Customer Reviews

Welcome to Obamaland: I Have Seen Your Future and It Doesn't Work

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

January 20, 2009 saw cult-like behavior when Barack H. Obama took the oath of office as the 44th President of The United States. The jubilant crowds didn't mean that everyone felt as good as they did. There were millions of American's who were terrified of the man they believe will introduce and indoctrinate the masses to socialism.

British writer and journalist, James Delingpole, is all too familiar with the horrors of Obama-style Socialism as he's experienced it in the years following Tony Blair's terms as the British Prime Minister.

With his quirky humor, Delingpole describes (in painfully minute detail) what we Americans have to look forward to with an Obama in the Oval office and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi running the legislative branch. His predictions are funny, but in a "nervous laughter" sort of funny.

Welcome to Obamaland where the disastrous policies the Democrats (led by Obama) will force upon us will tear down our country with "bailouts" of monstrous proportions. Universal healthcare will cripple the masses ability to get safe, good, and timely healthcare. The environmental programs will bring expensive projects due to Al Gore's hysteria. We will see social justice programs that reward those who do nothing and punish those who work hard and succeed. This is all in the name of "being fair." We stand a good chance of terrorists maiming us because the "left," led by Obama doesn't believe we are in danger. And then there is Multiculturalism. The immigration policy of the United States will bring in millions because to keep them out would be racist and is UN-American.

Delingpole challenges all that believe America is on the brink of disaster to fight Obama and his minions for our freedom. To do nothing is inviting a "nanny state" where Obama and his compadres will tell us what to do.

Armchair Interviews says: A must read.

Very funny book by a British writer and journalist who went to Oxford. Extremely witty stuff about how bad modern Britain is, and that it will most likely go the same way under the socialist Obama. The author details how the Brits, once a proud, free, individualist people, now expect their "Nanny", the state to do everything for them. Their expectations of service for example in health care have fallen so low that unless the doctor punches them, they say that their "free" health care was excellent. The section about socialized British health care (the NHS) is worth the price of the book alone (4 to 5 hour waits in a grubby, run-down waiting room, surly staff, overbooked doctors). One stat sticks out in my head: in Britain, the government told 100,000 Alzheimers patients that $ 4 per day was "too much" to spend on them, so they would not get their medication. And, according to the author, this will soon come to the U.S., care of Obama and Daschle. The book is very funny and for that reason alone I would buy it. But it is also a bit scary.

I liked this book. Well written, witty, and the points are telling in making the case that the Left comprises the evil-minded and the fatuous. Delingpole isn't mealy-mouthed in expressing his contempt and loathing for the Left's civilization-destroying ideas (using the word loosely) and policies.

Specifically, Delingpole asserts that the woe and ruin brought to England by smarmy Tony Blair and friends is a precursor, a foreshadowing of what's in store for the U.S. now that we (well, not I) have turned over with incomparable fatheadedness the most powerful office in the world to a utopian dingbat. Our future is indeed dire (and our present ain't so hot either). But we'll do what we've always done -- we'll fight the good fight. And let's have emblazoned in gold upon our banner of crimson Delingpole's happy motto, Nil Illegitimi Carborundum.

True story: I was reading this book on my lunch hour at work in our breakroom when a young lady noticed it, came over, and inquired about it. She explained how she was a HUGE fan of Obama, the new President, and she was making her way thru Obama's own DREAMS OF MY FATHER, just loving it, and she wanted the name of my book to read next b/c, as she said, "He's our future." Hmmm. Well, I gave her the title, and I even wrote down the name of the author, but I explained that, while OBAMALAND offered a unique and worthy view of a possible future, this was NOT necessarily a pro-Obama book. She flashed me an angry stare, and I found myself backpedaling a bit, explaining that it wasn't necessarily an anti-Obama book, either. I tried explaining that OBAMALAND is essentially one man's experience with European Socialism, what he's experienced, and how he's documented its various failures.

Of course, she doesn't speak to me any more, but I see that as her loss, not mine.

Delingpole's OBAMALAND is a must-read for political junkies, and I'd strongly recommend it Socialism that came into play largely on the heels of Tony Blair's entrance into the political scene. Much of what he's written is very, very funny. He skewers the liberal point of view but -- and this is where most folks of a certain political persuasion will probably disagree -- he doesn't in any way attack them for their frame of mind. He's fairly straight forward in allowing them to have their way, but that doesn't mean he's going to lay aside and not speak up about the lunacy, idiocy, and hypocrisy that pretty much goes hand-in-hand when dealing with political differences.

