Scorched Earth: Restoring the Country After Obama

{{uspolitics}}{{Books}}{{title-italics}}
'''''Scorched Earth: Restoring the Country After Obama''''' ({{isbn|978-1455568246}}) is a 2016 screed by [[Michael Savage]] that promoted voting for [[Donald Trump]] in the [[2016 U.S. presidential election|U.S. presidential election of that year]], because of [[paranoid]] fantasies about [[Hillary Clinton]] destroying the [[United States]]. With the over-the-top [[ad hominem|personal attacks]] against those whose views Savage dislikes, [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]], [[not even wrong]] speculations, and an overall [[nationalism|nationalist]] viewpoint with certain echoes of [[alt-right]] talking points, this is clearly a [[Preaching to the choir|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.<ref>Many examples at http://myrightwingdad.blogspot.com</ref> 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 hominem|ad hominems]] you would find on the ForwardsFromGrandma subreddit such as:

{{quotebox|The Greatest Generation defeated the [[Nazis]] and [[communism]]. Now radical Muslims are threatening us and uncaring, oblivious, [[Bernie Sanders]]-supporting millennials are too busy Instagramming and shminstagramming to fight. [[Islamist]]s watch training videos on how to carry out [[jihad]] against the infidels. Our kids are too busy watching YouTube videos and taking selfies and reducing our language to simplistic bursts of OMG and LOL and WTF. Everything is a selfie, it's about the self.<ref name=savage>Michael Savage, ''Scorched Earth: Restoring the Country After Obama''. New York, Center Street, 2016. {{isbn|978-1455568246}}.</ref>{{rp|52}}}}

How the editors let Savage get away with a run-on sentence in his "kids these days" rant is unclear.

{{quotebox|Not too many years ago, cartoons were filled with violence… We as children watched Superman cartoons, but we knew not to try and jump off the roof… We did not need [[liberals]] to tell us the difference between pretend and real life."<ref name=savage />{{rp|56}}}}

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]].<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzNNTrh7rC0</ref>

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,<ref name=savage />{{rp|53}} 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]].<ref name=savage />{{rp|26-32}} Somehow (assuming his poll numbers are correct), around 20 percent of Americans who think Obama is secretly a Muslim have a "rational question,"<ref name=savage />{{rp|36}} 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 name=savage />{{rp|41}}</ref>

And yet on pages 138 and 139, Savage decides to call Islamists and their fellow travellers, "[[paganism|pagans]] by definition because they are not practicing the religion of peace."<ref name=savage />{{rp|138}}

So basically, the ''very existence'' of Muslims is bad and suspicious in his mind, despite the Islam''ists'' being "pagans"?

Add a little [[Eurabia]] and [[eugenics]] as well:

{{quotebox|Islamists have fourteen children apiece… We went from having 2.3 children in every family to an [[abortion]] culture and an overpriced Manhattan loft… Islamists ban birth control and turn their women into baby jihad factories.<ref name=savage />{{rp|53}}}}

''So we should sink to '''their''' level''?

{{quotebox|Since ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' in 1973, 54 million abortions have taken place. We have voluntarily killed off between 15 and 20 percent of today's population. Except for the fatherless kids in poor communities. Like [[tobacco]] growers, we pay to keep those impoverished, failed families coming. They add to the progressive ranks, to the future of the socialist movement.<ref name=savage />{{rp|55}}}}

{{quotebox|Muslims are living in patriarchal societies while American boys are emasculated, raised not even by mothers in many cases but by nannies who are busy texting while they push baby carriages.<ref name=savage />{{rp|55}}}}

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."<ref name=savage />{{rp|19}} Yet he complains about public… err, in his words, "government schools" teaching, "Burning the American flag is protected speech."<ref name=savage />{{rp|116-117}} (Which it is.<ref>''[https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/491/397 Texas v. Johnson]''  491 U.S. 397</ref>)

Savage also suggest the 2016 U.S.–Iran naval incident was a "[[false flag|setup]]" by the Obama administration.<ref name=savage />{{rp|180}} 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.<ref name=savage />{{rp|194-201}}

He also shows his ignorance in [[just asking questions]]: "…where is the outrage from [[feminists]] when [[Hip-hop|rappers]] talk about beating women or refer to women as 'hos'… a term of endearment among African Americans[?]"<ref name=savage />{{rp|68}} Puh-leez — the fact he had to frame it as a question rather than an actual assertion says so much.<reF>Examples of feminists criticizing misogynistic lyrics: 
* [http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2004-04-23-spelman-protest-rappers_x.htm Black college women take aim at rappers] (Associated Press, April 23, 2004)
* [http://ajccenter.wfu.edu/2013/09/12/twic-hhf-1/ “Hip Hop Is Not Dead, but It Is Gravely Ill": This Week in Hip Hop & Feminism] (Anna Julia Cooper Center)
</ref>

Not to mention plenty of [[Vladimir Putin]] apologetics.<ref name=savage />{{rp|73-77}}

Another flagrantly false statement: "[[Jerry Brown]]… has allowed the Department of Motor Vehicles in [[California]] to automatically register illegal aliens."<ref name=savage />{{rp|117}} 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."<ref>Mason, Melanie. "[http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-me-pol-ca-motor-voter-law-20151016-html-htmlstory.html Here's how California's new voter registration law will work]." ''Los Angeles Times''. October 16, 2015.</ref>

Other excerpts from the book that warrant little or no further comment:

{{quotebox|…[[ISIS]] is made up largely of the former Republican Guard of Obama's namesake, [[Saddam Hussein]]…<ref name=savage />{{rp|38}}}}

{{quotebox|Islamists cut off heads and limbs and our young boys shriek at the drop of a [[microaggression]].<ref name=savage />{{rp|57}}}}

{{quotebox|Our schools, libraries, movies, television, music, and social media are all used to advance a [[politically correct]], [[anti-racist is a code word for anti-white|antiwhite]], anti-American agenda.<ref name=savage />{{rp|69}}}}

Describing "Ten Commandments of liberalism":

{{quotebox|[[Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white|All white people are racist]]. [[Reverse discrimination|All people of color are good]]."<ref name=savage />{{rp|117}}
* The [[ACLU]]… is the worst organization in the history of the United States. It is filled with subversives, and it has done more harm to this country than all the drug cartels put together. It should be investigated by the next Republican government, brought before a grand jury, and tried for the crimes it has committed and is committing.<ref name=savage />{{rp|163-164}}}}

{{quotebox|What… a President Trump should do, is investigate all these liberal groups, not just [[Facebook]] and the [[IRS]]… [and] monitor all American mosques, stop everyone who is trying to subvert our country.<ref name=savage />{{rp|173}}}}

{{quotebox|When will you wake up to the fact that we have a [[sociopath]] in the White House who has destroyed the Middle East and wrecked our borders, language, and culture.<ref name=savage />{{rp|186}}}}

==However...==
There are [[Stopped clock|''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).<ref name=savage />{{rp|111}}
* 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]]."<ref name=savage />{{rp|169}}
* Savage also criticizes corporate "triple-Dutch tax dodges" by tech companies like [[Google]] and [[Microsoft]].<ref name=savage />{{rp|269}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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