Trickle Down Tyranny

February 6, 2012
It’s difficult to exaggerate Savage’s animus toward Barack Obama. For the conservative radio host, Obama is a “naked Marxist,” who, if re-elected, will make himself “president for life.” Savage (Trickle Up Poverty) tries to lacerate many areas of the Obama administration’s domestic and foreign policy, as well as alleged instances of malfeasance and corruption in the Justice Department and elsewhere. Unfortunately, he clutters his narrative with charges such as the claim that the Occupy Wall Street movement is characterized by “public nudity, masturbation and sexual intercourse... carried out daily.” Worse, the book is marred by name-calling (even Newt Gingrich is seen as a “fat, frumpy, unprincipled charlatan”) and McCarthyite smears (Savage calls the Jewish Funds for Justice, a liberal philanthropic organization, “a communist-socialist group”). Savage’s sources prove flimsy; for example, he bases his statement that Michelle Obama went on a “2½-year $10 million vacation spending spree” on an article in the Daily Mail, a British tabloid. Savage engages his fans with wild allegations and conspiracy theories, such as the claim that Obama is “determined to give our southwestern states to Mexico”: shrill fearmongering that his listeners have come to accept from a hardened ideologue. Agent: Ian Kleinert, Objective Entertainment.