Lee Smith: The Plot against the President. Center Street: New York, 2019. 368 pp., $17.34 hardcover, $14.99 Kindle.

Lee Smith's The Plot against the President is an invaluable contribution to the history of America in the Trump era. Built upon the role and perspective of California congressman Devin Nunes as the tip of the spear that would unravel and expose the coup plot and its co-conspirators, it's a thorough chronicling of how the traditional American-bred gut instinct of a San Joaquin Valley, California farmer provided the spark of discernment that ultimately uncovered the lies and liars who perpetrated (and are still perpetrating) the worst scandal in American history.

Every congressman and senator, and every American voter, ought to read Smith's book. Americans who detest President Trump's personality and decorum will remain free to continue, but if they are honest, they will be absolutely repelled by the behavior of the higher-ups in just about every so-called American "institution" — the CIA, FBI, DOJ, State Department, and mainstream media, and yes, the Obama White House. Concocting lies and leaks to the media, fabricating evidence, running "humint" scams to develop further lies and leaks, manipulating courts by withholding evidence and declaring half-truths, carrying out orchestrated personal threats against Nunes and anyone else who dared to expose the truth — these are nothing short of organized crime activities, with each and every one of these institutions directly and knowingly involved.

The sad reality is that apparently, no one in any of these institutions — not at the top layer, not at the layer reporting to the top layer, not anywhere in any layer — had the integrity and moral courage to be a real whistleblower, to stand up and say, "Even if you hate Trump, even if you are right to resent his wealth and lifestyle and personality — you in fact do not have any evidence of actual crimes, you don't have the right or authority to create or misrepresent evidence of crimes or wrongdoing, and you must let the American people elect who they want to elect as President. Stop this crap right now."

What should be done now?

Here's a suggested starting point: place the FBI and DOJ under, and suggest as to the State Department and CIA and IRS, a shut-down-and-start-over mode, effective January 1, 2020. No, the buildings don't have to be demolished (though the symbolism might actually be helpful), but every single employee of each of these "institutions" needs to tender his resignation, effective December 31, 2019 (yes, that includes Wray, Barr, Pompeo, and Haspel). Each can be eligible for rehiring in the new year (including the top people appointed by the president), but only after a thorough vetting and approval from something new — let's call it a Citizens Review Board.

Demanding a resignation en masse is hardly radical; it's common practice whenever the new boss or new head coach or even new president takes office. It's just for a different reason this time around: an admission of massive corruption that can be rooted out no other way.

As to the Citizens Review Board, it could be set up by executive order, because it addresses the filling of Executive Branch positions (where the Constitution requires Senate confirmation, it would of course be followed). The Board ought to comprise American citizens who are men and women of every color and ethnic background, from all walks of life and all parts of the country, and political party affiliation need not be a qualification or disqualification. The only absolute qualification would be a demonstrated understanding of and reverence for the uniqueness and exceptional nature of the United States Constitution; the only disqualification is demonstrated anti-American leftism. Yes, it is possible to make this distinction (Dennis Prager has been making it for years), and to disqualify someone from participation on the Citizens Review Board is not to prohibit his freedom of speech or association. It is to make sure that the people who are hired to work in the federal government, and take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, actually understand the oath, and mean it. That's not radical; that's who is supposed to be hired to work in the federal government; that's what the oath was always supposed to mean.

Yes, this step would involve messy and possibly even dangerous disruptions in ongoing work at these institutions. But the existing damage to the reputations of these institutions is so severe, and the need for dramatic and visible remedial action so urgent and compelling, that the benefits of the action outweigh the risks.

America simply doesn't need and can't afford to have swamp-dwellers control the hiring of more swamp-dwellers. It needs American patriots to bring in fresh blood to renew the American spirit inside the Beltway. America doesn't need credentialed Ivy Leaguers to dominate the Beltway and cultivate an unfounded and unwise sense of entitlement to decide what's best for their inferiors in flyover country; it needs a Beltway shaken up and newly controlled by Americans who make the country work.

Would mistakes be made with this process? Would it be vulnerable to schemes that game the system toward a political point of view? Of course. So long as human beings are human beings, mistakes and abuses are possible. But what has taken America to its present predicament simply has to be radically fixed. Personnel-shuffling at the top won't be enough; it's time to start over.

What can be done about the media?

Lee Smith has done a great service in reminding readers of just how much damage has been done to the social fabric of America by the media's willingness to lie to prop up the "get Trump" agenda. The sad fact is, many honest and decent Americans don't have a solid BS-detector, and they reflexively trust the media, or at least default to a conclusion that there couldn't be so much noise if there weren't something wrong. Yet if they knew the facts that Smith has put on record, they just might see that a whole lot of hatred and distrust of President Trump was produced by media lies. Family rifts and loss of friendships all over the country might never have occurred without the lockstep complicity of the lying media.

The most powerful repair of the mainstream media will come from Americans acting individually but in massive numbers to tune them out. At some point, if the American people will act resolutely, a mainstream media with no readers, listeners, or viewers will cease to be a mainstream media.

So congratulations and thanks to Lee Smith for writing The Plot against the President. Smith is a straightforward American patriot who has stepped up and embodied the famous saying attributed in one form or another to George Orwell: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." Now America needs to see results from that revolutionary act.

Eric Georgatos is a former corporate lawyer who operated the Brushfires of Freedom blog from 2008 to 2016. (A book of top postings from the blog is available at America, Can We Talk?)