What do you think?
Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America - and How to Stop Him
Democracy Denied by American Commitment president Phil Kerpen is a guide to understanding and defeating the radical agenda that President Barack Obama is implementing by unilateral regulatory action through his agencies and czars.
Democracy Denied exposes the Obama administration's agenda that disregards the American people, Congress, and the U.S. Constitution--and offers a plan of action to stop it.
Table of Contents
The Obama Chart
Crisis and Transformation
1. The REINS How Three Kentuckians Could Save America
2. The Heat Is Global Warming and the EPA (Extreme Power Abuse)
3. Hacking Our Online The FCC's Internet Takeover
4. On the The Secret Plan to Force You into a Union
5. ObamaCare Keeps Getting Worse
6. The New Golden Regulations for Every Aspect of Your Financial Life
7. Drilling Assault on Offshore Energy
8. Property in Obama's Shocking Land Grabs
9. A Back Door to the Back Phony Regulatory Reform
Restoring the Republic
Acknowledgments
Democracy Denied exposes the Obama administration's agenda that disregards the American people, Congress, and the U.S. Constitution--and offers a plan of action to stop it.
Table of Contents
The Obama Chart
Crisis and Transformation
1. The REINS How Three Kentuckians Could Save America
2. The Heat Is Global Warming and the EPA (Extreme Power Abuse)
3. Hacking Our Online The FCC's Internet Takeover
4. On the The Secret Plan to Force You into a Union
5. ObamaCare Keeps Getting Worse
6. The New Golden Regulations for Every Aspect of Your Financial Life
7. Drilling Assault on Offshore Energy
8. Property in Obama's Shocking Land Grabs
9. A Back Door to the Back Phony Regulatory Reform
Restoring the Republic
Acknowledgments
352 pages, Hardcover
First published October 11, 2011
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 3, 2023
kerpen has an issue with obama. what would make obama different from any president before him, and those who followed? oh. obama is black. the rest is the same old crap any other individual with a hunger for power would do. like the ones who would get as far as becoming a democractic or republican party presidential candidate.
November 6, 2011
Let me clarify something right up front: I think DEMOCRACY DENIED: HOW OBAMA IS IGNORING YOU AND BYPASSING CONGRESS TO RADICALLY TRANSORM AMERICA – AND HOW TO STOP HIM is inappropriately titled. This is not to say that Phil Kerpen’s book doesn’t highlight some frightening actions of President Obama, cabinet secretaries, and the various unelected czars and policy advisors of his administration; it does – at great length, at great effectiveness – but Kerpen’s sharp analysis also indicts members of Congress (of both stripes) who, for far too long, have allowed Presidents to expand the authority of the Executive Branch while gradually whittling at the influence the Legislative Branch should have exercised in oversight. Sure, this is presently as much Obama’s fault as it is Congress’s, but this reduction-in-power has been going on throughout several administrations. It’s high time someone threw some national light on this, and Kerpen’s book could not come at a better time.
If anything, Kerpen’s greatest arguments here expose the fundamental problem of representative government: for too long, elected officials have been at work creating organizations and agencies unaccountable to the electorate at large. These groups are then given authority to “craft” regulations that, debatably, produce negative effects on individuals and business; in most cases, the sum total of these regulations cause an economic to constrict, curtailing – if not downright eliminating – the potential for expansion and growth. Undoing these untenable regulations becomes increasingly difficult as these agencies continue to justify their existence by producing greater and greater revenues, fueling the politicians’ need to spend more money on the demands of their constituents or at the behests of their lobbyists. This is the cycle of bloated government, and Kerpen’s dissection of this process underscores that government – when driven by ANY ideology – is a bad thing for most of the people it represents. Certainly, it’s bad for the majority.
