Stealing America: What My Experience with Criminal Gangs Taught Me about Obama, Hillary, and the Democratic Party Hardcover – November 17, 2015 by Dinesh D'Souza (Broadside Books)

Firstly while I do not share the authors political persuasion, I have always been impressed with the quality of The authors writing and his skill with regards to argument and debate. His books Illiberal Education, The End of Racism, and What's So Great about America were good and made some powerful points, although I found them at times to stretch logic. As a fellow immigrant I can relate well to his perspective although not necessarily his conclusions. That said - it seems to me that from 2007 on, his books have gotten progressively worse and increasingly irrational starting with The Enemy at Home.

This latest book "Stealing America" is interesting in that the author uses his own experience to illustrate some troubling possibilities. He contends that America is becoming a country of increasing regulation, bureaucracy and a police state that stifles dissent and free enterprise, just like how India and other countries used to be, and to a good degree, still are. In that sense I agree with him that there is always a danger of that in any society, as stated in Thomas Jefferson's quote that "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom"

The book starts off pretty well and provides a good and interesting perspective from the view of his fellow inmates. There is a kernel of truth to what he says in terms of the justice system and the issues there that need to be addressed and reformed. He also makes a good point that senseless bureaucratic regulation does stifle creativity and enterprise.

However from there on out he goes completely off the rails with one logical stretch after another, blaming progressives for everything that is wrong, calling taxation as theft, and indulging in a plethora of strawman arguments that don't make sense. He indulges in his usual formula of finding some figure from history who espoused progressive ideas (as if that was the only person who had those ideas) and then attacking their character and trying to discredit them, thereby implying that everything they said and all their ideas are bad. And then extending that to imply that everyone else who espouses similar ideas nowadays are also either bad or misguided.

The worst part, in my view, is when he regurgitates some of the same conspiracy theories in his recent books and movies about Obama, and concocts similar theories about the Clintons all without any hard evidence to back it up. I think he really does a disservice to his own intellectual capabilities by indulging in this.

Finally he ends the book with self promotion of himself and his books and movies as the way to fight this supposed threat to America and bring things back to how they were.

Overall this could have been a really good book and there are some parts that are done well. The narrator for his part definitely does an excellent job - want to be clear on that. As stated earlier it has some interesting stuff in it which is worth buying the book for. Other than that not much else. If you don't want to waste money just wait till it comes to your local library.