Hour of Decision EPISODE 51: Books they claim influenced them: RFK, Jr, The Creature From Jekyll Island; JD Vance, The Death of the West

I find it interesting what politicians say they are reading, or what they have read in the past that influences them. Earlier in the year RFK, Jr. claimed one of the books that has had the most influence on his thinking is G. Edward Griffin’s massive classic, The Creature From Jekyll Island. Recently a Vanity Fair writer told us JD Vance told them that a political book that greatly influenced him was The Death of the West, by Pat Buchanan.

First, two things. Reporters always want to know what politicians are reading. Politicians are frequently tempted to prevaricate and name books they think will ingratiate them with certain segments of the voter file, rather than tell the truth to inquiring journalists.

Second, if RFK, Jr. and JD Vance are being truthful, these are two radical books. This gives me pause as to the implications of who these men actually are and what their intentions might be as their careers continue in the public light.

The Creature From Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve has a title that is almost deceptive in its innocuousness. It is not just a full takedown of central banks, “fractional reserve” banking, and the Federal Reserve system in particular. It is a full-throated defense of the conspiratorial theory of history as it has been applied to many of the major events of the last 200 years.

To say the book is ambitious is a drastic understatement. It explains not only the shadowy origins of the FED, but the “rigged” election of 1912 that put the Fabian socialists under Woodrow Wilson in the White House for the first time, the genesis of the U.S. entry into WWI, the cause of the Great Depression, and the dynamics and plotting behind the ever increasing number and size of bailouts in America. And that’s just for starters.

Does RFK really accept most of the conclusions and narratives in this book? Wow.

Then there is Pat Buchanan’s forthright dissection of the impending end of Western Civilization, and who is behind it. The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization. Calmly, but directly, he describes consequences of a non-white America, asking “Is the America we grew up in gone forever?” And again, the vice-presidential candidate of one of the two major parties in America is admitting he is greatly influenced by this book.

We hear that influence when Vance clearly states (and he often does) that America is a nation, not just “an idea,” that can be adopted by anybody. This was an oft-repeated notion the neo-conservatives try to foist upon the Right from the time of Ronald Reagan till fairly recently.

Buchanan describes the pincher-movement of massive immigration and declining white birthrates. The white population collapse is a central feature of the unrelenting attack on Christianity, and the resulting moral decline.

Buchanan examines the “war” against America’s past, and the intimidation of the descendants of those who propelled the USA to greatness in that past.

Despite these serious challenges, Buchanan implores the reader to recognize that “America is still a country worth fighting for and the last best hope of earth.” We can only hope if Vance is elected with Donald Trump that he will fully rise to the occasion.

The Creature From Jekyll Island, by G. Edward Griffin
The Death of the West, by Pat Buchanan