Book Review: The Next American Civil War
Patriotic Americans continue to unabashedly affirm their love of country, honor its historical defense and pursuit of freedom, and mourn its present day departure from the nation’s founding principles. This was evident at last month’s “Restore Honor” rally sponsored by Glenn Beck at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where American patriots gathered to demonstrate their commitment to preserving the American way of life, values, and traditions.
For their efforts, they suffered contemptuous sneers and were irresponsibly compared to terrorists by liberal elites and their media compatriots. Typical of leftists who, in the name of “tolerance,” officiously scorn America, acclaim their cut-above status as “citizens of the world,” and make common cause with jihadists and shariah law advocates. With a patina of moral superiority that sets them apart from the Judeo-Christian ethos-inspired masses, they have gone so far as to defy the sentiments of the overwhelming majority (71%) of their fellow countrymen who oppose a mosque at the gravesite of 3,000 American dead.
Liberal elites hold themselves above reproach as they mock America, pass judgment on loyal Americans, and disparage American foreign policy and history, while smugly embracing the loftier principles of transnationalism, world government, and secular humanism.
This deep divide between the liberal elite and American patriots and the revolt it has fostered is the basis for Lee Harris’ latest book, The Next American Civil War. With an in-depth historical and philosophical perspective found in his previous work, The Suicide of Reason, the author examines this critical juncture in American history and offers some back-to-basics advice on preserving our unprecedented spirit of liberty and exceptional national character.
Harris examines the antipathy that exists today between average Americans, “populist conservatives,” and the liberal elite. He argues that it stems from conservative mistrust of liberals for ostensibly unwise departures from well-worn traditions and for promotion of unnecessarily complex concepts that don’t conform to common sense and experience. The more educated, or perhaps more accurately, the more indoctrinated, liberal elitists fancy themselves enlightened apostles serving the interests of human progress. Their condescending attitudes assume that the benighted masses are gravely in need of their counsel and they use their supposed, superior knowledge and vantage point to amass and hold power. Populist opposition to an elite that is subverting tradition, denigrating America’s heritage, and engaging in unilateral decision-making contrary to popular American sentiment is at the crux of the current revolt.
In The Next American Civil War, Harris reminds the reader of the founding tradition of our government: to promote liberty and the general welfare. Populists view the traditional role of government as altruistic and beneficial, yet not unduly intrusive. The author attributes the initial move away from democracy in America to public education and an increased reliance on science and technology. Prior to the mid 19th century, he explains, Americans relied primarily on common sense and time-honored traditions to navigate their lives. Public education brought with it a move toward consensus building and adulation of brains and education as a superior route to success. In time, this shift away from tradition resulted in a sense of alienation between the average person and the power elite.
Harris cites colonial America to provide insight into our current dilemma and serve as a valuable source of inspiration to get us back on track. He describes the early colonists as “natural libertarians,” with their unique circumstances as creatures of the New World. The colonists had escaped the despotism and oppression of the Old World and came to America in search of liberty and control of their own destinies. They embraced the “cosmic script” of the Old Testament story of Exodus in which Jews escaped bondage and entered the Promised Land. The great challenges the colonists endured in the New World demanded independence and self-sufficiency. A seemingly endless frontier enabled them to fashion communities according to their needs and aspirations or move on to greener pastures when intrusive authorities usurped their freedom.
The author points out that the early Americans left behind sharp class distinctions in the Old World which held people in predetermined places in society and required deference to the rich as their “betters.” In the New World of the rugged individualist and self-made man, everyone was on equal footing. Everyone had the potential for upward mobility through the fruits of their own labor. Unlike those today who rely on government entitlements and carry a victim mentality, the settlers were fiercely independent and their communities egalitarian. They freely reached out to lend a hand to neighbors knowing their neighbors would reciprocate in times of need. This “no strings attached” charitable cooperation within frontier communities contributed to preservation of individual freedom because assistance was freely given and the settlers were not dependent on government largess.
