Wayne Allyn Root GETS IT. And he knows how to unscrew a screwed up country.
Wayne Allyn Root is a sharp, savvy, creative, free-thinking, ballsy Nevada politician, honest, with great no-nonsense communication skills, a small business owner, an authentic shrink-government libertarian, a big-thinker, a big-picture realist with foresight willing to reach out to different groups, a coalition-builder. He's a man with a plan.
And Wayne Allyn Root is running for president in 2012. He's worth watching. He's SUPREMELY INTERESTING. He's eminently quotable. There's a chance he might actually win. And this excellent book (1) describes him and his values (2) outlines his electoral strategy for winning the presidency (3) critiques American politics and (4) offers his fix.
I'm non-partisan, an independent thinker and TOUGH CRITIC (see my other book reviews) but I couldn't help thinking, as I read through this excellent book, that Wayne Allyn Root UNDERSTANDS. I found this book refreshing, intelligent, speaking to the heart. There are a few things I disagree, with which will always be the case with any book I review, but I think America would be in much better shape with Wayne Allyn Root at the helm.
What I found profoundly interesting was his strategy for winning. Any serious student of American history knows that rarely, if ever, have third party candidates ever been successful. The American system is a two-party system. But there is tremendous disenchantment with both parties, particularly with the Republican party, by voters -- he uses the term "battered voter" syndrome. I think he's right that the electorate leans center-right. He criticizes both parties for having an agenda at odds with public well-being. But voters describing themselves as libertarian may be, perhaps, 1% to 2% of the electorate. So, what's a libertarian to do?
He details nine segments to appeal to:
(1) Independent minded small business owners (like himself; sizeable numbers, $ for support)
(2) Parents upset with poor education, particularly home-schooler types
(3) On-line gaming and poker enthusiasts -- casino owners will have much-needed cash to support his candidacy
(4) conservative voters who feel abandoned by the GOP (sizeable chunk of voters)
(5) Ron Paul supporters (5% perhaps of electorate?) -- he's "Ron Paul on steroids", younger, more energetic
(6) Younger voters and college students (helpful for campaigning, but younger voters mostly don't vote)
(7) Healthy and holistic living types (some may not be happy with his stance on global warming; he feels it's overblown)
(8) Gun rights (hunters, owners) -- a significant, passionate group
(9) Locally elected officials, mostly Republicans disillusioned with the GOP and Bush (sensible)
He reaches out to Christians, as well, saying he prays every day. The word "God" appears in the book's subtitle. But he argues persuasively for separation of church and state -- Christians mustn't impose their ideas on others lest another religion come to power. Perhaps many Christians will buy into this, but whether they'll accept his Jewish background remains to be seen. Doing Venn diagrams of these groups -- Christians, gun-owners, and gamblers -- and you've got significant voters if you use the word "OR" to conjoin the circles, but few if you use "AND". Will Christians not vote for him because of his pro-gambling stance? Or will he pick up both Christians and gamblers?
My rudimentary knowledge of marketing suggests this is a sensible beginning for a political campaign. He knows his base. So there's a chance that he might be able to break out of the libertarian box, get some traction, become a viable candidate, and in a campaign move to the center, and possibly win. He might pull off a Ross Perot, hopefully better. But surely he knows what political consultants know, that this will be a tremendously uphill battle. America is image-land, entertainment-ville; candidates succeed by looking pretty, saying pretty things, numbing people with bromides and inane promises. And Wayne Allyn Root speaks truthfully and doesn't present his face on the book's cover -- a seasoned political consultant would sense an image problem from two counties away.
Wayne Allyn Root's critique of America is tough and intelligent. Government employee unions have gone wild. They're a privileged bunch. "Why do public employees ... deserve higher compensation than private sector employees?" he asks. He's critical of California's big government, big taxes, special interests. I delight in his plain-writing ability: "No politician in the US at any level of office should serve more than two to three terms. Period." He writes with a plain, no-nonsense, easy-to-grasp style which people instantly get. If he speaks like he writes, he'll be a strong contender.
