“Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto”, by Mark R. Levin

Threshold Editions, 245 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1416562856

So, I attended this dinner party on Grosse Ile back on June 17^th, given by Facebook friend and “unofficial librarian of the Conservative Movement”, Darrin Moore. It was about economics and, so, I didn’t say much…well, I didn’t say anything, truth be told, although the evening as a whole was enlightening and informative and I hope to do it again someday…but what I really want to talk about is the FREE BOOK Darrin gave me at the end of the evening, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark R. Levin. As I’m sure many of you already know, Levin is the host of the syndicated radio show The Mark Levin Show, as well as of Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News, and is the author of a bunch of books to boot; before all that he worked in the Reagan Administration and was chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese. Thus, he is in a good position to expound on what he believes, which is nothing less than “a clarion call to conservative America, a new manifesto for the conservative movement for the 21^st Century”.

And it’s some clarion, let me tell you. Liberty and Tyranny is not an exhaustive exploration of Conservatism or Libertarianism; rather, it is an excellent primer for anyone trying to acquaint themselves with basic Conservative ideology. Levin provides his reader with a great field manual that covers many of today’s most contentious issues, though it falls a little short of being a classic. Levin can see straight through Progressives, giving them the much more accurate moniker “Statist”; that is, someone dedicated to the power of the state in opposition to liberty and individualism. It is, it must be said, polemical in that it presents only one side of the story, but then one probably knows that when they crack the spine (anyway, if I want to see the Left’s point of view I can tune into any number of news outlets). You don’t have to agree with everything and are free to research whatever you want, but you may learn a couple of things, mostly because you don’t really learn these things in school or via the mainstream media. You will be surprised even if you lean far left, mostly because nobody challenges you with a different viewpoint in the manner this book can and because you may see how sometimes good intentions can actually cause more problems than they solve. Democrats and Republicans have both created big government, because they acted like politicians instead of being our representatives.