Next week, “Gangster Government: Barack Obama and The New Washington Thugocracy” hits book shelves. (The gangster government term has been popularized by Rep. Michele Bachmann and columnist Michael Barone — who writes the foreword to this book).
As the title suggests, New York Times bestselling author David Freddoso has taken an in-depth look at how President Obama has perfected Chicago-style politics in the White House. As Freddoso notes,
No one was suggesting that Barack Obama was a government version of Tony Soprano, who sends “Sicilian messages” or sells drugs or moonshine or untaxed cigarettes out of the White House basement. Gangster government is about something else: about governing without recognizing the legitimate limits of one’s power. It’s about officials who use public office to make winners into losers and losers into winners; who bend, break and make the law to help their friends and punish their enemies….Obama didn’t come to Washington from Mount Olympus. He came from the corrupt and dirty politics of Chicago.
Freddoso’s previous effort, “The Case Against Barack Obama” was the first published book to be critical of Obama — but that was before Obama started governing. Clearly, the last two years have provided plenty of examples for a follow-up effort.
In the aftermath of the tragic shooting in Tucson, for example, there were calls for a new civility and tone in politics. Much finger pointed was aimed at Sarah Palin and conservatives. Yet, this book demonstrates that this President is anything but civil in his rhetoric and in achieving his far left political objectives.
For the past two years, shooting directly from the presidential pulpit, Obama has used bullying and intimidation to attack those who disagree with his policies, rewarding his friends at the direct expense of the American people:
For all the high-minded reform rhetoric of his 2008 campaign, all the talk of a “new politics,” all the passages in his books about respecting others’ points of view, Obama’s response to people who objected to his administration’s massive expansion of federal power was to deride and insult them. He didn’t merely criticize his political opponents or conservative talk radio hosts, he disparaged and belittled the voters who disagreed with him as irrational or “teabaggers.”
“Gangster Government” documents how Obama and his administration have pushed unpopular policies such as the wasteful stimulus, government bailouts and health care reform, while at the same time attacking large segments of the voting population and ignoring an election mandate from the public.
In short, Freddoso dives in and does the job many reporters, unfortunately, have refused to do.