- DeSantis published a book in 2011 that was intended as takedown of Obama and his policies.
- The book tells readers about DeSantis’ political philosophy, but not about the governor’s own life.
- DeSantis wrote the book during the Tea Party movement and before he ran for Congress.
Before Republican Ron DeSantis became a well-known governor from Florida who takes frequent aim at President Joe Biden, he had his sights set on cutting down another Democratic president: Barack Obama.He did so throughout his 2011 book, “Dreams from Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama.”The book’s title aimed to criticize Obama by playing with the name of the president’s first memoir, “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.” DeSantis even used a similar cover to the one Obama had.DeSantis wrote the book as he was coming of age in politics during the Tea Party movement. Then in his mid-30s, he had just been honorably discharged from the Navy, and would soon run successfully for the US House, where he would serve from 2013 to 2018.While written more than a decade ago, the book sheds light into how DeSantis thinks about policy and about other politicians. In it, DeSantis tries to make the case that Obama’s policies strayed from the Constitution and that the former president was committed to “redistributing wealth.”Insider obtained a hard copy of the book to read, and had seven takeaways:
The book is hard to get
“Dreams from Our Founding Fathers” probably won’t make it onto a lot of holiday gift lists even for politicos because there aren’t many copies in circulation.According to NPD BookScan, which tracks retail sales of US print books, “Dreams from Our Founding Fathers” sold 125 copies through July of 2022. That means the books available for sale now go for a high price — on Amazon, for instance, prices range from $369.99 to $1,683.99.To obtain a hard copy of the book, Insider called the Miami-Dade Public Library System, which had to order a copy from the library sharing service Interlibrary Loan. A copy of the book arrived to Miami-Dade two weeks later from Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida.