Upheaval: Winning Back the Country with Knowledge that Empowers, Ideas that Matter, and Solutions That Work - Softcover

Dobbs, Lou

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1476728860 ISBN 13: 9781476728865

Verlag: Threshold Editions, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

Bestselling author and host of Lou Dobbs Tonight offers his illuminating views on some of our nation’s most intractable problems.

In 2012, Lou Dobbs Tonight celebrated its one-year anniversary and a steadily growing viewership. Now, expanding on the “Chalk Talks” segment from his popular program, Dobbs gives his take on some of the country’s most pressing problems—including provocative topics no one is talking about—and what might be done to address them. Covering our challenges in the areas of debt, the failure of our transportation infrastructure, the encroachment of the federal government, the power and size of public sector unions, the problems of business, big banks, big government, and more, Axis of Upheaval arms us with valuable information, as only Lou Dobbs can deliver it: with his frank, intelligent, and witty style.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Lou Dobbs, currently the host of Fox Business News Lou Dobbs Tonight, is a legendary broadcaster, bestselling author and one of the most respected and insightful voices on politics, economics, society, and business. For three decades, Dobbs has brought an unwavering American perspective to the most important issues of our day. Born in Texas and currently living in New Jersey, Dobbs is the New York Times bestselling author of Exporting America, War on the Middle Class and Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit.

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Upheaval CHAPTER 1 CONSEQUENTIAL ELECTIONS 2014
So it has come to this. Barack Obama is a two-term president. A president who in his first term presided over one of the worst economies in American history, whose foreign policy was utterly incomprehensible, a leader who expressed contempt for the foundations of our free-enterprise, capitalist system now has three more years in which to either further America’s decline under his stewardship or truly reverse direction in his policies, as many of us expected he would in his first term.

It’s clear we can no longer truthfully say that each presidential election is the most important in our recent history. That would leave out some awfully important elections—midterm elections. Had not the Republicans won decisively in 2010, it is likely things would have been woefully different. Only the Tea Party in 2010 stood between this president and the full implementation of what I believe would have been disastrous consequences for the nation. Even though President Obama won a historic victory (yes, another one) in 2012, a Republican Congress also prevailed and has managed to blunt at least some of President Obama’s initiatives to expand without limit the size and power of our federal government. And, of course, 2012 lived up to its billing as the most important election in our history, although at times it seems Governor Mitt Romney had no idea how important the election was to him and to our nation. It mattered a lot. Mr. Obama’s victory put in place for the next four years:

• Obamacare

• A government hostile to business

• A government hostile to free enterprise and innovation

• A government hostile to state and local governance

• A government enormously hostile to individual rights

Obamacare is a Frankenstein creation of a statist, socialist administration intent on raising taxes—taxes increasing now on those with higher income levels as well as small business owners. The national debt is rising, even as our rivals and enemies take unfair strategic advantage of a president and administration that seemingly do not understand economics, domestic public policy, or how to effectively pursue our national interests in a difficult, complex, and dangerous world.

It may be comforting to Republicans to consider Mr. Obama’s victory another “fluke.” But his 2012 victory was no fluke. Nor was it a stolen election. Were the polls “skewed”? It seems only the losers’ polls were skewed. Let’s be clear. Only the losers had the numbers wrong. Think about this number:

65,915,796

That is how many Americans decided to re-elect this president—about 51 percent of those who cast ballots across the country. Barack Obama was the first Democrat since FDR to win two popular majorities in a row. Mr. Obama won in places like Virginia and Florida, Nevada and Colorado, all critical swing states that might have gone for a Republican candidate. He dominated all of New England, and came closer than expected in Mississippi and South Carolina, where he won 43 percent and 44 percent of the vote respectively. The president won 71 percent of Hispanic voters, 93 percent of African-Americans, and 50 percent of Catholics. Adding insult to injury, Democrats picked up an improbable two seats in the United States Senate and eight seats in the House of Representatives.

The 2012 election wasn’t all that close. There was a lot of talk about the “enthusiasm gap” favoring Republicans, and somehow the GOP did manage to nominate a candidate who received almost one million more votes than John McCain in 2008. Obama had three and a half million fewer votes than in 2008. Sadly for Republicans, whatever enthusiasm gap there was, wasn’t sufficient to bridge the vote gap. Few in either party were enthusiastic about going to the polls and pulling the lever for their candidate. Given the mediocrity of the choices, who can blame them? What made the difference was a well-conceived, well-organized, well-managed campaign on one side and an unmitigated mess on the other.

Let’s give credit where credit is due. And Republicans had better hope that their party does exactly that. President Obama, David Axelrod, and David Plouffe turned out to be every bit as smart as they told us they were. Their campaign outstrategized, outorganized, outworked, and outclassed the Republicans at every turn. That’s the first unpleasant reality with which the Republicans have to come to terms. They need to grow their party. They need to get out the vote, and to do that, Washington Republicans had better get out of town as much as they can and get to know a lot of soon-to-be Republicans. This midterm will be all about hard work, reaching out to new GOP voters and getting them so excited they actually vote.

If Republicans haven’t been looking for and recruiting a dozen David Axelrods by now, people who know how to energize a base and get out their vote, then Republicans will see the same devastating results in 2014, and in 2016, as they did in 2012. I’m reluctantly complimenting the Democrats and I’m hoping Republicans have the humility and street smarts to do the same. Because the GOP must emulate Democratic success if they are to win anytime soon. Repeating one’s mistakes, one’s own stupidity, and ignoring cause and effect, is a sure path to even greater Republican frustration and continued failure.

The 2012 election wasn’t about the Democrats. It was supposed to be, of course. But it turned out to be about the Republicans and their failures of imagination and courage, and their reliance on an old-guard cadre of greedy strategists and fund-raisers who filled their pockets as they floated more empty rhetoric and broke more Republican hearts. The Republicans did all this to themselves in 2012, and will soon find out if they’ve done it again in 2014. And so will America.

The country needs a loyal opposition to the Democratic Party, a countervailing political organization to the Democrats, one that will stand in the way of the Democrats’ inexhaustible appetite for ever-bigger government, higher taxes, and less respect for the individual and his or her rights.

Republicans in Washington have often seemed to be as eager for tax hikes, bailouts, and corporate welfare as Democrats.

Herewith a short primer for Republicans who want to be something more than Democrat-lite coupled with lower taxes for corporations, lower taxes and fewer regulations for businesses:
RULE #1: REWARD SUCCESS, NOT FAILURE
In the private sector, if you run a business into the ground, you don’t tend to get rewarded with another CEO job. But not so in the Republican Party. Many of the people guiding Mitt Romney to defeat were the same people who in 2008 had helped John McCain run one of the worst imaginable presidential campaigns ever. Many of them had helped George W. Bush leave office with the lowest approval rating of any president in our history. You might have thought that these geniuses would be run out of Washington on a rail. Instead they’ve shown up again and again in the Republican Party. Why? One can only assume that it suits the Republican power elite to keep fools around who will do their bidding and forswear intellectual energy, originality, and political independence and integrity.

The Republicans are particularly gifted when it comes to recycling. By “recycling” I mean recycling the same leaders, the same consultants, the same pollsters, the same media advisors, and the same fundraisers election cycle after election cycle. It’s insanity. Pure insanity. A manager at your local 7-Eleven has a better track record of...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Threshold Editions
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1476728860
• ISBN 13: 9781476728865
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; Utrecht; 3584 AA; Niederlande