Harris recounts how during the 1760s and 1770s when the American Sons of Liberty felt their freedom was threatened by the British Empire, they engaged in active rebellion, including violence, sabotage, and other acts of lawlessness. By comparison, today’s town hall protests and spirited Tea Party movement rallies look tame. Resentment of the Crown’s unrestrained power of taxation and control reached the breaking point with passage of the Stamp Tax Act by the British Parliament in 1765. The tumult that followed made collection of the tax impossible and marked the beginning of significant revolutionary activity in the colonies. The success of the Stamp Act protests proved critical in mobilizing the colonists. It demonstrated to them that extreme action and breaking the law were necessary in their pursuit to regain liberty. The revolt against the Stamp Tax Act spurred the momentum for the American Revolution, which led to a new era of freedom for Americans, removed from the yoke of the British Empire.
Next, the Founding Fathers, in devising the basis for our constitutional republic, analyzed aspects of government that had worked in the past to determine what would most likely be workable for an emerging American nation. Their approach to maintaining order was experimental, relying heavily on traditions as well as innovative solutions to the unique circumstances of the country. Punishments or consequences were applied fairly and equally, fostering trust in the government and a sense of justice about the law of the land.
Harris also discusses the delicate balance between effective governance and liberty. He cautions that civilization comes at the price of liberty. Sufficient governmental controls are critical to protect and defend liberty, but too much government can crush the spirit of independence required for a flourishing free society. Harris urges that a healthy dose of skepticism and periodic rebellion by the electorate are required to preserve freedom and, thus, human dignity. He wisely intones, “Civilization can pose a threat to freedom but freedom can pose a threat to civilization.”
In other words, some order and stability is necessary to safeguard freedom as boundless freedom can induce chaos. The rule of law needs to be respected but not if it runs contrary to the higher value of basic human rights.
Harris recognizes the importance of the “natural libertarians” that make up the Tea Party movement; they are part of the essential struggle to maintain liberty. The ornery libertarian spirit that questions the power elite from a common sense viewpoint and examines the practicality, efficacy, and fairness of high-minded theories and policies is an essential ingredient to preserve freedom. Their orneriness emanates from a rebellion against being told what to do — a “don’t tread on me” credo. This is the very same “cognitive orneriness” and independent spirit in evidence at our nation’s founding and our rebellion against domination by a ruling class.
Harris sees the threat to liberty today as not emanating from Marxism, the essential focus of Tea Party activists, but from prosperous modern civilizations supported by cumbersome government bureaucracies, corporations, and media and from our failure to cherish freedom. He reasons that if we cared enough about freedom and less about material comforts, Marxist policies opposed by the majority of Americans would not be imposed upon us. The supremacy of the state as a vehicle to improve the lives of citizens has become a betrayal of American founding principles of individual liberty and traditions of self-sufficiency, hard work, and self-governance.
Harris proposes that a turnaround for future generations begins with our children. Rather than raise them with a sense of entitlement in which the struggle for their rights is paramount, we need to raise them with a sense of duty and responsibility. They need to be taught self-control that is essential for preservation of freedom and to admire and emulate the heroes throughout our history who fought for freedom.
Our proud history is one of rowdy rugged individualists, not the well-bred, educated elite who have strayed from our founding principles. The power of the electorate to rise up against the tyranny of unlimited government rests in the people’s willingness to fight. In summary, Harris views the rebellion in evidence today as a healthy sign that will bring us full circle to the courageous and just use of civil unrest that was very much in evidence at our nation’s founding. Only by recapturing our revolutionary spirit and demanding control of our lives and destiny will we survive as a free and exceptional nation.
While organized state and Continental governments were necessary for a successful American Revolution, some of the critical victories (Bennington, King’s Mountain, Cowpens, and dozens of fights in the Carolinas) were won by civilian volunteers. When threatened by Major Patrick Ferguson’s ultimatum, the Scots-Irish settlers of Watauga, southwest Virginia, and upcountry Carolina swarmed to attack and annihilate his force at King’s Mountain. In strength of purpose, mental clarity and revulsion against elite rule, the Tea Party movement shows many similarities to those citizen fighters of the American Revolution. The Revolution was, in fact, both a revolt against Britain and a civil war; it is a better metaphor for the Tea Party movement than the unpleasantness of the 1860′s.
As a (probably fellow) Southerner of Scots-Irish heritage, I wholeheartedly agree. My blood is way up, too.
There are some of us Scots-Irish decendents up here in New England as well. We are pretty ticked off at the current path of our “leadership” as are most real thinking citizens. King’s Mountain is a good example of what could happen if the elites push the average Americans too far.
