The Mendacity of Hope: Presidential Power, Corporate Money, and the Politics of Corrupt Influence - Softcover

Hodge, Roger D

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062011278 ISBN 13: 9780062011275

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2011

Synopsis

"The Mendacity of Hope should help wake up all those Obama-voters who've been napping while the wars escalate, the recession deepens, and the environment goes straight to hell." --Barbara Ehrenreich

From the former editor-in-chief of Harper's Magazine comes a bold manifesto exposing President Obama's failure to enact progressive reform at home and abroad. National Magazine Award finalist Roger Hodge makes a hard-hitting case against Obama's failure to deliver on the promises of his campaign. The first book-length critique of the Obama's presidency from a prominent member of the left, The Mendacity of Hope will strike a chord with anyone stirred by the words of Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and Frank Rich. It's the book that every frustrated progressive in America has been waiting to read.

About this title

Review:

"An excellent book. . . . US politics has ended up as a battle between the mostly corrupt and the entirely corrupt. . . . It's long past time to put away your Obama t-shirt and take out your protest banner."--Johann Hari, The Independent

"The Mendacity of Hope is a roundhouse punch at the notion that Obama is anything but a conventional corporate liberal, supine before the moneyed interests."--Michael Tomasky, The New York Review of Books

"An eloquently sober indictment of the corruption which impels the self-aggrandizement of our executive branch, much to the bane of our Constitution. A frightening book whose conclusions ought to haunt every American."--William T. Vollmann

"Ready to wake up from the Obama dream yet? If so, this thrillingly scathing and relentlessly truthful cri de coeur is your strong cup of coffee. "--Naomi Klein

"The Mendacity of Hope should help wake up all those Obama-voters who've been napping while the wars escalate, the recession deepens, and the environment goes straight to hell."--Barbara Ehrenreich

"Hodge calls for revitalization of the founding tradition of civil virtue and republican values of liberty, a message that should be taken to heart if we are to reverse the drift towards an ugly future."--Noam Chomsky

"Roger Hodge has written a desperately needed expose of how Barack Obama is not the messiah of liberalism but its designated gravedigger. . . . This is a blazing indictment of corporate collusion and a bracing injection of hard truths."--Naomi Wolf

"Roger D. Hodge brilliantly and devastatingly dissects how democracy has gone on sale in America."--Bill Moyers

From the Back Cover:

Americans find themselves in genuine confusion and dismay concerning the actions of President Obama's administration. None of Obama's most important campaign promises--ending the Iraq war, abolishing torture, closing Guantánamo, changing Washington's culture of corruption--has come to pass. Instead, he has bailed out the bankers, escalated the conflict in Afghanistan, launched a new war in Libya, and institutionalized the civil rights abuses of the Bush regime.

Roger D. Hodge makes the provocative case that substantive reform was never even on the table. Behind the euphoria of Obama's victory was in fact a business-as-usual corporate machine. Obama's presidency has demonstrated that mere hope is never enough, that change will come only when the American people take charge of their own politics. A brilliantly crafted call to arms, The Mendacity of Hope offers an essential analysis of the American political system and the powerful interests that control our government.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0062011278
• ISBN 13: 9780062011275
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272