DECKER: Savage damnation

OPINION:

TRICKLE DOWN TYRANNY: CRUSHING OBAMA’S DREAM OF THE SOCIALIST STATES OF AMERICA

By Michael Savage

William Morrow, $26.99, 323 pages

By Brett M. Decker

Critics on the left and right jump to criticize Michael Savage for being too extreme in his political sentiments. Even with some of those who are on the same side on substance, there is a tendency to create a little distance by belittling his direct “go for the throat” style, for example by saying his tone is too strident. What nobody can call into question is his success, with multiple best-sellers and a radio audience of 10 million.

Dr. Savage’s newest book, “Trickle Down Tyranny,” is a prime example of how his effectiveness is based on dirty details brought to light through research and his ability to tell a story. His investigation of the “Tyranny of the Anti-Justice Department” cites chapter and verse of all of the wrongdoing by the nation’s supposed chief law-enforcement agency, beginning with Project Fast and Furious and continuing with the coddling of jihadists, spying on the consumer purchases of regular everyday citizens, surveillance of pro-lifers, veterans and other conservatives, protecting and enabling drug traffickers, surrendering U.S. border control, covering up Obama administration scandals and generally using the police power of the federal government to push a radical revolutionary agenda. The attorney general’s activism is so conspicuous that Dr. Savage asks, “Who is Eric Holder working for?” It’s obvious this Justice Department isn’t operating in the interests of the general public.

This work shows why the famous Savage outrage is justified as well. Bad things are being done to this country to undermine its strength here and abroad; it is a sign of weakness not to be upset about it. For example, the author goes into great detail about the offensive launched to push politically correct social experiments on the military which undermine its effectiveness as a fighting force. He touches on the controversial decision to end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy banning open homosexuals in uniform and sets his sights on the Pentagon brass pretending Islam isn’t a threat, like an ostrich with its head hidden in the sand.

This blindness carries over into the Obama administration’s preference for toppling secular autocrats in the Muslim world and replacing them with theocratic governments, as is playing out in Egypt, which had been a reliable U.S. ally in a near-friendless region. “The invitation to hold ’free elections’ in Middle Eastern countries with no history of democracy and no democratic infrastructure or culture in place is nothing less than a naive invitation to Islamic radicals to step in,” he explains.

“Trickle Down Tyranny” isn’t merely a catalog of federal sins; it’s a how-to guide on fixing our national crisis. Some pointers might sound obvious, like stopping the national debt spiral, cutting wasteful bureaucracy, letting market forces reform health care, restoring the defense budget to be on solid wartime footing, building the Keystone XL pipeline and reopening drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. But that’s the point. Most of the indiscipline and poor decisions that brought the nation to the verge of bankruptcy are obvious. If steps aren’t taken immediately to reverse the slide toward a frail government-dependent society, we will have lost our country - and non-benevolent forces like China, Russia and radical Islam are waiting to fill the global power vacuum left by a weakened America.

That the United States is at a crossroads can’t be seriously questioned. When national debt surpasses gross national product, deficit spending continues to grow, the military is pared down and overstretched, millions of babies are aborted and the sovereignty of the individual is crushed by state power, it’s time to take a collective look in the mirror and decide who we are as a people. The most poignant - and most timely - words of this book are found in the first two sentences. “Economies can be rebuilt, armies can be repopulated, but once a nation’s pride is gone it can almost never be restored,” Dr. Savage warns. “The loss of a nation’s honor is something not even centuries can repair.” That’s why of all the challenges facing this country, Job One is getting Americans to believe in the Land of the Free again and electing a president who doesn’t think American exceptionalism is a punchline for a cynical joke.

Dr. Savage has the third-largest radio program in America for a reason: He offers a damning critique not only of the Obama administration but also the half of the population that put him in office and still supports his devastating policies. Flipping through the pages of “Trickle Down Tyranny,” the reader can’t help but question whether or not the majority of Americans have the belief in our founding principles and the fighting spirit to do what it will take to turn this mess around. The answer will be revealed in November’s election.

Brett M. Decker is editorial page editor of The Washington Times and coauthor of “Bowing to Beijing” (Regnery, 2011). He has appeared as a guest on the “Savage Nation” radio program.