Thankfully, nothing escapes Kerpen’s review, and DEMOCRACY DENIED covers all of the political ‘hot button’ topics. He exposes the EPA’s attempts to establish global warming as a reality when the science has not definitely maintained the same. He examines the FCC’s ongoing attempts – with some lobbying on the part of service providers – to regulate the internet. He dismantles the logic behind the unions’ hope to make ‘card check’ the accepted norm. He outlines the shortcomings of ObamaCare and the latest round of financial regulations tied to Dodd-Frank. He reveals what’s wrong with the administration’s current position on ‘renewable’ energies and ‘green’ technologies. He explores the fraudulent reasons behind government land grabs. And he even highlights why every citizen should be suspicious of any politician’s claim to conduct “comprehensive regulation reform.” No party is beyond examination here, and, while Kerpen clearly comes down on one side of the political coin, he makes convincing and persuasive arguments for the reader to think twice before casting a ballot in any election.
For me, though, the book had one big formatting distraction: for some reason, the writer or the editor felt it necessary to include these “text boxes” drawing attention to relevant quotes, phrases, or arguments. This is done, roughly every three to give pages. When I’ve seen this done elsewhere (in other books), it’s generally been included to add additional prose (and attention) to the author’s point; when it’s done in DEMOCRACY DENIED, it’s simply text already included on the page, making the box-out redundant. After awhile, I thought it was more of a distraction than it was any effective tool. Perhaps that’s my own shortcoming as I consider myself a pretty deliberate (think “slow”) reader; I just don’t think this technique much advanced the book’s central position is all. It’s a small complaint, but I thought it worth mentioning.
In conlusion, I think Phil Kerpen, as Vice President for Policy at Americans for Prosperity, has written a brilliant book. Certainly, it’s immensely informative and relevant for our modern times. It isn’t so much “activist literature” as it has been called elsewhere as it is a great education to how things happen in Washington. Quite possibly, the book is titled solely to capitalize on the present American mood. While denouncing Obama’s tactics, Kerpen may end up negatively impacting some possible consumers when his core message is one that, quite probably, any reasonable thinker from any political persuasion could embrace. It’s about a markedly smaller but vastly more effective central government. It’s a call for less intrusive federal legislation with elected representatives far more accountable to the voters who sent them to Washington. It’s a hope for a greatly expanded economic boom not prohibited by burdensome legislation. And, lastly, it’s a gameplan for personal liberties to triumph over the tyranny of government regulation.
In the interests of clarity, I’m pleased to disclose that the book’s publisher, BenBella Books, graciously provided me with a copy of DEMOCRACY DENIED for the purposes of this review.
If anything, Kerpen’s greatest arguments here expose the fundamental problem of representative government: for too long, elected officials have been at work creating organizations and agencies unaccountable to the electorate at large. These groups are then given authority to “craft” regulations that, debatably, produce negative effects on individuals and business; in most cases, the sum total of these regulations cause an economic to constrict, curtailing – if not downright eliminating – the potential for expansion and growth. Undoing these untenable regulations becomes increasingly difficult as these agencies continue to justify their existence by producing greater and greater revenues, fueling the politicians’ need to spend more money on the demands of their constituents or at the behests of their lobbyists. This is the cycle of bloated government, and Kerpen’s dissection of this process underscores that government – when driven by ANY ideology – is a bad thing for most of the people it represents. Certainly, it’s bad for the majority.
Thankfully, nothing escapes Kerpen’s review, and DEMOCRACY DENIED covers all of the political ‘hot button’ topics. He exposes the EPA’s attempts to establish global warming as a reality when the science has not definitely maintained the same. He examines the FCC’s ongoing attempts – with some lobbying on the part of service providers – to regulate the internet. He dismantles the logic behind the unions’ hope to make ‘card check’ the accepted norm. He outlines the shortcomings of ObamaCare and the latest round of financial regulations tied to Dodd-Frank. He reveals what’s wrong with the administration’s current position on ‘renewable’ energies and ‘green’ technologies. He explores the fraudulent reasons behind government land grabs. And he even highlights why every citizen should be suspicious of any politician’s claim to conduct “comprehensive regulation reform.” No party is beyond examination here, and, while Kerpen clearly comes down on one side of the political coin, he makes convincing and persuasive arguments for the reader to think twice before casting a ballot in any election.
