Liberty and Tyranny

Mark Levin is a nationally-syndicated radio host and conservative commentator. He has just released a landmark new book, “Liberty and Tyranny: a Conservative Manifesto.” The book is flying off store shelves across the country. It sold out on its first day of release and has broken all sales records for Amazon.com. This is an incredible feat for any book given the current economic conditions. The phenomenal interest in this work is not hard to understand when one considers its stated purpose: “to galvanize readers to begin a new era in conservative thinking and action…revitalizing the conservative vision and ensuring the preservation of American society.”

We are entering the most pro-government era of state-controlled monopolies since FDR’s New Deal. Americans are legitimately disturbed at this rapid movement toward Socialism. A recent IBD/Tipp poll showed an increase of 80%, since last summer, in the number of people who believe we are moving dangerously closer to a Socialist economy- from an average of 26% to 45%.

Levin outlines the history and development of Socialism analyzing it in terms of Statism vs. Individualism. The book seeks to clarify the nature of tyranny and how our Founding documents sought to preserve our freedom by restricting government, not empowering it.

The Left-wing, Liberal Socialism propagated by the Democrat party in America, is a seductive type of Statism that has been termed “soft tyranny.” C. S. Lewis warned, “a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

Levin uses a number of examples from history to substantiate his arguments with both empirical evidence and irrefutable logic. He deftly reveals, in easy to understand language, the commonality between conservative ideology and the founding principles of our nation.

The Constitution has been described as the most conservative document in human history, because it seeks to confine, restrict and frustrate the lustful desires of monopolistic power emanating from government activism. Gathering more and more control under the auspice of centralized government, regardless of the motive, is not only antithetical to our Constitution, it is the very definition of Socialism.

Levin demonstrates with example after example how the Statist- i.e. that individual using politics to enlarge the state- is ultimately interested in power, not truth.

Levin writes, “the Statist’s Utopia can take many forms, and has throughout human history, including monarchism, feudalism, militarism, fascism, communism, national socialism, and economic socialism. They are all of the same species—tyranny. The primary principle around which the Statist organizes can be summed up in a single word—equality.”

“Equality,” as Levin explains, “is the natural right of every individual to live freely under self-government, to acquire and retain property he creates through his own labor, and to be treated impartially before a just law.” The Statist misuses this concept to increase his power by promising an equality of outcomes, irrespective of individual merit or toil. As President Obama said, “[O]ur individual salvation depends on collective salvation.” Soft tyranny holds out the hope of a collective salvation through the work of an all-powerful state. As I have said before in this column, there remains no collective means to individual success. This is exactly how FDR laid the foundation for all of the Statist programs that have come along after the New Deal.

Roosevelt proposed a “Second Bill of Rights” based on a new concept: the government guaranteeing “security and prosperity.” Under this revolutionary idea that negated the Founder’s precepts, Roosevelt was proposing- not the Natural Law Rights given by God- but new Rights given by government to re-distribute wealth. For the first time there was a “right” to things that someone else must provide. Of course, if one individual claims a right to the labor of another that also has another name- slavery. These new “rights” included: a right to a useful job; to earn enough to provide adequate food, clothing and recreation; to a decent living; to a decent home; to adequate medical care and the enjoyment of good health; to adequate protection from economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment; and to a good education.”

This is where the seeds of our modern, soft tyranny were sown and how we are going broke under the yoke of ever-increasing taxes! Buy and read Mark Levin’s book. Share it with others. It may prove to be the manifest change we need to stop this tyranny before it’s too late. (Send comments to: WFC83197@aol.com, or mail to POB 114, Jacksboro, TN, 37757.)