In his life, the exuberantly polysyllabic Bill Buckley penned dozens of books, most nonfiction, all interesting. One such book was entitled "Up From Liberalism."
Mark Levin’s new blockbuster, "Plunder and Deceit," might also have been called "Up From Obamaism." Still, "Plunder and Deceit" is an excellent title, as that is precisely what is going on in America today to our children, our heirs.
Buckley knew how to torment and tweak his left-wing opponents, as does Levin.
Reading Levin’s latest book is utterly riveting and you don't want it to end. Right from the beginning, Levin is on offense: “In modern America, the unraveling of the civil society had been subtly persistent but is now intensifying.” Levin uses an intriguing idiom” “ruling generation.” There is much wisdom and insight in this phrase. He asks why so many parents willing surrender their responsibilities to a government bent on undermining their authority?
In 2015, conservatives are finding their way after the debilitating years of Bushism. Bush and company deliberately tried to reinvent Ronald Reagan’s conservatism into
something quite unrecognizable including; Big Government Republicanism, the big security state and a new world order.
An odd amalgamation which, when looked at coolly and intellectually, resembles state socialism. The Arthur Brooks and Karl Roves of the world have deliberately obliterated and obfuscated true populist conservatism of the founders, the framers, Bill Buckley, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan.
Levin helps guide the reader away from the anti-intellectualism of Establishment Republicanism back towards the common sense intellectualism of American conservatism, which puts its faith in the individual, in American exceptionalism, in the future and most importantly, in our children’s future.
Who says conservatives don't care about children? Levin’s entire work is an impassioned attack on the status quo and what it is doing to America’s children, calling it no less than an immoral betrayal.
And, American conservatives don't believe that small children should be sliced and diced and sold off by their various parts and organs. American liberals including Hillary Clinton believe in the willful murder of inconvenient children.
But Levin doesn't just stop at indicting liberalism, he also indicts big government Republicanism. Marcus Aurelius said, “The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
Levin’s voice is one of sanity in a vast sea of collectivist and corporate insanity.
He cites Edmund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, James Madison, and Ronald Reagan, just to name a few political philosophers. Each chapter is entitled according to its topic: “On Social Security” and “On the Debt” and “On Education” and others; in each, he makes the intellectual case for common sense conservatism.
One of my favorites is “On Immigration.” Interestingly, I discovered in Levin’s book that Teddy White, the great campaign biographer, was opposed to the Hart-Cellar Act, which opened the floodgates to new, legal immigrants while disfavoring those from the Anglo-Saxon nations of Northern Europe.
In their place, it favored those from Africa and South America, adding millions of Democratic voters to the rolls.
White wrote that the act was “probably the most thoughtless of the many acts of the Great Society.” Again, Obama and Obamaism come under indictment by Levin and with good reason.
Levin pulls no punches in his reasoned opposition, writing “The worst of the statists and their surrogates seek political opportunism and racial Balkanization as a means to holding or acquiring governing power.”
His book grabs you by the collar and won’t let go, informing the reader with historical quotes, facts, figures, and punchy prose.
In the chapter, “A New Civil Rights Movement,” Levin cites the need for an informed citizenry which will make the right decisions. So too did Ronald Reagan, as Levin relates, “An informed patriotism is what we want.”
Levin is a “lifer” when it comes to conservatism. In 1976, while in college, he labored mightily to become a delegate to the Republican National Convention so he could vote for Reagan over Gerald Ford.
Later, he worked for the much esteemed Ed Meese at the Justice Department. He also worked, successfully I might add, to dismantle ACTION, a corrupt government agency which was nothing more than a cesspool of graft. Levin has never waved, never “grown,” never succumbed to Potomac fever. This is a great compliment among principled conservatives.
Like his political mentor, Ronald Reagan, Levin knows that movie scripts, like life, contain three essential elements: introduction, conflict and resolution.
Levin opens by making a powerful case against American liberalism — charging in essence that it is crime — then moves to the conflict between the individual and the state and concludes with his bold solutions.
In 1822, James Madison wrote a letter in which the old former president said, “And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
"Plunder and Deceit" is a powerful book which arms the reader well.
Levin keeps writing New York Times best-sellers and yet the liberal broadsheets such as the Times and The Washington Post refuse to review his works. No matter. They’d rather review the garbage-as-literature of serial plagiarist but favored ultra leftist Rick Perlstein, who now has insanely charged that the POW/MIA flag, and its supporters, are racists.
Again, no matter. Power cannot be created nor destroyed. It can only be moved around. Power is moving away from the feckless Times and the unreasonable Post and moving towards Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and others. Which is good.
Like correct republicans — but not Republicans — they know their power is derived from the citizenry, in this case, their listeners. So they don’t just talk. They listen, unlike most elected officials of today.
"Plunder and Deceit" concludes with a provocative question and challenge for America’s parents. I won't spoil it here by relating either, but one hopes they will be answered in the affirmative.
For the sake of all of us, for the sake of our children, they'd better be.
Craig Shirley is the author of "Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America," "Reagan’s Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All," and "December 1941: 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World." He is the founder of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, and has been named the first Reagan scholar at Eureka College, Ronald Reagan’s alma mater. He appears regularly on Newsmax TV, Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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