Spoiled Rotten: How the Politics of Patronage Corrupted the Once Noble Democratic Party and Now Threatens the American Republic

(Hardback)

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When Andrew Jackson formed the Democratic Party in 1824 he promised to represent the common man against the privileged elites and cut government toits constitutional limits.

What has become of this promise asks Weekly Standard writer Jay Cost.Instead of representing the people, he argues, the Democratic Party has become a collection of interest groups feeding off the federal government. In this deeply researched and lively revisionist history, he tells the story of the modern Democratic Party, examining the tragic decline of a once-noble coalition that has long since abandoned its Jacksonian ideals.

According to Cost, over the decades the Democratic Party has become a national Tammany Hall, with Barack Obama as its modern-day Boss Tweed. Since the Roosevelt Administration, the purpose of the contemporary Democratic Party has not been to govern for the whole country, but to colonize the federal government with its client groups. Whats unique about the Obama Administration is how the partys clients are now exclusively in charge.

In Spoiled Rotten, he asserts that the healthcare bill, the stimulus bill, and the auto bailout were not created to help all Americans but to secure contributions and votes. Average Americans need to see that, whatever the Democratic Party claims it is doing for the whole country, it is governing simply for its base.Hard-hitting and uncompromising, this timelybook is apowerful political polemic from a rising star in the conservative movement.

Author Bio

Jay Cost writes the twice-weekly "Morning Jay" column for the Weekly Standard and was previously a writer for RealClearPolitic and a popular political blogger. Cost received a BA in government from the University of Virginia and an MA in political science from the University of Chicago. He lives in Pennsylvania.