United We Stand: How We Can Take Back Our Country

Overview
Ross Perot’s 1992 book United We Stand: How We Can Take Back Our Country serves as a plainspoken manifesto for his independent presidential campaign and a call-to-action for citizens disillusioned with party politics. Mixing charts, blunt rhetoric, and a businessman’s impatience with inefficiency, Perot argues that the United States faces a self-inflicted crisis of debt, drift, and special-interest capture. He frames the solution as a national recommitment to fiscal responsibility, civic duty, and practical problem solving, an effort requiring shared sacrifice rather than partisan point-scoring.

Diagnosis of the Problem
Perot’s central indictment targets the federal deficit and mounting national debt, which he says crowd out investment and mortgage the future. He ties fiscal imbalance to a larger competitiveness challenge: aging infrastructure, lagging education outcomes, rising health costs, trade deficits, and a manufacturing base under pressure. Politicians, in his view, have deferred hard choices to protect careers and donors. He portrays Washington as insulated by lobbyists and political action committees, while average Americans shoulder the long-term costs. The tone is urgent but not despairing; he insists the problems are solvable if citizens demand results and leaders tell hard truths.

Core Proposals
The book lays out a program to balance the budget within a defined time frame through a mix of spending restraint, entitlement reform that protects current retirees, and temporary, broad-based revenue measures. Perot argues for a shared-sacrifice approach rather than gimmicks, emphasizing that paying down debt will free capital for growth. He champions a line-item veto and a balanced-budget amendment to hardwire discipline. On the economy and trade, he calls for rebuilding American competitiveness, backing fair rather than naive free trade, and warning that deals lacking labor and environmental safeguards, he famously warned of a "giant sucking sound", risk exporting jobs. He urges investment in worker skills, apprenticeships, and advanced manufacturing, coupled with a regulatory housecleaning to ease burdens on small businesses.

Politics, Process, and Citizenship
Perot’s reforms extend to the political process: term limits to curb careerism; strict campaign finance rules to reduce the sway of big money; and transparent budgeting that shows taxpayers where every dollar goes. He proposes “electronic town halls” so citizens can deliberate and signal preferences on major issues, using technology to close the gap between the public and policymakers. Civic virtue is a recurring theme. He appeals to a can-do ethos, volunteerism, local problem-solving, and personal responsibility, as the cultural backbone of national renewal, arguing that leaders must model integrity and invite accountability rather than govern by spin.

Education, Health, and Social Priorities
Education reform focuses on basics, standards, parental involvement, and real-world skills, with special emphasis on math, science, and vocational pathways. He connects school quality directly to wages and competitiveness. On health care, Perot stresses cost control and transparency, seeking market discipline and common-sense protections without sprawling bureaucracy. Crime policy prioritizes victims’ rights and community safety, framed as essential to economic confidence and neighborhood stability.

Style, Tone, and Impact
The book’s style mirrors Perot’s televised charts: data-driven, repetitive on key points, and designed to be accessible to non-experts. He blends populist skepticism of elites with technocratic fixes, presenting himself as a hands-on manager who will measure progress and admit trade-offs. United We Stand crystallized the 1992 insurgency that forced deficits and political reform onto the national agenda, previewing debates over balanced budgets, NAFTA, and campaign finance. Its lasting image is of a country that can right itself quickly if citizens insist on candor and if government swaps slogans for a measurable plan grounded in shared sacrifice and common purpose.