He grasps the fundamental importance of states' rights. He believes "competition among the states for business and residents (will) likely becomes fierce". This means freedom for us -- fifty ongoing political experiments vying for our approval -- and this is one part of my solution to prevent tyranny and terrorism (see my book below).
If elected president, Wayne Allyn Root would impound funds (Jefferson did this, Nixon too) and return unused monies to the people. I approve. He argues "most government spending today is in violation of Article I, Section 8, of our Constitution". His hero is Barry Goldwater, a tough free-thinking Arizona Republican from the sixties. He'd stop all unfunded mandates. He'd abolish the alphabet soup of government agencies and -- what's particularly ballsy -- he lists the agencies by name over two pages. Perhaps 70 agencies in all (sorry, I didn't count) including Amtrak, Ginnie Mae, the IRS. I agree with him that employees of these mostly useless agencies do very little to help us, work 9am-5pm while private-sector Americans sometimes work 12 and 14 hour days. The Internal Revenue Service with it's 70,000+ page tax control is a behemoth of outrageousness in my view (great alternative: "FairTax"). I'd go further: I'd abolish the US Post Office. Wayne Allyn Root would abolish the Federal Reserve System, noting that there's nothing in the Constitution allowing a central bank. He's right. He writes: "When we're done, the US government will be so small that it will be a one-line listing in the white pages of your local telephone directory." I love it.
Wayne Allyn Root would legalize gambling from coast to coast, and in this respect, I'm somewhat more cautious. He believes gambling revenues would bring in huge revenue, which is probably correct. He writes: "That's $50 billion -- with a B." But I see gambling as a negative regressive tax, a non-productive activity, a statistical trick to extract money from fools; yet, at the same time, I'm highly in favor of freedom of people to do what they want. My preference is each state to regulate gambling as they choose. But generally I like the idea of his "Nevada Model" being extended from coast to coast.
He'd legalize medical marijuana. I believe all drugs should be legalized (again, part of a terrorism prevention strategy) because it undermines the incentive of criminal enterprises to supply these drugs. I think an intelligent compromise is to restrict drug use to specific times and places, and to penalize violence, not vice. Wayne Allyn Root correctly notes that there are huge swaths of the government which owe their livelihood to the dubious activity of trying to enforce drug laws.
As a government reformer, he thinks big. To solve the problem of lobbying controlling congress, he's expand its size to 3000 members, with a ratio of one congressperson for every 100,000 voters, and make being a congressperson a part-time job, with limits of two six-year terms. It would be much harder to bribe such a huge body, he argues. While I think suggestions like these demand more thinking, particularly by an enlightened body such as a Second Constitutional Convention, I applaud Wayne Allyn Root for directing his attention to this problem. He wants a return to "true citizen legislators" who could possibly meet by video-conferencing. He'd rethink voting, perhaps with a "ranked choice voting" method which is fairer to underdog third-party candidates. He favors federal referendums, eliminating earmarks ("Period." he writes), banishing corporate welfare, decreasing foreign aid, allowing any immigrant to move here who agrees to buy a $250K+ house ("That solves our foreclosure problem", he writes; what a smart solution), presidential vetoes, a balanced budget amendment, spending freezes (first day in office, he says, he'd freeze spending), encourage renewable energy, restoring the power of parents regarding matters of educating their children.
He draws a sharp contrast with President Barack Obama. Barack Obama was a law student, law professor, lawyer, community activist, career politician; in contrast, Wayne Allyn Root has been a small business owner, founded a business, created jobs, risked his own money, paid other peoples' health insurance and payroll taxes, faced endless government regulations which interfere with all businesses.
Summing up: a great book by a savvy up-and-coming politician, perhaps the next Ron Paul or Ross Perot or Barry Goldwater, energetic, quotable, sharp. Wayne Allyn Root -- you have my vote. Last, I believe Wayne Allyn Root is sharp enough to be a delegate to the Second Constitutional Convention in July 2010, and I invite him to be a delegate, and I hope he decides to attend.
Thomas W. Sulcer
Author of "The Second Constitution of the United States"
(free on web; google title + Sulcer)
