Laura Ingraham’s New Book “Must Reading”—And This from A Fellow Book-Writing Fan!

Full disclosure – I’ve known and liked top-rated radio host Laura Ingraham for about 20 years. In fact, I remember from decades ago what may have been the genesis of her new best-selling book, “Power to the People” (Regnery) maybe even better than she does. She used to talk sadly about her concern that Americans were “soft.” She worried that we wouldn’t be capable of winning a World War II today, because she felt our character, as a country, might not be able to fight that battle. It was like the worry of a mother for a child she adores – but who sees some character issues that make her question sure how that child will do in life.

What comes across in “Power” is, in a sense, Laura’s incredible relief at how that concern for a country she loves has been answered, an optimism that we Americans really do want to make a huge difference and take our country back to the way it should be. Laura would know – she’s been at the forefront major political battles in recent years, including defeating the Harriet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court (where I agreed with her) and defeating a wholesale revamping of our immigration laws (with which I did not.)

But in both cases she really called people to move some mountains, and they did.

Now, she wants to move more. She wants us to move more. Laura is open and passionate about her belief in God, her concern about the “pornification” of the culture, and her belief that talking about children and why they need more government programs is a disgrace. Why not talk about how kids need intact families instead, oh and a decent unpoliticized education along the way wouldn’t be all bad.

Laura is funny and clear and full of positive suggestions. She encourages us to fill our homes with great music, classic movies, and not be afraid to tell our kids “no” to the computer or cultural garbage for instance.

(I’d like to see her take on the credit card companies which often say they are for cleaning up the environment, or making women’s lives better – but allow their cards to be used for internet porn sites. If they stopped letting their cards be used tomorrow, you could pretty much shut down the internet porn industry the next day. Let’s turn Laura onto that one!)

We also see a personal side to her in “Power” when she talks about her battle with cancer and the lessons we taught her and the strength she found in fighting it. Guess what? She gets that ultimately, real power doesn’t come from Washington after all. (Thinking otherwise is a trap both liberals and conservatives fall into.)

But, there are battles to be fought there. And what Laura so successfully does in “Power” is to give the American people the sense that not only do they need to fight them – but that they can win them, and she provides something of a road map for doing so. Some negative reviews have said of Laura’s book that she’s just “preaching to the choir.” My response is that sometimes the choir really needs the encouragement that what they are doing matters, they need to have it spelled out as to why and how they are making a difference, and they need to be given some directions for doing it even better, and winning more souls over, in the future.

For people who are incredibly discouraged otherwise and more than a little cynical about the possibilities of changing Washington for the better – i.e. me – Laura’s book is a needed antidote.

I say – preach it baby.

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Betsy Hart is a nationally syndicated columnist whose exclusive offerings to The Chicago Daily Observer make her a regular columnist and member of its editorial board.