With all the recent scandals hitting the Obama administration, conservative documentarian and author James O’Keefe is working to save American democracy with his new book “Breakthrough: Our Guerrilla War to Expose Fraud and Save Democracy.”
O’Keefe, the president of Project Veritas, helps empower concerned Americans to become investigative journalists who launch their own investigations into the federal government to create a more ethical and transparent society. The book is available in stores nationwide and online Tuesday.
“People are begging for leadership; people are hungry for leadership,” O’Keefe told Red Alert Politics. “It’s really up to the citizens. This story is about citizen journalists who really took it upon themselves to make a difference and the price they had to pay for that.”
That price, as O’Keefe is well aware of, is one’s reputation and freedom. Many of the lessons told throughout the story are based on his personal experiences, including exposing voter fraud within the Obama campaign, the 2009 ACORN investigation and his break-in at Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) New Orleans office in January 2010.
“[Breakthrough] is a field guide on how to achieve social change in 2013,” O’Keefe continued. “It’s an incredible and entertaining and sometimes tragic, sometimes hopeful story about how to make a difference despite everything working against you.”
But enacting change isn’t easy. He told RAP that the biggest problem that citizens face is fear. In fact, one of the rules that O’Keefe explains in his book is that “They’ll never understand your ideas, but they’ll understand your results.” O’Keefe has even been called a terrorist, a criminal, a racist and a liar while embarking on his many endeavors, however it is the results of his investigations that actually turn heads and led to positive change in the U.S.
“The good news is that this book is helpful. It shows people that you can persevere. You can break through those attacks and still make a difference,” O’Keefe told RAP.
He believes that citizens are the ones on the front lines fighting against the scandals and government injustices, admonishing the mainstream media and encouraging others to do more than just rely on media entities.
“Most mainstream media people are sitting in cubicles in corporate offices or trying to protect their government sources,” O’Keefe added. “Journalists are unwilling to blow the lid open on a lot of things because of ambition, shared politics and a pinch of fear.”
But, according to O’Keefe, that’s good news.
“That’s a great opportunity for citizen journalists,” O’Keefe continued. “We’re on the front lines. We’re the ones that are witnessing things that are happening in local communities.”