You goobers are too funny. You’re ignorance seem surpassed only by your irrational hatred. This is exactly why you traitorous s@ckers started the Civil War in 1860 and got you a@@es whooped and were completely humiliated; you’re ignorant and arrogant. You clowns can get as mad as you want, but you will always be exactly what you are (PWT) until you get wise to your REAL enemy.
Dear Miss Janet Levy, you described in a very realistic and accurate way the present situation of your country. A terrible virus infected the american society. It is still time to eradicate this nocive virus. And it’s up to you and all honest americans to get rid of it and save America from this next Civil War. God save America.
Our elected officials are 60% of the problem. 40% of the problem is the leaches that are a drain on the productive part of society. The politicians that have bought the votes and those that have sold their votes must be excised, I hope it can be done by cutting the flow of money to politicians and the leaches. Otherwise the leaches may have to be burned off the rear end of society. As for the politicians I think the French Revolution model has some merit.
An excellent piece of work.
As middle class Americans wake up to the dangers brought upon them by the elitist left, we will hopefully see an out pouring of opposition to those that would sell us all out.
Unlike many, I refuse to dismiss the efforts to destroy our country as a misguided effort to do good.
“Harris sees the threat to liberty today as not emanating from Marxism,…, and from our failure to cherish freedom.”
And in the very next sentence.
“He reasons that if we cared enough about freedom and less about material comforts, Marxist policies opposed by the majority of Americans would not be imposed upon us.”
Either Mr. Harris or Ms. Levy just contradicted themselves or I am misreading what was written. Regardless it is and always has been the marxist principles advocated and supported by the Dems/progressive left that has ruined this nation. Had we Americans a long time ago kept vigil over the MSM, the gov-corporate relationships, the usurption of our legal system and the dumbing-down of our public schools, we would not be in this predicament.
Ms. Levy however makes up for it with this outstanding remark: “The supremacy of the state as a vehicle to improve the lives of citizens has become a betrayal of American founding principles of individual liberty and traditions of self-sufficiency, hard work, and self-governance.”
Absolutely.
It is ALWAYS in a SELF-Governing nation constructed as is the USA, the citizens themselves who permit, out of laziness, lack of knowledge or interest to protect their property. Property inherited from forbears at great cost. To free them from obeisance to arbitrary, uninterested, distant authority. The property of the LAWS that protect and define the breadth and limits of their self-governance. The operative words SELF -GOVERNANCE.
Whether manipulated by others, e.g. media and educators, glamourous celebrities, news personalities, whatever, it is ALWAYs the responsibility of the citizens to protect their property. Even from thieving compatriots as “servants of the people” , who if left to their own devices know where the treasures of the house are and are in position if not monitored to steal the citizens blind.
Steal their freedoms, their rights, and of course their wherewithal. We see now the culmination of these housekeepers long term contracts in which they did just that. And then have the nerve to tell us they do this for our good. And there are a lot of the citizens who believe their lies and excuses for their depredations on this nation and her people.
Who da thunk such a thing could happen to Americans. Who da thunk they’d have allowed this. Generally Americans are a canny lot, able to defend their interests. Who’da thunk…
The easy part will be getting conservative patriots elected. The difficult part will be turning the clock backwards. The left by inch, by baby step, by giant leap (Spelled ‘O.b.a.m.a’)has over the past 100 years taken us further and further to the left. Much discussion is needed as to how we undo much of what has been done. Let us hope and pray that the answer does not result of force by either side. But I have my doubts, we are very far down the socialist road.
If one needs evidence of the disconnect between the ruling elite and the general populace, note that the elites of today have no standard from which to argue their points. Their prevailing philosophy is post-modernism, a peculiar form of insanity which passes for high intellectualism, in which there is no such thing as right or wrong. Anything goes and logic is as foreign to them as the concepts of quantum physics.
This absence of an overriding cohesive moral foundation leads to capriciousness and whim on the part of those who rule, ignoring consequences and disregarding the suffering imposed on others. We’ve seen this is action during this session of Congress, where bills have been relentlessly shoved down the throat of an unwilling public.
A revolution is underway and it’s gaining momentum as the imposition of “progressive” rule continues to fail, dragging the country down and away from common sense. This is only the beginning of what will be a long, slow march to restore the original vision of America where each is free from the arbitrary control of others who do not have anyone’s best interest in mind but their own.
The easy part will be the election of conservative patriots. The difficult part will be winding the clock backwards. The socialist element of our citizenry have, for 100 years, been marching us left by inch, by baby step, by giant leap (Spelled “Johnson” and “Obama most notably) toward a government that dictates our lives.
Soon a discussion will be needed to determine how and IF the left’s agenda can be rolled back in any meaningful way. They are in our schools, land use, our local, state and national government bureacracies, etc. and are making every attempt to take over as much of the private sector as they can, disclaimer aside and not to be believed. How do we undo SOME of this entrenched bureaucracy. It will not be easy.
Let us hope and pray that a move away from Big Government does not result in force by either party. Where is the military on this issue? Where will they stand if it comes to this? Don’t believe for a moment that this could not happen. IT can happen here.
As ciitzens we need to decide if we will stand, pay attention to what is happening around us and fight (at the voting booth or as necessary in a Gandhi march on Washington and the state houses). What are we willing to do?
Largely in the E.U. the citizens have surrendered, albeit in my view to a less belligerent set of socialist elites than here. There political elites and more importantly their bureaucrats often have their jobs by merit tesing. Here it is more based on who you know than ability. A big and very sad difference
Socialism in America will not be as pretty as the E.U. of that I am sure.
good article ms. levy ! yes , there will be another civil war ! It will have virtually the same reasons as the first, except that negro’s will not be put down so easily, time has revealed in our school system at least, that african’s / negro’s having increased the population by millions , cannot be educated TOGETHER with other students ! mainly because of differances in perception, retension, and motivation attributes, in every class room , disruption from blacks is recorded by teachers, teacher performance has been targeted , instead of the essential problem of culture class and parent malfunction in the negro home. inbred caracteristics that remain intact from african jungle inviourment, cannot be erased by time or tutoring, at best a black studient becomes a constant memory bank of repeated cleasheys !
This post clearly shows why a spam button is needed.
Grammer/spelling errors aside, the pure stupidity of your comment highlights the problem of including race in any debate regarding our society. For every Al Sharpton, or Henry Waxman, I can name a Chris Matthews or John Kerry. And for every Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin, I can name a Bill Cosby or Condie Rice.
It isn’t an issue of race, it’s an issue of self sufficiency and personal responsibility vs entitlement and government dependence.
I understand part of your post…but not clear on the comparisons. Please explain beck, plain, vs cosby and rice etc…????.
Bootstrap whites. Bootstrap blacks. It is not the color of their skins, but the color of their attitudes.
Race IS very much and even a central theme when discussing the future of America. Blacks have chosen to side with the progressive left. Therefore, it is white versus black in the coming civil war.
I for one do not see any way around a civil war for America. The left will never stop trying to ruin America. Their tactics will become more totalitarian and despotic.
If you do not think Pol Pots re-education camps are not in our future with a dominate left controlling the U.S. then you are hiding your head in the sand.
Or the poor and the rich elites vs the middle class, or the coasts against the middle. You’re buying into the Dumbocrats divide and conquer. I spent twenty years in the Army, and there are plenty of blacks who bleed red, white and blue too. A large part of black society has been stuck in poverty and held there by government payouts and racial demagoguery, another large part is middle class, and of course there a few who’ve done will race hustling ( jackson, Obama). Some are patriots and some are self-serving gangsters.
Don’t insult a bunch of fellow patriots with your race war BS! We need all of our fellow Americans if we’re going to turn this train around.
@Dave Juncer: Without the massive government bureaucracy (esp. federal), the black middle class would barely exist. As for the ones “stuck in poverty,” that’s due far more to lack of self-control (criminality, promiscuity, money-wasting). FYI, the majority of black pro athletes are flat broke just a few years after retirement because they couldn’t save a dime out of all the millions of dollars they pulled down when playing. People who are incapable of moral self-government are also incapable of political self-government. Future historians will scratch their heads bald trying to figure out how (1) a race with a 70% illegitimacy rate could even ask for inclusion into polite society, much less demand it, and (2) how polite society could have cravenly caved in to that demand.