For me, though, the book had one big formatting distraction: for some reason, the writer or the editor felt it necessary to include these “text boxes” drawing attention to relevant quotes, phrases, or arguments. This is done, roughly every three to give pages. When I’ve seen this done elsewhere (in other books), it’s generally been included to add additional prose (and attention) to the author’s point; when it’s done in DEMOCRACY DENIED, it’s simply text already included on the page, making the box-out redundant. After awhile, I thought it was more of a distraction than it was any effective tool. Perhaps that’s my own shortcoming as I consider myself a pretty deliberate (think “slow”) reader; I just don’t think this technique much advanced the book’s central position is all. It’s a small complaint, but I thought it worth mentioning.
In conlusion, I think Phil Kerpen, as Vice President for Policy at Americans for Prosperity, has written a brilliant book. Certainly, it’s immensely informative and relevant for our modern times. It isn’t so much “activist literature” as it has been called elsewhere as it is a great education to how things happen in Washington. Quite possibly, the book is titled solely to capitalize on the present American mood. While denouncing Obama’s tactics, Kerpen may end up negatively impacting some possible consumers when his core message is one that, quite probably, any reasonable thinker from any political persuasion could embrace. It’s about a markedly smaller but vastly more effective central government. It’s a call for less intrusive federal legislation with elected representatives far more accountable to the voters who sent them to Washington. It’s a hope for a greatly expanded economic boom not prohibited by burdensome legislation. And, lastly, it’s a gameplan for personal liberties to triumph over the tyranny of government regulation.
In the interests of clarity, I’m pleased to disclose that the book’s publisher, BenBella Books, graciously provided me with a copy of DEMOCRACY DENIED for the purposes of this review.
November 29, 2012
This is a well detailed and footnoted examination of the steady shifting of the Legislative powers in the Constitution from Congress to the Executive Branch. This is done through broad bills that require massive regulations to provide enforcement details and through Executive Agencies such as the EPA who write regulation after regulation, which function the same as laws, but with no Congressional oversight. Obama has pushed the accelerator on this steady growth, and as a result, we are approaching a point where the Congress is fundamentally irrelevant. For example, Congress refused to pass a Cap and Trade bill, so now Obama is utilizing the EPA to serve the same purpose by doing, through regulations, that which Congress refused to do through constitutional law. Card Check was rejected by the people and the Congress. Obama is taking steps that will accomplish the same result (unfair labor elections that favor unions) by appointing a powerful union leader to head up the National Labor Relations Board, and giving him carte blanche to put in regulations that favor unions. Kerpen provides similar documented examples in almost every phase of government. It took a while to read this book because of the notes, cross referencing, and fact checking that I did as I read. When he wrote the book, Kerpen was hopeful that the 2012 election would turn things around. However, Obama won; an indication that the American people pretty much support what Obama is doing. All he has to do is replace one conservative judge on the Supreme Court and the President will have powers similar to a de facto dictator.
August 31, 2012
This book is a very thorough investigation of the regulatory activity initiated or expanded during the course of the Obama administration and how the administration has manipulated the system to expand regulations without the legislative branch having a word to say about it. For those that think regulation is the only "fair" way to control the market from getting out of control, this would be a valuable resource. My understanding of the regulatory agencies was greatly advanced by reading this book. Phil Kerpen is a knowledgeable informant in the political scene and presents compelling evidence that this administration is failing to ethically abide by the constraints placed upon the government for the protection of the people. Obama did say he would “transform” America and that is the only promise he has kept.
January 16, 2012
An important book. Captures the disregard the Obama Admin has for the law.
January 24, 2014
A real eye opener. If even half of what Kerpen writes about is true we should all be contacting our elected representatives demanding they get on job and reel in the Executive Branch now!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews