Posted on 06/30/2017 6:57:11 AM PDT by Kaslin
My friend Mark Levin is nothing if not a patriot of the first order. He loves the United States and its founding principles -- and his latest book, "Rediscovering Americanism," explains his passion and encourages ours.
Levin believes that America's greatness lies in its unique founding ideals -- and documents -- and correctly observes how far we've strayed from those principles and the structure of government they inspired.
In his other books, Levin has outlined the problems confronting us and proposed solutions, but in this book, he takes a deeper look into the Framers' vision and examines the anatomy and historical development of the pernicious progressive mindset that has systematically chipped away at our governmental structure and our liberties.
This book is remarkable in its simultaneous succinctness and thoroughness. It's hard to fathom how Levin could have adeptly covered so much important, relevant material in a relatively short book. But he did.
Why would Levin take us on this historical tour of our nation's competing political and philosophical ideas? Haven't we moved beyond such considerations in the modern age, with the federal government micromanaging so many aspects of our lives? Do these lofty notions even matter anymore in our modern era of short attention spans, sound bites and our endless obsession with daily polling? Why contemplate the proper role of government when our ruling class rarely concerns itself with preserving our liberties, when the Washington establishment rarely focuses on whether government has the authority to act but fights instead over the most efficient way it should act?
The answer is that Levin understands that our belief and confidence in our founding principles and our steadfast commitment to them are essential to preserving our individual liberties, our prosperity and our national uniqueness and greatness. In Levin's words, "philosophy and practical politics are linked and, therefore, have a real effect on the life of the individual." As our history has increasingly demonstrated, we cannot preserve our constitutional structure -- and thus our liberties and the rest -- if we do not understand and embrace its necessity. For our failure to grasp that truth has resulted in the steady erosion of the system built on it.
Levin is convinced that unless we have a national reawakening of the indispensability of our first principles, we will continue our march toward statism and squander the blessings bestowed on us by our visionary ancestors. "What will (future generations) say about us?" he asks. "Will they say that we were a wise and conscientious people who understood and appreciated the blessings of our existence and surroundings and prudentially and conscientiously cared for them; or will they say we were a self-indulgent and inattentive people, easily shepherded in one direction or another, who stole the future from our own children and generations yet born, and squandered an irreplaceable heritage?"
In other words, our remarkable system of government, despite its brilliance, is not self-sustaining. An intellectually lazy and spiritually negligent body politic will not nurture and care for this gift, and it will continue to descend by incremental steps into tyranny beyond the point of redemption.
By reintroducing us to our founding ideas and their importance, Levin is both sounding an alarm over the threats that imperil us and calling on us to man our battle stations by first understanding the gravity of our predicament and then arming ourselves with a true understanding of our national uniqueness.
In Chapter 1, Levin unpacks the concept of natural law (and natural rights) -- "the foundational principle at the core of American society." This principle "permeated American thought from the beginning of our republic and well before."
As clearly and firmly reflected in the Declaration of Independence, all men are created equal by God and have certain unalienable rights. These rights are universal to all men and are divine and spiritual in origin -- not government constructs -- and thus no government has the right to deny them. Levin shows further the importance of the rule of law, the mutual dependence between private property and freedom, and the interrelationship between economic liberty and political liberty.
The Framers designed our system to preserve these rights (and liberties), thus crafting a constitution that empowered and limited government -- with those powers and limitations each designed to achieve the overarching goal of establishing and preserving our individual liberties. The Framers understood that mankind is imperfect and that a government led by imperfect people would, unless checked, tyrannize citizens and swallow their liberties.
Progressives, on the other hand, believe that mankind is perfectible and that centralized government is the means to achieving this social engineering, and they have been working steadily toward that goal in America for more than a century.
Whereas our Framers ardently believed that mankind's natural rights are transcendent and that the principles they enshrined in the Constitution are also timeless, progressives have always been convinced that our founding principles and documents were applicable only to their unique historical setting and that our system must constantly evolve to accommodate the changing times.
The tragic irony is that our short national history has vindicated the Framers and exposed the folly of the progressives, who are still in denial that their arrogant attempts to engineer human perfection through expansive government -- particularly the runaway administrative state -- have resulted in a stunning erosion of our liberties.
Unless we dismantle the federal leviathan and its suffocating bureaucracy, we'll slide ever further -- and irreversibly -- into tyranny. Unless we "rediscover" our "Americanism," we can't conceivably resurrect and sustain our liberties.
Read this book and rediscover.
I used to be a big Levin fan. Not so much anymore. I know he has come around to Trump a bit, but I can’t get over his opposition during the election. I also get sick of all the book pitches.
I don’t know what’s worse, Hillary supporters that can’t get over Trump or former Levin fans who can’t get over him being critical when called for. The primaries are overrrrrrrr.
And because you don’t listen as you say, you have no earthly idea what takes place on his show.
Mark slid off into Glenn Beck-land through those many months. Add to that his ranting, whiny voice, and it's just not worth the time.
“He then said he would only vote for Trump to hold him accountable for everything he did”
No he didn’t. He NEVER said anything of the sort. The primaries are over. You can always tell a big government socialist when they inject into their conversation ranting and whining. When will the butt hurt end?
I have never voted for a presidential(Republican naturally, as I don't vote for rat candidates) nominee in the primaries, unless the president runs for reelection.
Two examples were President Reagan in 1984 and President George W. Bush in 2004.
I will do the same with President Trump in 2020, God willing I am still breathing etc.
Excellent pointT
I forgot to ask. Will you vote for him again in the 2020 primary, or will you vote for someone else because you got tired of him?
A lot of establishment masks slipped in 2016. The shopworn hysteric also burned Mark Steyn.
I can still see the bug-eyed chihuahua barking behind the window, but I don’t hear him.
I don't want to be rude, but what the hell are you talking about?!
Where in my post did I say I don't listen at all? (Hint: Nowhere.)
I have been a fan for about 10 years at least and have read all of his books. Essential reading for every American IMO. I was for Cruz too but still voted for Trump. He was the man for the times and we should support him. Trump doesn’t hold anything against Mark and neither should anyone else. Mark Levin has done more to educate the public than anyone - again IMO.
Read my reply to you in Post#7
Myself, I’m just relieved that Mark Levin has finally come sufficiently to his senses to stop lurking around waiting for seeming opportunities to attack Trump after pretending to support him, which came after months of screaming about the whole thing to the point of sounding utterly unhinged as opposed to merely screechy.
So long as he appears to be onboard I’ll hold my tongue but I doubt I’ll ever really trust anything he has to say again.
He is a passionate patriot and knows what is at stake.
I had nothing against Ted Cruz, but I did not vote for him in the the TN primaries. The one I voted for didn’t get the nomination either, and no, it wasn’t a third party candidate. I don’t waste my time with them.
Levin needs the sheckles... good luck with that.
Did he ever succeed in getting Sundance?
So long as he continues to pretend to be onboard, I’ll pretend not to remember the past year of Levin insanity.
I have never read any of Mark Levin's book or listened to his radio show. I stopped listing to radio shows years ago, because the reception is so bad.
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