For the record, I spent eight years in the USAF, and nearly all the blacks I worked with were decent and hard-working. However, that was the 1980s, when there was a total lack of affirmative action or political correctness. All the blogs I’ve read from recent vets describe today’s military as a PC cesspool with blacks a privileged class essentially exempt from the UCMJ. No commander dares discipline a black soldier for fear of being called “racist” (which is an even quicker career-killer than a DUI conviction). Expect homosexuals to instantly gain the same status if/when DADT is repealed.
@waltc: I’m afraid the 2008 vote refutes your argument — 96% or more of blacks voted for Obama. That means there are in fact at least 25 Al Sharptons for every Walter Williams, 25 Jesse Jacksons for every Ward Connerly and 25 Maxine Waters for every Star Parker. And you really messed up with Condi “Mushroom Cloud” Rice, who famously declared that anyone who opposed the Iraq war was a racist.
@SunSword: I have a three-word rejoinder for anyone who quotes poll numbers: “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN”. And pollsters are more partisan now than in 1948. Rigging a poll is even easier than rigging an election. Just cherry-pick the respondents, ask loaded questions, etc. I’m convinced the newspaper in a nearby county did just that in 1995 when it trumpeted a poll showing 48% favoring a school bond issue vs. 40% against. The referendum lost by a 3-1 margin.
Times change, and so do people. A recent PJTV poll of “likely voters” showed that 1/3 of blacks support the Tea Party. Specifically: “35 percent of likely voters who are African American support the Tea Party movement and 17 percent support the movement strongly.”
I sure hope you’re right, because you un-American, rebel traitors need to get your butts kicked just like in the first one. You need to be crushed and humiliated. You call yourself an American patriot; what a joke. You’re probably some toothless, fat redneck who’s too stupid to realize who the real enemy is: the corporatist who are shipping our jobs to India and China and sucking our treasury of the money needed to rebuild our nation. You’ve been suckered by the Koch family financed tea party, Jethro,to work against your own self interest, but as PT Barnum said, your kind is born every minute. Enjoy the breadlines
Go away, leftoid troll.
“negros?”
Nice try, troll.
Sorry about that. Ham fists apparently.
Thanks for the book recommendation. Here’s one from me – Please read The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11 by Dinesh D’Souza. Best analysis of the culture clash I have found.
On a recent Saturday, my wife, my eldest son and I attended an all-day seminar on the U.S. Constitution and the founding of the Republic. Anticipating a gathering of just a dozen or so people, we were surprised and delighted that the large meeting room was filled by a standing-room only crowd of several hundred fellow citizens eager to learn more about their history and the remarkable document that propelled this nation in just over two centuries from a cluster of settlements on the east coast of a raw continent to the most powerful, freeist nation in the history of mankind. Something is happening in this country. Something wonderful. Something the elitist left will never understand. Remember in November!
How much did your seminar cover the DEEP conflicts and compromises of the Constitutional Convention?
Anyway, at that time, we had hundreds of thousands of square miles of land still to be settled, mined, planted, etc; slave labor, relatively cheap free market labor, and a cotton market and industrial revolution about to explode.
We are simply in such a different place today in terms of so many aspects of our country and culture, that to expect a strict construction of the Constitution to produce anything resembling what the formation of a country did circa 1776-1790, is quite a leap. On the other hand, I can’t say what WOULD be the appropriate response. Tariffs? A new war? Shutting down the Federal Government? Marching on Washington? Prayer? Or just taking care of me and mine?
It is also interesting to note on the Amazon site, how many righties decide that the author of this particular book is a mealy-mouthed elitist. Hell, that is probably evidence that the book is a somewhat balanced presentation of the issues, and possibly appropriate for community, “Let’s Read this book together” programs.
Texas joined the Union after being a separate nation. Picture the US without Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Arizona and Louisiana. Would California citizens fight to stop them from leaving, would New York? Just food for thought.
“Picture the US without Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Arizona and Louisiana.”
Great! I wish they would secede, because I’m tired of my tax dollars going to prop up these poor, traitorous, ignorant red states.
Speaking for Texas, we pay more to the federal government than we get back, while creating about 80% of the jobs in America while exporting our energy to the rest of y’all. It’s the backward, bankrupt blue states who will soon be the ungovernable wards of the rest of us.
