finished “Wildfire” – the last (so far) Kelly Turnbull story.

Man oh man, are they good!

I mean, “move over Mitch Rapp” good.

[Okay, since I wish Mitch Rapp was real so I could marry him, he doesn’t have to move over too far.]

The premise of the series is the United States has split in two – the Red States (the United States) and the Blue States (the People’s Republic of North America).

This all takes place in the near future – starting in the mid-2020s and going up to the mid-2030s.

Kelly Turnbull is a special operator called on whenever the United States needs someone to infiltrate the People’s Republic.

Turnbull is the kinda character Bruce Willis wishes he could play in the movie version -- if Bruce was twenty-five years younger.

What can I say?  I’m a sucker for a tough guy, no-nonsense, military type with a dry sense of humor and a reluctant soft spot for dogs.

And these books are funny.

You wouldn’t think so.  I mean the subject matter is rather grim – our country torn apart, the starving socialist half on the verge of implosion.  It doesn’t exactly sound like laughs a plenty.

But somehow Schlichter pulls it off.

The best part (aside from the awesome action scenes) is the occasional name-dropping. Elizabeth Warren serves as President of the People's Republic for a time -- as does Bill de Blasio. We never see them, but they're mentioned. Reagan National Airport gets renamed for Maxine Waters. And, even Eric Swalwell comes up. Half the fun is how Schlichter slips these names in without making too much of it.

Life in the People's Republic is hampered by pronouns and microaggressions. Folks get sent to reeducation camps (founded by former head of the People's Bureau of Investigation, Eric Swalwell) if they misgender people or do any of that other racist/sexist/homophobic/triggering stuff.

Think it sounds far-fetched?

Think again.

Yesterday when the pro-abortion people were shrieking on Capitol Hill and in NYC, Tom Elliott from Grabien posted a video clip that had my jaw dropping to the table. But what that crank in that clip sounds exactly like something the nimrods from the People’s Republic would say.

In other words, Schlichter ain’t makin’ this up!

The Kelly Turnbull novels make it clear that the vision of Utopia the Left imagines always ends in oppression and tyranny.  It can’t work any other way because in order to implement it, you must use force -- you must make the people obey.

Utopia cannot work because it denies the nature of man. Humans can be greedy, power-hungry, exploitative, and cruel. And in the end, Utopia fails to materialize because human nature gets in its way. Power becomes consolidated and everybody else becomes nothing more than sheep.

Besides which, when you condition a population to depend solely on the government for everything, the people lose the will to be productive, innovative, or free-thinking.

It makes me think of what Alexis de Tocqueville said in his book “Democracy in America:”

“The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”

And what “People’s Republic,” “Indian Country” and “Wildfire” do quite well is remind us that oftentimes the shepherd isn’t particularly kind to his flock.

This is not the future Kurt Schlichter wants or hopes for; it is the future he fears we will have if we as a nation do not find a way to stop the madness and unite once again.

The Kelly Turnbull novels are a cautionary tale.

But a damn exciting and entertaining one.

Check out all three “People’s Republic,” “Indian Country,” and “Wildfire” at Amazon.

I am really looking forward to picking up with Kelly Turnbull again when Book Four is released.