Scorched Earth: Restoring the Country After Obama

Scorched Earth: Restoring the Country After Obama () is a 2016 screed by Michael Savage that promoted voting for Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election of that year, because of paranoid fantasies about Hillary Clinton destroying the United States. With the over-the-top personal attacks against those whose views Savage dislikes, conspiracy theories, not even wrong speculations, and an overall nationalist viewpoint with certain echoes of alt-right talking points, this is clearly a preaching-to-the-choir book that does not do a good job persuading those outside the target audience. Rather, it is basically a book form of those bad, poorly written email forwards that promote conservative talking points, often in a factually disconnected way.Many examples at http://myrightwingdad.blogspot.com Furthermore, the endnotes have a grand total of seven cited sources, saying much about the credibility (or lack thereof) of the book. (And even then, quality control is lost, in attributing a quote to a blank page 140 when it was really on page 137.)
==Analysis==
The book takes many cheap shots and ad hominems you would find on the ForwardsFromGrandma subreddit such as:
How the editors let Savage get away with a run-on sentence in his "kids these days" rant is unclear.
Sheesh, did Savage forget how social and religious conservatives (basically his target audience) were behind efforts to censor violence from TV, video games, and such (Jack Thompson being a primary example). Also, Savage himself called for the banning of "violent video games" after the Sandy Hook massacre.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzNNTrh7rC0
And many logical inconsistencies, too.
Regarding Islam, Savage complains about the very fact "London has a Muslim mayor" and suggests bad intentions from Islamic Relief bus ads, Yet he acknowledges on page 149, "It is true that most Muslims are not terrorists."
Savage also suggests that Barack Obama is a deep cover Muslim who appeases ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood. Somehow (assuming his poll numbers are correct), around 20 percent of Americans who think Obama is secretly a Muslim have a "rational question," yet the 20 percent who "supported giving Iran a path to nuclear weapons" (Savage's way of framing the 2016 Iran nuclear weapons deal) are wrong.</ref>
And yet on pages 138 and 139, Savage decides to call Islamists and their fellow travellers, "pagans by definition because they are not practicing the religion of peace."
So basically, the very existence of Muslims is bad and suspicious in his mind, despite the Islamists being "pagans"?
Add a little Eurabia and eugenics as well:
So we should sink to their level?
So a "might is right" attitude because of supposed Muslim aggression and a plot to invade the United States is "courageous"? Such logic.
In the introduction, Savage tells a personal experience of meeting an antiques shopkeeper in Beverly Hills who escaped Ayatollah Khomeni's Iran for what he called a "politically unsanctioned act." Yet he complains about public… err, in his words, "government schools" teaching, "Burning the American flag is protected speech." (Which it is.Texas v. Johnson 491 U.S. 397)
Savage also suggest the 2016 U.S.–Iran naval incident was a "setup" by the Obama administration. Additionally, he posts a partial transcript of a caller to his Savage Nation radio show who suggested the Benghazi attack was orchestrated by "US-trained forces" and the CIA.
He also shows his ignorance in just asking questions: "…where is the outrage from feminists when rappers talk about beating women or refer to women as 'hos'… a term of endearment among African Americans[?]" Puh-leez — the fact he had to frame it as a question rather than an actual assertion says so much.Examples of feminists criticizing misogynistic lyrics: 
* Black college women take aim at rappers (Associated Press, April 23, 2004)
* “Hip Hop Is Not Dead, but It Is Gravely Ill": This Week in Hip Hop & Feminism (Anna Julia Cooper Center)
Not to mention plenty of Vladimir Putin apologetics.
Another flagrantly false statement: "Jerry Brown… has allowed the Department of Motor Vehicles in California to automatically register illegal aliens." In fact, the Los Angeles Times reports: "Information about anyone who does not decline registration will be electronically transmitted from the DMV to the secretary of state’s office, where citizenship will be verified and names will be added to the voter rolls."Mason, Melanie. "Here's how California's new voter registration law will work." Los Angeles Times. October 16, 2015.
Other excerpts from the book that warrant little or no further comment:
Describing "Ten Commandments of liberalism":
==However...==
There are some reasonable views in this book, but they can easily be found elsewhere.
* Savage called Edwin Meese, US attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, "the most corrupt attorney general" (of course, qualified with "until the first one we had under Obama", in reference to Eric Holder).
* For example, Savage contrasts British MP Edmund Burke opposing the First Anglo-Maratha War, because "Burke understood that destroying the local pillars of civilization as it existed in India at the time would not benefit the British Empire," to how the George W. Bush administration "dismantled Iraq and left the pieces to be consumed by...ISIS."
* Savage also criticizes corporate "triple-Dutch tax dodges" by tech companies like Google and Microsoft.
==References==
Category:Books
Category:Misnomers