“Regardless it is and always has been the marxist principles advocated and supported by the Dems/progressive left that has ruined this nation”
What ruined this Nation is our government bending over and handing control of its central bank to the Federal Reserve in 1913, then following up with removal of Gold standard in 1971 by president Nixon. We then placed the US Dollar on a Petro Dollar system….so today we are reliant on Saudi Arabia to maintain the value of the US Currency, a nation that actively supports Wahabbi terrorist training schools. We are effectively funding terrorists that attack us.
You can label ideologies and argue those labels until the cows come home, but any country that does not control its own bank and currency will eventually collapse. This is the reason our economy is in shambles and will start tilting towards depression shortly.
I never understood how otherwise smart and passionate individuals will spend years understanding origins of their country and refuse to spend a few hours understanding its banking system and how the Banking system will determine prosperity of the nation, regardless who occupies the White House.
The abrogation of our Government in managing its economy is treasonous, yet we are so absorbed in the elite left or extreme right wing that we allow trillions to be sent to Banking families in Europe in 2007 and 2008 without batting an eye. That exodus of cash triggered the banking collapse, and has placed the US taxpayer as collateral to the International Bankers.
Was Nixon a Marxist..? I don’t know and don’t care. He removed the US from historically reliable gold standard and placed us on a path that can only end in depression. This will trigger collapse of US dollar and replacement by Euro / Chinese Yuan / Russian Ruble basket of currencies to settle world trade. The US Dollar will slowly fade into History.
I am sure the elite left and the extreme right will continue debating ideology during the coming debacle, and somewhere in those discussions i hope the point is made the that people received the Government they deserved.
Do you really believe what you’re saying or are you ins@ne? I really wish we had two countries, because I’m tired of my considerable tax dollars going to support traitorous, anti-American crackpots like y@u. You fre@ks would starve to death because you states and citizens are ignorant, hateful and inbred.
If you believe in freedom and want to save this country, then Lee Harris’s “The Next American Civil War” is a very **bad** book.
The Founding tradition of this country rests on one thing: the protection of individual rights. (See http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ari_ayn_rand_man_rights).
All else follows from this, but nothing that Harris advocates follows from this.
Harris misinterprets the “general welfare” clause of the Constitution to promote the notion that we are a country founded on altruism. In historical context, the meaning of that clause is the opposite: that freedom begets the “general welfare” by protecting life, liberty and opportunity for the pursuit of happiness.
For anyone who wants to save the United States from despotism, almost nothing that Harris advocates is of value. In essence, his woeful ignorance of history, his mindless advocacy of “tradition” and egalitarianism, and his profoundly anti-reason obscurantism paints Harris as someone standing against everything the Founders fought for.
The Founders were not “traditionalists” — they broke with over 2000 years of tradition to create the first society in history that placed the natural rights of the individual — those necessary to sustain his life by his own effort — above those of society, and defined a limited role for government. The Founders said, in essence: these rights are reserved for the *People* and government may not infringe them.
Some of the Founders were religious, others weren’t, but all agreed: the “general welfare” isn’t promoted by forcing people to do “good” for any undefined person who may or may not be worthy of help. The FOunders weren’t “altruists” in any modern, traditional sense.
The Founders were *all* advocates of Reason. They used their minds to study history and conceive a new society founded on Reason and Rights. This had never been done before.
They made some mistakes such as Jefferson’s advocacy of public education — understandable in a time when illiteracy was rampant. But they never made the mistake of thinking “civilization can pose a threat to freedom,” or that “science and technology” was a threat to freedom based on “unwise departures from well-worn traditions and for promotion of unnecessarily complex concepts”.
I’ll leave it for Harris to show us what he regards as a “complex concept”. Perhaps he can have that conversation with Bill Clinton — over the meaning of the word “is”.
Public education can be rightly criticized for many evils, today, and should be abolished (how? just sell them off and let people keep the taxes they now pay), but to assert, as Harris does, that public education promotes “consensus building and adulation of brains… as a superior route to success” is not just foolish, but a criminally ignorant distortion of history for the purpose of promoting the modern agenda of a theocratically-inclined Luddite, and an indictment of the anti-mind education Harris himself received.
