United We Stand: How We Can Take Back Our Country

A lot has happened since 1992. Bill Clinton was elected President to two terms and became only the second President to ever be impeached. George W. Bush was elected to President despite "losing" the popular vote (other Presidents were elected in the same manner). Even though the 1980s have been labeled as the decade of greed, the 1990s were the true decade of greed as money seemed to flow like water until the stock market bubble burst in 2000. September 11th, 2001 happened and changed our nation and world in a moment. We were able to do what the Russians weren't and invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban. Later we invaded Iraq and captured Saddam Hussein. Back in 1992 it was a very different world. 1992 was also an election year and in this heated election of 2004, I thought it would be interesting and read the book that eventually ended up causing George Bush (41) to loose the 1992 Presidential election. Bush (41) had a huge lead over the relative unknown Democratic governor from Arkansas, Bill Clinton, whose administration had been filled with scandals of every variety. In fact, at one point, most everyone agreed that Bush (41) was a shoo-in. Then Ross Perot and UNITED WE STAND arrived on the scene and everything changed in a moment. Unlike Ralph Nader in 2000 who never was a real threat to either Al Gore or George W. Bush, Perot really did cause Bush (41) to loose the 1992 election (Perot captured almost 19% of all votes cast). UNITED WE STAND is the book that ended up forming the foundation for Perot's campaign and also for the now defunct United We Stand Party. Even though over a decade has past since the book was published and 1992 is ancient history in the political world, UNITED WE STAND proves to be an interesting read. The book is basically a split between political philosophy and self-help inspiration. Much of the book is filled with encouraging statements: "Only the people can remake our country."; "We cannot expect our political leaders to lead where the people will not follow." ; "We must repair the political system." The rest of the book contains many different ideas of how to improve things in the United States. Some of the ideas are things I agree with, for instance making it a criminal offense for any foreign entity to attempt to influence American laws or policies by means of direct or indirect campaign contributions and eliminating the unnecessary perks that our federally elected officials receive. Other ideas I am totally against, such as the recommendation to eliminate the Electoral College (if you understand why the Founding Fathers implemented the Electoral College, you will know why it cannot be eliminated) or his suggestion to implement a new ten cent gasoline tax. However, the most interesting things to read about are the things that have actually become realities. For instance, many lifetime politicians were kicked out of office when the people voted new legislators into office during the "Repub