First published 2011
Mitch Daniels opens with Benjamin Franklin's warning that America is "a republic, if you can keep it." The Indiana Governor argues the nation now stands dangerously close to losing that republic. Daniels presents his record transforming Indiana from a $700 million deficit to a billion dollar surplus while shrinking government and improving services. He contrasts this success with federal failures, warning that exploding national debt poses a survival threat to America. The book examines how elite government experts attempt to regulate citizens' lives while assuming Americans lack wisdom to make their own decisions about healthcare, mortgages, and education. Daniels describes underperforming schools that produce workers unprepared for global competition and ignorant of citizenship requirements. He warns of diminished prosperity, lost world leadership, and threats to American upward mobility. Yet Daniels maintains hope, arguing that properly informed Americans will unite to make necessary changes. He calls for "change that believes in you" rather than top-down solutions, expressing faith that Americans remain "a people born to liberty" who will rise to defeat this threat.
Genres: business, american, political-science, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, government, american-history
Vibes: thought-provoking
Tropes: call-to-action
Setting: America, Indiana
Period: 21st-Century
252 pages · Hardcover · Sentinel