One has to wonder if his book isn’t some product of “The Onion” when he asserts that the primary “threat to liberty today as not emanating from Marxism… but from prosperous modern civilizations”, while then going on to advocate altruism, egalitarianism, duty in the present and duty to the future, and civil war as the solution — the main precepts of Marxism.
Yes, we do have other threats besides Marxism. We have threats from false philosophies in the Post-modernism era that advocate relativism, mysticism, blind tolerance to any creed (such as Islam, the most profoundly anti-mind creed today, though Harris seems determined to prove Christianity is more so), and a host of other wrong ideas.
The solution is not to be anti-intellectual, anti-philosophical and anti-mind like Harris. The solution is to use our minds to the best of our ability to identify a correct philosophy that correctly grounds our rights in reality and discovers the real meaning of the Founder’s achievement. Listen to Ayn Rand’s speech delivered to the graduating class of West Point to understand this fully:
http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reg_ar_pwni
As I said, Harris has written a very bad book. It could have been written by Karl Marx himself (or even the Islamist’s patron, Mohammed) to dupe the Tea Party into accepting his premises, while counting on their ignorance and anti-intellectuality to miss the trick. What Harris misses is that most Tea Party types are exactly the opposite of what he advocates: they love this country, whether by conscious realization or not, for the profound intellectuality behind the creation of a government that (in its founding principles) *valued their lives*.
That Harris fails to grasp this simply shows the consequences of his willful rejection of reason, intellectuality, historical fact, and reverence for the mind, in a pathetic attempt to reach a preordained conclusion. For anyone who might feel they are being sucked into this miasma, I suggest, in the spirit of Ayn Rand, you check your premises.
Rob, thank you….this response was far superior and insightful than the article on which it commented.
I wish the founders had chosen a different term than “welfare,” but that would have required them to be even more prescient then they already were.
Modern “living Constitution” propagandists also don’t understand the meaning behind the term “original intent,” because the term requires one to read the correspondence and essays (such as the Federalist Papers) to put the meaning of the spare wording of the Constitution in context.
It doesn’t matter what words they chose Don, leftism always begins by corrupting words. Whatever phrase they chose instead of “General Welfare” would have been co-opted by leftists precisely because it had been so used.
Leftists are fundamentally parasites in all ways, including language. If they used accurate words to describe their programs, no one would buy it. They have to disguise themselves. After all, they call themselves Liberals, a label which most of the Founders would have gladly accepted.
And that’s why they can’t accept Original Intent. Their entire program is based on a giant bait-and-switch ruse.
What a load of crap. You sound like an anti-American Bircher fre@k. You want to dismantle the government, while the rest of the world out educates us, keep it citizens healthier, builds and maintains a 21st century infrastructure and will eventually out perform us economically. I spent a lot of time abroad and if the average American so the high standard of living enjoyed by many people in the western world, they’d realize the load of BS that you’re kind has been selling and shut you down.
There is an even more fundamentally foundational principle than conservatism or adherance to the Constitution.
It’s to do what works. This country clearly has the best governance framework ever developed, but what good would it be if the United States had been a failure? But it wasn’t; rather it has been the greatest country of all time, by leaps and bounds. More good has been done for more people, including billions who don’t live in this country, than in any time and in any place. Nothing has ever worked as well as the United States of America.
To change it without absolutely certainty of a better outcome is utter lunacy….or in other words, liberalism.
And in addition to that, if there is not an absolute bedrock authority for the governance of a country, the only alternative is chaos. It may take time to reach, but in the end, chaos is inevitable. So if the Constitution, which isn’t perfect because no framework can be perfect, isn’t sacrosanct, then this country is doomed, for certain.
Yet we have a criminal and a fool in our highest office who wants to transform the greatest country ever conceived, and who views our bedrock framework as a list of “negative rights”.
It’s the most stunning circumstance in our history.
I agree with the general thrust of your comment, but there’s one nit that must be picked. The inalienable rights of the Declaration are considered “negative rights.”
They do not give you anything, they just set forth what cannot be taken away from you. “Positive rights are things that government gives you, i.e., the rights to health care, to welfare if you’re poor, to, supposedly, a driver’s license, etc. What, in your innate dignity as a human being, cannot properly be taken from you, because no one gave it to you (except God), vs. what government, society, a leader, gives you as a right- what man giveth, man can take away- see Medicare!
