Getting America Right: The True Conservative Values Our Nation Needs Today (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Doug Wilson (Author) "WHERE DID THINGS go wrong?..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Social Security, North Korea (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Flag, faith and family; free markets and free trade; limited government, local control and individual responsibility are the ideals championed by Heritage Foundation president Feulner and Townhall.com chairman Wilson in this conservative manifesto on what's wrong with America and how we can fix it. Drawing on Heritage Foundation research, according to the foreword, they prescribe a litmus test for government policies that readers can employ on their own by asking the following questions of any proposed policy: "Is federal action necessary?... Does this measure promote self-reliance?... Is it [fiscally] responsible?... Does it make us more prosperous? Does it make us safer?... Does it unify us?" Censuring both "tax and spend" Democrats and today's "borrow and spend" Republicans, the authors are critical of the Bush administration and the mushrooming national debt—$7.7 trillion at the time of publication, they note. But their tally of federal waste (e.g., overpayments in tax credits for "the undeserving poor") and fraud to cut—$100 billion worth—comes nowhere near closing the huge federal deficits they decry, and their solutions (e.g., flat tax and Social Security privatization) will surely provoke partisan debate. Regardless of the reader's ideology, however, this book makes for a clear articulation of core conservative ideas. (Mar. 7)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Praise for Getting America Right

"Bold, Brave and Forthright" —The Washington Times

“This remarkable book is one of the most important to be published in this or any other year.” —Newt Gingrich, from his Foreword

“A timely and timeless read. Getting America Right looks back to identify the core values, enshrined by the Founding Fathers, that set America on the path to greatness. And it looks forward, outlining how to get back on the freedom trail blazed by the Founders.” —Sean Hannity

“An eye-opening, at times shocking look at how far our government has moved away from the core values and principles that have guided us throughout most of our history.” —Edwin Meese III, former attorney general, from his Foreword

“This outstanding book provides a valuable compass for conservatives to confidently lead America forward. Adhering to principles and lessons from history, we the people of the United States can secure our freedom in a true land of opportunity for all.” —Senator George Allen

“A unique, insightful handbook on civil obligations good for the next fifty years.” —William F. Buckley Jr.

“An acute and inspiring analysis of the means of achieving the right balance between government intervention and individual self-reliance. It reminds us that the greatest nations are those rooted in a moral core of belief, from which policy and action subsequently flow.” —Baroness Margaret Thatcher


From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Crown Forum; Stated First Edition 1098765432 edition (March 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307336913
• ISBN-13: 978-0307336910
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #571,073 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Federocracy: Explained and Indicted., March 7, 2006

By	Bernard Chapin "Ora Et Labora!" (CHICAGO! USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

There is no group of Americans so perplexing and exasperating as those holdouts who continue to view giving money to the government as a form of charity. They wrongly regard their contributions as dollars spent towards saving lives and promoting virtue. The real story of government, indeed, the real story behind any socialist enterprise, is that the power given to the state is always power wrenched away from the people. Where Leviathan reigns supreme the rights of the citizenry are irrelevant and dismissed for the "good" of the whole as disinterested clerks and functionaries determine the fates of millions.

Regardless of this historically evident truth, for a public nurtured on sound bytes rather than study, many are in no position to recognize how pernicious the lumbering, corrosive micromanagement of our lives actually is. Yet, awareness could quickly be gathered upon reading the recently released, Getting America Right: The True Conservative Values Our Nation Needs Today by Edwin Feulner and Doug Wilson. It is a muscular condemnation of Big Government while also being concise enough to ensure the focus of those with television attention spans.

In these pages, the authors do not propose an end of government, but they do offer up a six prong test to be used in regards to the efficacy of state action. These tests take the form of questions and are explored within individual chapters. Citizens are encouraged to make sure that federal "help" promotes self-reliance, is responsible, makes us more prosperous, makes us safer, and in some way enhances national unity before they should consent to its implementation-so perhaps my analysis was a tad bit premature as, were we to utilize their template in relation to current and proposed federal programs, it would mean the end of government as practiced today.

One of strongest features of Getting America Right is that it cannot be pushed aside as a polemic as its narration is calm, objective, and avuncular. The body of the book is dedicated to reviewing the numerous, yet characteristic, failures of government as our Fedrocracy promises everything but delivers precious little.

I suppose there are those who will greet such a work with the statement, "We've heard it all before." Well, if they did then they should have started to hold their Representatives accountable immediately. The financing of Ponzi schemes because "I deeply care" does not mitigate the felonious nature of them. Ignorance is not an excuse. The entity that is supposedly to be watching out for us must in turn be watched.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Work By The Heritage Foundation, March 14, 2006

By	David Barnes (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

GETTING AMERICA RIGHT is a most useful book when considering what it is to be a conservative, and how that ideology is releant in governing America today. By posing six, thoughtful and thought-provoking questions, the authors' are able to succesfuly probe the activities of our government of late, shwoing them as clearly out of tuch with true conservative values. The six questions: (1) Is it the government's business? (2) Does it promote self-reliance? (3) Is it responsible? (4) Does it make us more prosperous? (5) Does it make us safer? (6) Does it unify us? These questions sare especially relevant as the nature of politics in the nation changes, with "big-government" becoming ever more popular. Feulner and Wilson do a great job in showing that if our nation is to be as succesful as it can be, we cannot lose sight of what it means to be a conservative, and what government can do to be a little more true to those principles.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For those who take America seriously, April 26, 2006

By	Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

"Getting America Right" is a political, not a partisan, book.

It sets forth the vision of its authors for a six-point plan that they believe would put America back on course. Of course, what America's course should be is a legitimate topic of debate.

All too often, though, that debate degenerates into noisy, angry diatribes in which both facts and logic are quickly lost in a cloud of name-calling.

Here, without a partisan tone, the authors lay out what they clearly label conservative views of what the nation --- more appropriately, the citizens of the nation --- need to do in order to alter the course of the United States.

Each of their six points is set forth in essentially neutral terms. They give profuse examples of what they think is wrong and then propose remedies. No partisan sniping. No name-calling. Exposition and argument (in the classic sense) to make their point. I wish every book on political issues took the approaches of these authors. Political discourse would be greatly improved and we all might become more civil as we address the problems our nation faces.

The authors pose six questions:

1. Is it the government's business?
2. Does the measure promote self-reliance?
3. Is it responsible?
4. Does it make us more prosperous?
5. Does it make us safer?
6. Does it unify us?

Each question is addressed by first setting out problems perceived by the authors (i.e., the waste engendered by a 60,000 page tax code; the inequity of a woman with a $5 million annual income paying less in taxes than people earning $50,000). They then set forth their proposed solution. And finally, they set forth the counter-arguments raised by opponents of their views and explain themselves.

It's a terrific approach, clearly Socratic and not given to ad hominem.

I would hope that Americans of all political persuasions, but who are motivated by their concern for the future of this nation not only read this book but discuss it as well.

Jerry