OBAMALAND is a tremendously fun read as well as a very quick excursion. While it points out the possible failures that any American attempt at greater Socialism waiting down the road, he does so with a wink and smile. Like the title says: he's been there, and he knows what's waiting for all Americans. He finds humor in the people as well as their policies, and, I've spoken with others who thought him rude, I found his prose and attitude entirely engaging.

I read this in an afternoon, and laughed out loud more than once. This book was clever and fast-paced; enjoyable mind-candy for any conservative the way I imagine Michael Moore books are for the liberals.

As a twenty-something secular conservative in the US, I'm painfully aware of how the conservative message is failing to reach my generation. As Delingpole notes in his book, everything socially perceived to be "cool" is thoroughly liberal. Even if my generation had any intellectual exposure to conservative ideology, I imagine few of them would be willing to pay the social cost involved in embracing it. And make no mistake; there absolutely is a social cost and I have been experiencing it firsthand these last few years.

In any event, I also appreciate Delingpole's book because it touched on many of the primary conservative tenets, putting them in contemporary context(Education, Health Care, Immigration/Racism, etc) and doing so in an entertaining way. I doubt I could convince many of my peers to pick up "The Conservative Mind," but something like this is accessible to the 10-second-attention-span generation. They stopped teaching Logic in our schools here in the US decades ago, so its not surprising that so few happen upon a political identity based on logical conclusions. I plan to send this book to a few of my left-leaning friends and family and spare myself the wasted breath; if Delingpole can't convince them, he can at least further outrage them.

I don't think many of Delingpole's critics have actually read the book...they are just reacting to their perceived notions of conservatism and/or some cable news interview they saw with the author.

Fact is, "Obamaland" is one of the wittiest, funniest, and most engaging political treatises I've picked up in a long time. Being a Political Science graduate, I've had to read it all and, unlike many of the critics here, I've actually had to parse through the positives and negatives of political works from all lanes. Final analysis -- Delingpole is quite simply fun.

That does not mean he isn't to be taken seriously. This is a man who has lived on both sides: the prosperity and freedom of a conservative past, as well as a semi-totalitarian (exaggeration) and quite economically shattered socialist present (not so exaggerated). That "socialist present" is embodied in the proposed policies of Barak Obama, and its precisely what he's attempting to warn us against via a "fly on the wall" look at modern England.

Sure, the book is completely anecdotal. Maybe none of the mishaps he describes will happen in the U.S. But maybe they're worse. With no small amount of sarcasm and cynicism, Delingpole is simply saying, "Hey we tried the SAME THING...and listen to how it worked out over here."

The case for liberty, capitalism, and the conservative penchant for slow change might not be airtight. But its track record is sure one heck of a lot better than socialism's. As the author states, "Every new country that tries socialism defends it by saying, 'It just wasn't done right over there.'" Bottom line - socialism destroys initiative and innovation, it destroys wealth, it destroys liberty, and creates a dull, gray landscape of "equality" in which nobody has much and no one has any hope of fulfilling their potential. This is just a truism, and it will follow socialist tendencies to the extent they are employed.

With wit, humor, and a great deal of respect for the United States, Delingpole compassionately sounds the alarm.

If you prefer to do life in a state of blissful ignorance, this book is not for you. Stick with the gilded dreck which currently abounds at the grocery store checkout. However, if you value facing reality squarely and prefer information that hits you right between the eyes, Mr. Delingpole would be your messenger of choice. This acerbic witty book is a must for the right minded reader. It would be useful information, albeit belated, for any rehabbed koolaide-aholics as well.

James Delingpole's brilliant "Welcome to Obamaland" is a must read for anyone even vaguely interested in the future of the western world. In this book, Delingpole warns Americans of what they can expect from their government over the next four years. He knows because he's seen it all before. In England in 1997, pretty Tony Blair was the golden boy of politics, the saviour of the world - the Obama of England. James Delingpole explains England's decline under Blair's Socialist government and, in doing so, foretells America's decline under Obama's Socialist government. Unlike most of those political "look-at-the-mess-we're-in" style books that depress you for weeks, the serious message in "Welcome to Obamaland" is laced with Delingpole's famous brand of laugh-out-loud wit and caustic asides. So while, like the other reviewers, I found the book a little scary, I also thought it was hilariously (and passionately) written.

