We’re all tired of hearing — and participating in — political conversations that generate so much heat while shedding so little light. This book makes a proposal based on three jokes to help people have political conversations.

What would happen if Republicans started acting like a political party, and took seriously the statement that has been at the heart of their own party platform, essentially unchanged, since 1854?

Checks that were supposed to work against oppressive government from the outside — the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box — have become supports that prop up oppressive government from the inside.