Excerpt: Lou Dobbs' 'Independents Day'

The CNN anchor on what's ailing America and his prescription for fixing it.

ByABC News via logo
February 18, 2009, 8:12 PM

Nov. 20, 2007 — -- CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, a self-described "advocacy journalist" and "independent populist," has a new book out called "Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit."

In the book, Dobbs, who has become known for his anti-immigration stance, talks about the failure of America's political system and how the arrogance of "the elites" threatens the future of the nation. One solution to the problem, he says, is a viable third party candidate.

You can read an excerpt from "Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit" below.

Excerpt: 'Independents Day'

The 2008 presidential campaign is upon us, and there should be nodoubt that we are at a critical historic juncture, and the very survival ofour nation may well depend on the electoral choices we make. Whenone scans the number of candidates seeking their party's nominationfor the highest office in the U.S. government, what has seemed an interminablylong campaign seems too brief and inadequate a period inwhich to choose a leader of great quality and character to successfullylead us in the twenty-first century.

America is a great nation whose leaders have become intoxicatedwith the idea that the accomplishments and achievements of precedinggenerations assure them not only of success, but of only limited consequencesfor their failures of judgment and infidelity to traditionalAmerican values. Nearly all of our political leaders seem to believe thatAmerica's wealth is so great that it cannot be exhausted; the elites ofpolitics and business seem to believe that their power flows from a superiorDNA structure that confers upon them an omniscience in economicand geopolitical affairs that three hundred million citizenscannot hope to comprehend. Their arrogance now threatens the futureof our nation, and their elitist sense of entitlement has reached suchheights that our leaders are now openly dismissive of the will of thepeople. They no longer honor our fundamental national values butinstead attach themselves to the interests of multinational corporationsand politi cal parties, and recognize no duty to the nation in which theyprosper. Many of our political leaders rationalize their carelessexercise of power and their disregard for the consequences of theirdecisions with their religiosity; that is, God's providence has guidedand favored America throughout its history and therefore favors thefaithful, if incompetent, leaders in all walks of American life. Let uspray.

Many of our corporate leaders are even more disdainful of ournational values and interests than our politicians. Business leaders, ifanything, seem more committed to their personal belief systems, whichhave been elevated to religiosity, the foundation of which is a blind faithin what they perceive to be the higher perfect power of economics andmarkets. "Mr. Market" knows all and knows best for these corporatemasters of the universe.

These lofty elites wield their awesome social, economic, and politicalpowers without apparent regard for the common good, the nationalinterest, or the traditional values that have historically informed andguided America's leaders. These elitists have abandoned Americanideals for self- interest, and are ignoring ordinary citizens as unworthyof their concern, obligation, and duty.

For too long the American people have deluded themselves that failuresof leadership will in the fullness of time resolve themselves in ourgreat republic, because our history has given us the assurance that partisanshipis an acceptable substitute for citizenship. We've accepted ourown apathy and tolerated what has become a frontal assault by the establishmentelites on our national sovereignty, the welfare of our people,and our future as a nation. But there are now promising signs that theAmerican people will soon be ready to reclaim this nation.

As I write these words, the U.S. Senate has just rejected a cloturevote on so- called comprehensive immigration reform legislation by avote of 53 to 46. The defeat of President Bush and the Demo cratic Senateleadership all but ends the eff orts in this session of Congress togrant amnesty to twelve million to twenty million illegal aliens andto keep our borders wide open.

For four years I have fought almost daily the advocates of open bordersand amnesty, and despite this Senate victory, I know that the fight willgo on. That fight will likely intensify, because the political, social, andeconomic interests driving open borders and amnesty are powerful, thestakes could hardly be larger, and American citizens are only slowlyawakening to the threat to our nation that emanates from both the leftand the right, the establishment and the radical. But the American spiritis no longer slumbering. On my broadcast we have reported the facts thatshould form the parameters and foundation of what has at long lastbecome a national dialogue, even if now only incipient, on our illegalimmigration and border-security crisis. I have put representatives of allsides of the debate and discussion on the broadcast in an effort to examinethe facts, to put the facts as we know them in perspective from thepoints of view of the advocates, to debate the merits and failings of thoseviews, and to expose the varied agendas and interests of the elites whohave tried to ram their positions through Congress and down the throatsof American citizens who were just a few years ago unaware of the natureand extent of the threat to the American way of life.

The political contest that has resulted from our immigration andborder crisis produces great passions and every bit as much heat as light.Unfortunately, the facts and the independent, nonpartisan reality thatmy colleagues and I try to report to our audience each night are inconvenient obstacles for the ideological orthodoxies and conflicting partisan,establishment, ethnocentric, and even radical agendas that motivatemost of our national dialogue and debate on so many critical issues,and nowhere more powerfully than on the illegal immigration andborder-