If you don't read any other political book this year, read "Welcome to Obamaland" and consider yourself well informed.

In 1921, Lincoln Steffens, the famous muckraker, said upon his return from the Soviet Union, "I have been over to the future, and it works." This is usually quoted as "I have seen the future, and it works" and was used that way by his wife, Ella Winter, on the title page of her "Red Virtue". This is what James Delingpole is lampooning with his subtitle to "Obamaland: I have Seen Your Future and It Doesn't Work". The author shows us how Tony Blair's UK is much like the America Obama has promised us. Since the UK is anything but the "excellence for all" promised by Blair, Delingpole believes that Obama's promises and dreams will ring equally untrue.

This book is written with rough humor and a certain teenager-like fixation on sex. I found much to like about the book and am quite willing to overlook the author's personal foibles. He takes us through a comparison of the UK before, during, and after Margret Thatcher and shows us what the politicians promised, what they delivered, and the nonsense the public bought utterly from Blair. If you compare the foolishness said by Blair and Obama, the similarity is quite eerie. The public desperation to believe is even creepier.

Since Obama is pushing his version of nationalized healthcare, the author takes us through his own experiences with the UK National Health Service, comparing the "envy of the world" image with the reality. He shows why the state is not your friend (or mine). I also enjoyed his examination of the motives of the Left in pushing a "classless" society, why the push to restrict hunting in the UK is a harbinger of what Obama and company are working towards in America, the environmental foolishness that is really an excuse to control your life totally - you see it is totalitarian in nature. Dalingpole also exposes the foolishness of modern educational theory, the sources for the anti-UK, anti-American, and anti-West intellectualism that threatens our long-term cultural survival in the face of the Jihadists. Poison is in the does, not the substance. Diversity is not in itself a bad thing, but as urged on us by the Left it is horribly destructive. Dalingpole finishes up by showing why war is a human reality and not something the anti-war folks have a better solution for. He finishes the book by talking about the values that really matter and they aren't those pushed by Blair or being urged on us by Obama. Our Constitution is based on individual rights and the socialists (not matter what they want to call themselves) focus on group rights so they can subjugate each of us to their larger agenda.

The book is actually funny and irreverent, which I did not capture in this review. For example, I enjoyed his stating the socialism is just communism with shorter queues. Enjoy this little sample, "You think it's an accident that the global Islamist movement has managed to make so much political capital out of Abu Grhaib and Guantanmo? Then consider the al Queda training manual found in Manchester in 2003. Its Rule 18 ordered that their terrorists, if captured, `must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them' and `complain to the court of mistreatment while in prison.'" There you go.

In my view, you should read this book and share it with your friends as we try to wake people from the Obama hallucination.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

James Delingpole is some British guy I'd never heard of until I happened to pass by his book the other day at the local bookstore. Despite the somewhat attention-grabbing cover of his book, it seems destined to be ignored by about 99.9% of the American public. Which is why I'm writing this review. And also, because I want to offset some of the 1-star reviews that this book will inevitably garner. And also, because I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Actually, Delingpole's book is not 'cheap' (just throwing a sop to the inevitable haters), although it is a bit of a potboiler - the author at the end admits that he hopes to use proceeds from sales to fund his son's private school education, an enterprise made ever more financially precarious in Tony Blair's Britain, I guess.

That's largely what this book is about, how socialism courtesy of Blair has royally screwed merry old England up. And how Obama and the Democrats will do the same in America. High taxes, onerous regulation, multi-cultural nonsense, the like. The criticisms of liberal policies are the standard conservative arguments that you will get on this side of the pond. But there is something else as well. In his lament on the decline of England, Delingpole draws from England's storied history and tradition to paint a picture of the England he believes is being lost. He also has a pretty good awareness of American history - probably much better than the average American has of England.

But this book is ultimately about civilization - Western Civilization, as informed by England - and particularly how what took over two thousand years to build is being ignorantly trashed and cast aside. It is about more than things like health care, global warming, or other political fads of the moment. Read the chapter on fox hunting. Read the whole book.