The Tyranny of Mark Levin’s Liberty
Jack Hunter reviews Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto:
Like the first Tea Party events, the 4th of July protesters primary criticism was government spending, and yet they were circulating flyers written by a man who thought spending three trillion dollars on Iraq was not only a good idea, but would be enthusiastic about doing it again in Iran or elsewhere. I wondered what the protesters holding “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and screaming “liberty” at the tea party think the Founding Fathers would have thought of Levin’s support for preemptive war, torture, and government surveillance. According to “the great one,” the Founders would have been enthusiastically for each. Levin’s warnings about the dangers of “utopianism” in foreign policy are almost laughable, when you consider his closest radio comrade Sean Hannity, still praises Bush for “liberating” Iraqis.
“Hey Jack!” said one man at the tea party, “you read Liberty and Tyranny? It’s great, man!” I just nodded. “I like a lot of what you say Jack” he added, “but you’re so wrong about the war. America is doing so much good for so many people over there.” A few minutes later, another man, older, smiling and with a Southern accent even thicker than mine said, “You read Mark Levin’s book, Jack?” When I told him I had, the gentleman said “He had a lot of good things to say, but something about him, I don’t know… he doesn’t seem to get everything as much as he should.” I smiled and replied “Sir, that’s the best review of Levin’s book I’ve heard all day.”
bought it, coudn’t finish it. was disappointed by its lack of depth and writing style.Report
you didnt read it you tool, it is thick with what some people call historical facts (you might consider it angry rhetoric from anglo-europeans).Report
Do you mean “you tool” or “utool” and is there a difference between the two? Also, when pushing the quality of a book, it’s wise to use common grammatical tropes just in case people who read your comment from an initial judgment of your recommendation from said comment. Could it be that someone who won’t bother to capitalize the first letter of a sentence is a poor judge of a good book? Quite possibly.
First impressions are a bitch.Report
another tool, sweet!
notice the capitalization. thats not capitalism, because we know where U stand.
envy politics love brainy types, you fit right in.Report
No I don’t think “we” do know where U stand, actually.Report
Like the first Tea Party events, the 4th of July protesters primary criticism was government spending,
Actually, the first Tea Party was about people being taxed without having a say in their government. (The “government spending” necessitating the tax was the Seven Years’ War fought largely to defend the Thirteen Colonies against France; as it was military spending, the current crop of protesters would have no problem with it.) “No taxation without representation” loses some of its punch when the people protesting actually do have representation.Report
Dude. That was the Freemasons fighting against the Prince Hall chapter.Report
I visit Taki’s Magazine once or twice a month just to catch-up with Jack.
I love that guy.Report
Jack is kind of a dumb ass. If you don’t know what the tea parties are about, and can’t understand Levin….then your another statist dumb ass.Report
Katherine – If you were to read the founding documents. You will find a desire for the people to be set free from a tyrannical government. It was more than taxation. It was about freedom. No matter what side of the political isle you choose to join, liberty is not something we toy with.
If you think the American people have a representative government to day you are fooling yourself. An example, the American people had made their decision about GM. They didn’t want to buy the cars. What did Barack do, overuled the American people to pay off his union friends. The numbers and the economics do not lie.
Whether you like it or not or choose to recognize this, these men wanted to be free from the hand of an oppressor – they wanted free enterprise, freedom of religious expression, and freedom to live there lives without a goverenment impeding them. Sure these were different times and they were not perfect, but in the words of Thomas Jefferson:
“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government. ”
Thomas Jefferson
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson
I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.
Thomas Jefferson
It is we the American people who need to unite under a flag of liberty to defeat a government that is out of control. Yes both parties and yes Bush and Obama are both are part of the abuse of power. Follow opencongress.org and stay involved, stay vigilent and don’t fall prey to petty party politics. What is at stake is bigger than any political party or agenda. The cause of freedom and the cause of liberty are more important than life itself. What is the purpose of a life lived without freedom?Report
I would like to know when all of this is going to end, I mean Obama he is not a american (have no proof) but its a gut feeling, so is’t this a big farce. please reply. Thank you.Report
Ok, so what does the Iraq War have to do with Levni’s point, which is that a state-centralized society is inherently bad?
You wrote two paragraphs that were absolutely irrelevant to the point of the book.Report