Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government — and How We Take It Back b

If the last six years have been a nightmare for liberal Americans, the silver lining of the Bush administration for progressives is a publishing market hungry for left wing exposés of corruption, greed, and dishonesty in politics. Some of these, like Bushwhacked by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose, have been excellent, effectively combining hard-hitting investigative journalism with good writing. At the other end of the spectrum are the shrill (Dude, Where’s My Country), the grim (Worse Than Watergate), and the less than subtle (The Bush-Hater’s Handbook and The I Hate George W. Bush Reader).

David Sirota’s Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government — and How We Take It Back shares many characteristics with the best examples of the progressive polemic niche market. It’s a meticulously researched work that digs deep into forgotten news from the past 10 years, piecing together fragmented stories and guiding readers towards the big picture of corporate greed and the American government’s complicity in feeding it. Sirota also turns his focus away from the social issues that dominate headlines and polarize Americans, in favor of the economic ones that he believes truly shape and define the moral fiber of American culture and politics.

As a political writer, Sirota’s credentials are unimpeachable. A political strategist and co-chair of the Progressive Legislative Action Network (PLAN), Sirota has worked for Congressmen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and David Obey (D-WI) and for Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer. He has an insider’s view of Washington, an extensive bibliography, and an unflagging desire to fix America’s broken government. He’s also as mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore.

In Hostile Takeover, Sirota points the finger at Corporate America and a bevy of politicians from both parties who are at best, unable to prevent gross corporate profiteering and at worst, lining their pockets with gifts and big campaign donations at citizens’ expense.

In chapters on economic issues ranging from health care to taxes to bankruptcy laws, Sirota unleashes an arsenal of statistics, figures, and damning quotes to demonstrate the federal government’s willingness to sell out citizens’ rights in exchange for campaign donations, vacations, and other egregious kickbacks from big business. Worse, Sirota writes, at the same time the government has made it possible for corporate interests to strip Americans of their pensions, affordable health care, and legal protections, our leaders have lied to the public about how these policies actually improve their lives. As the chapters unfold, Sirota demonstrates that weapons of mass destruction were only the tip of the iceberg.

As broad as Hostile Takeover‘s scope is, it’s also remarkably narrow with most of its data coming directly from the pages of mainstream news sources and research produced by nonprofit organizations. Sirota makes his case for the government’s sell-out to Corporate America by presenting a staggering amount of hard evidence in the form of numbers and sound bytes.

Buried under the weight of his data, however, Sirota fails to put a human face on the suffering caused by corporate greed and the unraveling of the social safety net. Personal narratives and human-interest pieces may not be statistically significant, but they are exactly what makes polemics affecting. Without them to lend a sense of perspective, Hostile Takeover is surprisingly impersonal, better suited to providing analysis than instigating action.

At the end of each chapter, Sirota presents a list of reasonable solutions to the problems he outlines, and in the conclusion, prescribes steps that ordinary citizens can take to create change. Good as these suggestions may be, it’s hard to imagine their success.

Throughout the book, Sirota spotlights political and corporate figures as “Hacks” or “Heroes.” The Hacks are individuals like Georgia governor Sonny Perdue, who invalidated Atlanta’s living-wage laws or Missouri governor Matt Blunt, who revoked collective bargaining rights for state workers. Meanwhile, the Heroes he presents are largely individuals who support legislation that fails or report shocking truths that go unread. Sirota’s Hacks succeed at screwing citizens. However, his Heroes fail to stop them.

In the end, it’s hard to feel empowered to do anything after reading Hostile Takeover except run around the living room shaking your fist at the fat cats and screaming in frustration. Without a device more sophisticated than bullet point solutions, it is difficult to see how heroes ever win or how ordinary citizens can change the system as Sirota claims.

And unfortunately, Sirota has some bad writing habits. He’s prone to sarcasm and clumsy invocations of pop culture to make his points. While his thesis is sound, lines like, “Han Solo didn’t crack jokes about Luke Skywalker when Darth Vader cut his arm off … But during the last recession, our own government laughed at American workers as they lost their jobs” are just painful. Additionally, almost every page is peppered with goofy similes that quickly lose their charm and become distractions. In Sirota’s otherwise capable hands, things become “as credible as Wilt Chamberlain preaching abstinence,” or “as appropriate as making Michael Jackson the president of the Boy Scouts of America.”

Despite its problems, Hostile Takeover is a well-researched, well-argued work, full of righteous anger that like-minded readers are sure to share. Although Sirota claims his book is designed for civically minded readers of all political persuasions, his call for more government regulation, increased spending for government programs, and a plan for universal health care will sound like heresy to conservatives. However, if they believe the situation is as bad as Sirota says, you never know. They just might go for it.