''To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine'' is a 2010

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

book by former

Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

and

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

activist

Newt Gingrich Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U ...

, offering a critical view of supposed

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

and

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

influences on

American liberalism Liberalism in the United States is a political and moral philosophy based on concepts of unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the separation of chu ...

and the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. It was a ''New York Times'' bestseller.

Overview

''To Save America'' focuses on secular and socialist ideas which, Gingrich writes, are entrenched in modern American liberalism. Acknowledging that his ideas "will be controversial," Gingrich coins the phrase "secular-socialist machine" to describe the current state of American liberal governance, especially the domestic policies and initiatives of President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

. According to Gingrich, the American

political left Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

can only be understood by considering the "interlocking relationship of secularism, socialism and

machine politics In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership con ...

." In the book, Gingrich explains how the "secular-socialist machine" can be seen in the passage of the

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presi ...

("Obamacare") and alleged scandals such as ACORN voter registration fraud. He also tells how the Left sides with "big business" against small business and why "there is no liberty without religious liberty". According to Gingrich, the influence of left-leaning politicians and government regulations has left the United States in a dire position, both in terms of the economy and the ideals instilled by the

Founding Fathers The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

. Some of these ideals include the importance of work ethic, private property rights and localism. Describing the current political situation, he writes that the "danger to America is greater than anything I dreamed possible after we won the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

disappeared in December 1991." Gingrich also spends several chapters outlining his policy prescriptions for reviving the

American economy The United States is a highly developed mixed-market economy and has the world's largest nominal GDP and net wealth. It has the second-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) behind China. It has the world's seventh-highest per capita GDP ...

, fixing the U.S. health care system and protecting religious liberty, among other issues. He argues that the existing bureaucratic systems in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and state capitals are so broken and so resistant to change that they must be "replaced — not reformed — if we want to remain competitive globally in the twenty-first century." A late chapter, "Why the Tea Party Movement is Good For America," addresses the rise of the

Tea Party movement The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. Members of the movement called for lower taxes and for a reduction of the national debt and federal budget defic ...

, and praises the efforts of local and national groups to stand up to what he characterizes as the leftward shift in American politics. Gingrich also writes: "Remarkably, like the British in 1773, the elite media today misunderstand and mock the frustration of American tea partiers." Another chapter towards the end of the book describes the importance of the

Second Amendment The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds eac ...

to American freedom.

Reception

The book was received favorably by conservative-leaning reviewers and negatively by liberal-oriented ones. Writing for ''

Human Events ''Human Events'' is an American conservative political news and analysis website. Founded in 1944 as a print newspaper, ''Human Events'' became a digital-only publication in 2013. ''Human Events'' takes its name from the first sentence of the Un ...

'', Donald Lambro stated that Gingrich's book "offers a futuristic agenda for reform that speaks to the angst and anger that is driving a mounting anti-government, anti-incumbent, anti-big-spending movement in this year’s midterm elections." From a critical perspective, '' What's the Matter with Kansas?'' author

Thomas Frank Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

— who does praise Gingrich as being "ready with policy suggestions, actual steps the nation might take to translate the conservative sensibility into a ruling philosophy" — takes issue with what he calls Gingrich's "conversion to the devil theory of Barack Obama" and an exclusive focus on political corruption among Democratic politicians. Following its release, ''To Save America'' reached number two on ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

hardcover non-fiction bestseller list.

References

External links

*
To Save America
' preview on

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{{DEFAULTSORT:To Save America 2010 non-fiction books Books critical of modern liberalism in the United States American political books Books by Newt Gingrich Campaign books by 2012 Republican presidential candidates