Publisher: HCI Publishing,
ISBN: 978-0-7573-1524-4

Click Here To Purchase Going Rouge: An American Nightmare

Going Rouge is a collaborative effort of forty-seven authors. All of the authors work as writers for other news publications, as professors in major universities, playwrights, editors for magazines or other periodicals, news correspondents, broadcasters for news stations, or screenwriters. The variety of perspectives and insight projected in this book are enlightening and entertaining.

The book’s title was and cover design are a play off of Sarah Palin’s book, but with a more sinister twist. I thought it very clever. The introduction highlights things we [people across America and around the world] found out last election period about candidate Palin ranging from her obstinate and unwavering stance on abstinence only education to making the citizens of Wasilla, Alaska, pay for their own rape kits and more.

Each chapter divvied up into sub-categories that are, for the most part, authored by a singular person and highlights some portion of Sarah Palin’s rise within the GOP. There is much discussion about her connection to regular folk and how that could propel her into the limelight electoral process as a viable presidential candidate in 2012. Several sub-categories depict her stance and record on a variety of issues as attached to her short governance as mayor and then governor in Alaska. Overall these sub sections are well written and researched. Many opinions seem to find her a compelling potential candidate that falls short of being curious in an intellectual sense and has no idea about foreign or domestic policy. This is an assessment that I concur with.

Sarah Palin termed herself, during the campaign of 2008, as a maverick and Washington outsider. Much of the research presented in this book does not support that profile/image. [see 2009, Chapter 1, part 2, pgs.7-18] That Sarah Palin happens to be the most polarizing figure on the GOP stage is no accident, but a well orchestrated media event and one the people of America will be watching closely as the next presidential election draws ever nearer.

Sarah Palin has also called herself a feminist. However, there is a mountain of facts that supports she is not and that her stating so was pure fiction and intended to generate votes from women who do happen to champion rights for women. For instance, she opposed the Violence Against Women Act (2009, pgs.25 and 38, and 47, and 60), believes only in creationism, opposes gun control to the point of allowing guns in schools, bars, hospitals, government offices, and on playgrounds. She patently discounts global warming as a reality or threat, is against abortion even in instances of rape or incest, opposes stem cell research, supports drilling in ecologically sensitive areas where the ill-effects could be astronomical, is against the Fair Pay Act, opposes gay rights to the point of criminalizing gay sex, wants to abolish social security, is against renewable energy, and lobbied for subsidies to create a natural gas pipeline in Alaska’s Wildlife Reserve.

There are excerpts from her [Sarah Palin’s] various interviews and speeches included in this book. Most are open for interpretation. There is much second guessing her mostly incoherent babbling about nonsensical minutia that has nothing to do with the topic being discussed. From what I have read and seen what is abundantly clear is her utter lack of comprehension and absolute disregard for minor and major pieces of legislation enacted in the USA or even within her state and/or their impact on the wider global stage. She also falls way short of knowledge of geography, even within the USA. If that is not a career stopper then we can add her appalling uncertainty at what duties are associated with which governmental offices, specifically the vice-presidential duties that she was vying for contention of in the 2008 election. As if those are not enough to discount her from running again and prove how totally inadequately prepared she is for national office there remain to be many on the right who find her endearing and folksy and would vote for her as their president.

To her credit, Sarah Palin was instrumental in securing legislation for Alaskans that expanded the production of oil and gas and their stake in it, but with such narrow vision [she gave drilling rights to a Canadian company over a US company] that all else of import [educational funding, etc..] to the people of that state was lost. (2009, p.59-65) As if that was not enough of a slap in the faces of the oil and gas companies in the USA for which she wants to seed, she allowed byproducts of this oil and gas production to create serious environmental nightmares including, but not limited to, elevation of birth defects, the presence of toxic metals in drinking water from mining operations, and pesticide poisoning in schools. As long as the monies from these pipelines keeps coming in these side-effects appear inconsequential, unworthy, of correction to candidate Palin. 

Most television appearances depict Sarah Palin as unable to piece together a correct statement or recount a single periodical she reads with any regularity, barely able to convey a single thought, and as endless looping toward nothingness, yet she is by far the most popular and vibrant leader within the GOP. Celebrity personalities like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Bill Krystal have helped to spearhead this Palin movement. Intelligent people with real leadership skills are being passed over to prop up Palin who has little experience and even less wherewithal.  There is division within the GOP as to what to do about the Palin effect. Can her momentum continue through the next presidential electoral season or is she destined to burn out?

I have a confession to make in reading and reviewing this book—I wanted to read something about Sarah Palin that had not been sanitized or run through the McCain/Rove rumor control mill. To state that this book is just negative press about Sarah Palin would fall way short of making its mark and the collective authors point. For a very candid look into the person behind the carefully crafted image of Sarah Palin this books should be required reading. A contrast between this book and hers would be another worthy read. Enjoy the trip!

Click Here To Purchase Going Rouge: An American Nightmare