Upheaval, by Lou Dobbs: Charting America's Drift

Upheaval is a word that might describe America in 1860 as the mystic chords of memory began to fade, and Americans disconnected in ways neither reason nor fear could stop. Upheaval could describe Europe of 1914 as the old order began to split apart.

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Upheaval, the new book by Lou Dobbs, plots America’s position at this moment in 2014. Dobbs does not predict the future course of the American experiment, but rather charts how the nation has lost its way and arrived at a moment of upheaval. The book traces the drift away from unifying principles and cultural norms that are necessary to sustain civilizations.

Dobbs writes:

We face an axis of upheaval, powerful dynamics set in motion over the course of the last half century, forces that have become far more powerful with the passing of each decade. Unchecked, these forces will overwhelm this nation and culminate in the failure of the great American experiment.

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Assume for a moment the American experiment in limited government and diffusion of power were to fail. There are now those among us, those in positions of power, that articulate openly the wider irrelevance of that event to humanity. After all, America is no different than any other nation, they say. The Greeks have their Greek exceptionalism, and the British have British exceptionalism, the president lectured. But those who know the history of the world know that an upheaval in the United States has consequences for the future in every corner of the world. Upheaval catalogs how we’ve gotten off course, and no one captain, no single political party carries all the blame. Both Republicans and Democrats have failed and continue to fail the nation.

Dobbs also describes an organized effort to destroy the foundational principles of the nation. This organized and well-funded upheaval by extreme leftist ideologues seeks to restructure forever the mechanics of government and the relationship between individuals and the state.

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Fifty years ago, large corporations would have stood against this type of quiet revolution. These days, however, chamber of commerce-types are active participants in the upheaval. The “opposition party” no longer seems to have the stomach for opposition.

After the Romney-led loss in the 2012 elections, the RNC conducted a self-examination. The results? Dobbs:

They even referred to the report as “the autopsy.” Publically. Time and time again, “The autopsy” basically concluded that the Republican Party wasn’t enough like the Democratic Party and therefore failed in the election.

What is the Republican Party’s response to the 2012 election catastrophe? More of the same. Look at who was running the ruinous tactics of the Romney campaign. Remember Orca, the GOTV computer system that gobbled millions of donor dollars and crashed into nothingness on Election Day? Look at all the Romney staffers now being hired by Republican Senate and House campaigns.

Wasn’t Romney’s top sell that he knew how to run a business organization? The festering Orca stunk up Romney’s most attractive selling point. Dobbs:

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 election cycle after election cycle. It’s insanity. Pure insanity. A manager at your local 7-Eleven has a better track record of hiring responsible, competent people than some of these multi-million dollar political campaigns.

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Regarding Romney himself, Dobbs writes:

The party chose the one candidate who lost the last time to the guy who lost to Obama the first time. … Somehow Republicans convinced themselves that Romney was a really good idea.

Perhaps we should catalog the names of those who thought so back then, so we know which opinions to avoid in 2016.

Upheaval plots the events which have pushed America off course. These include the salaries of tens of thousands of bureaucrats and officials in Washington, D.C. who make upwards of $160,000 plus generous benefits pushing the total near $200,000. Meanwhile, the median income of most Americans is hardly a quarter of that. These same bureaucrats are part of a bureaucracy skilled at explaining why they are so important and can never be cut, not by one penny.

Dobbs documents criminal behavior by bank executives at HSBC in laundering Mexican drug money in the United States, yet not one single bank executive/money launderer was indicted by Eric Holder’s Justice Department — Holder told Congress that HSBC was “too large” to mess with.

Who spends more on campaign ads: corporations, or unions? Upheaval has an answer: union, singular:

Teachers unions have spent nearly three times as much on campaign ads as all corporations combined.

No wonder the left hates Citizens United.

How many actual “green jobs” have been created since Obama spent billions on the issue? Upheaval has the answer — 4,700:

There are more people working in the executive branch of the Obama administration.

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Perhaps the most frightening part of Upheaval describes the impact of falling birthrates on the American dream. Europe is already turning into a demographic wasteland, with an elderly population that dwarfs the young paying for the social safety net. In Japan, millions of males have lost interest in women and instead have electronic devices which are programed to simulate interaction with a girlfriend. They sleep all day and play video games all night. Mothers leave trays of food outside their bedroom door. Meanwhile, American elites praise the culture of relationships without children, sometimes elevating pets as a comparable substitute.

Even if the thought makes you uncomfortable, an economy and a culture that does not value and produce offspring will eventually collapse.

The upheaval also affects foreign policy:

Why would the man who called for Mubarak to step down in the wake of large protests refuse to call for Morsi to step down in the face of even larger protests?

Such queer alliances aren’t confined to the Obama administration:

In 2008 a memo was circulated in the Bush administration offering guidance about how to talk about Islam. “Never use the terms jihadist or mujahideen in conversation to describe the terrorists.” … This was not an Onion parody. This was a government memo. It was the government equivalent of avoiding making eye contact with a bully in the futile hope that he’ll just go away.

I sometimes appear on Lou Dobbs’ Fox News show and call into question the modern relevance of the race hustlers at the NAACP. So does Dobbs in Upheaval:

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Let me ask a question few people dare ask these days . . . Is there a reason we need the NAACP anymore? I’m serious.

Of course he is serious, and we all know the answer to the question.

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Dobbs documents various racial shakedowns perpetrated by Al Sharpton. Pepsi, for example, forked over $250,000 to Sharpton to make him shut up, and even hired this man with a long history as an anti-Semite as a “diversity consultant.” Think about that the next time you see a Pepsi at the store. And if you think Coke is any better, Dobbs documents a Coke payoff to Jesse Jackson after his racial shakedown of that company. As I said: fifty years ago corporate America would have stood against the upheaval. Now they fund it.

Upheaval covers it all: race, debt, lawlessness, national security, space, banking, elites, energy. All the points along the way where America got off course. Lou Dobbs brings a lifetime of watching the drift into a readable, enjoyable, and sometimes frightening new book.

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