Winner of the IPPY Gold Medal for best book of 2009 in the "Freedom Fighter of the Year" category. Silver Medal in ForeWord's competition for best political science book of 2009. In After Patrick Henry, Neal Herrick offers a sharp and compelling analysis of the most pervasive threat to democracy in the United States: government corruption. While bribery and influence-peddling are the most visible forms, Herrick argues that the real danger lies in the laws these corrupt practices produce?legislation that systematically serves corporate power while undermining the public good. This ?delusional corruption, ? he contends, has enabled everything from unjust wars to the hollowing out of civil society. Tracing the historical roots of this structural failure, Herrick identifies a fatal flaw in the U.S. Constitution: the weakness of impeachment provisions and the failure to make government truly accountable to the people.

He demonstrates how this flaw has allowed the executive branch to operate with increasing impunity?long before Donald Trump, but made glaringly obvious during and after his presidency. In light of Trump's repeated defiance of institutional norms and his ongoing efforts to consolidate power, After Patrick Henry reads as both prescient and urgent. Herrick's call to constitutional reform, including a proposed amendment to restore meaningful checks on presidential authority, offers a rare and necessary response not just to Trumpism, but to the deeper constitutional crisis that made it possible. For anyone grappling with the fragility of American democracy today, After Patrick Henry is a vital contribution?part history, part diagnosis, and part blueprint for democratic renewal.