Book Review: Power to the People

When I wrote my “Love America” post a week ago, it was inspired by Power to the People by Laura Ingraham. That post generated a lot of comments , and I hope people are as interested in the book that inspired the post.

In Power to the People, Mrs. Ingraham talks about some of the things that she feels have gone wrong in today’s society. Each chapter ends with a way everyday people can get more involved with the political process and thereby take power from the government. Ms. Ingraham argues that real power belongs to the people and not to Washington. Amendment X of the U.S. Constitution states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people”{emphasis mine}. We need to remind our elected representatives of that important amendment.

The book is also semi-biographical. Each chapter talks about Ms. Ingraham’s life in some degree. Laura Ingraham discusses her own battle with cancer in a few portions of the book. However, Power to the People is not a biography. The focus of the book is not the author, but instead the reader.

Each chapter focuses on a single problem. Some of the chapters include “Power to the Family”, “Judging the Judges”, “Protecting the People”, and “School’s Out…of Control”. There were two chapters that I think may have stuck with me more than the others: Saving Our Pornified Culture and Taking the Real Power Trip. In “Saving our Pornified Culture, Ms. Ingraham talks about how our culture and entertainment standards now seem to revolve around sex and violence. When Fox News and CNN cover Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton as if they are world leaders, she may be onto something. I have already caught myself watching TV in an entirely new light.

In “Taking the Real Power Trip”, Ms. Ingraham discusses Christianity in her own life. This is a very powerful chapter. She talks about how her faith, and the outpouring of faith around her, got her throw some of her toughest times. When she wasn’t sure she could make it through the cancer treatments, her faith gave her the strength she needed. This chapter alone gave me a new respect for Laura Ingraham that I don’t think I would have gotten from simply hearing her on the radio, or seeing her on TV.

Power to the People is a very enjoyable and quick read. It is different from any other political-type book I have read. Most books talk about political philosophy and grand directions that nations need to follow. In Power to the People, Laura Ingraham lays out the direction our nation needs to go, and how we can get it there. Everyone who reads this book should be able to find a new way to get power away from Washington, and back into our hands.