Bull! You are repeating the Leftist disparagement of our Bill of Rights. They use the word “negative” apurpose, for its negative emotional content. The Leftists are all about emotional manipulation.
1st Amendment: You have the right to free expression and free worship. This is a positive. Its only negative is to the government. They are not free to abridge this natural right.
2nd Amendment: You have the natural right to bear arms. This is a positive.
And so the list goes on. Your right to property and your person. How are these things negative? They are negative to those who would control you.
Obama said during the campaign that the Bill of Rights does not say what the government MUST do for you. I beg to differ. It says the government must leave you the heck alone.
Whenever the government has a mandate to do something for you, they require that you give up that authority for yourself. Everything required of them gives them power over you.
This is why they want Universal Healthcare. They will then control that aspect of your life. They will tell you what you may not eat, and what you must eat, as an example.
Cap and Trade. They will control your energy. They will dictate what cars you must buy, as no others will be available. They will tell you where to set your thermostat, what kind of lightbulbs you MUST use, how far you may commute. Mass-transit will be required. Eventually, they will dictate who is even allowed a vehicle. Sacrifices must be made!
More business regulations, so they control your employers. They will dictate whom you must hire, whom you cannot fire, and how much you must pay… as if that business were a public enterprise, rather than private property.
The list goes on of all the things things they want to do for you, and the power they will demand in order to make it possible. All you have to do to receive their beneficence is to surrender, surrender all your power… like good little sheeple. Baa-a-aa!
The Bill of Rights is all that stands between us and tyranny.
“We are endowed by our Creator (God) with certain unalienable human rights.” Without God, you have no inherent human rights. He is the Source of your human rights. Without God, the Government is the greatest authority.
Thus, the effort to move the government into an area, and move God out. Schools used to teach from the Bible. It is how we all learned to read. Everyone had one. Then the government took over the schools, and God and Government cannot coexist… at least as far as the would-be tyrants see it.
Once God is thoroughly rejected by the majority, the Bill of Rights is finished, and so is Freedom. The Government will be transcendent. “We shall be as gods.” Hubris will rule that day.
“Negative rights”? Only to the tyrants.
You are missing his point. It is not “negative” as in bad, but in that they already exist and the government canNOT (this is the negative part) take them away from you.
The positive rights are ones they actively give you; healthcare woud be a example IF it were a right.
For this reason it may be of value to distinguish between rights and privileges.
Thus: “…they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” versus “a special benefit not enjoyed by all granted by a State”.
A drivers license, for example, is not a right but a privilege.
I do not have a cure for what ails America. I do know that we are on the wrong track.
A civil war?…I seriously doubt that any time soon. Right is right and wrong is wrong. The people we keep electing to office are wrong and we are wrong to do it. But not a civil war, we talk a good game, that’s all.
The campaigning for office is out of hand also. I heard Clinton degrading O’donnell and someone else in a speech…this man was a disgrace to our country yet we treat him like a king, a freaking king!!!, This man had the audacity to degrade “anyone” and the audience laughed,laughed!!!…It shows that we have a big problem with morals and ethics.
The candidate in CA that said the “Vietnamese and republicans” are taking over to spanish speaking voters…drivel. Reid, Pelosi, disgraces…but they stay in office.
- It’s like Webster vs Grayson (FL)ad..little sound bites taken and put together completely out of context ad up to a “horrible misleading” ad against Webster!! Grayson refuses to talk to media about it. So many terrible things put out and people will believe this crap and look no further!!
The past is important, but right here and now is PARAMOUNT!
`Civil war?..no. Brown shirts and jack boots maybe…we’ll see in the Nov vote. We need big time help. We will only get what we are willing to fight for and the polls aren’t looking too good.
No man can be free who must beg the elites for his living. Globalism and the creation of laws that make American products uncompetitive are at the root of our weakness as a nation. We must gouge out the vested interests like the trial lawyers and extreme enviromentalists who encumber our industries with the burdens of added costs. Costs that are caused by trivial law suits brought at every turn. Regulations and mandates that are passed by an out of control legislature that feels it’s main purpose is to impose a Nanny State that is choking the life out of our businesses. It will not be easy to free ourselves from them, but it must be done step by step until we have a working economy again.
If the author of the book really did mean the “early colonsists” as being natural libertarians, he’s a bit off base. The earliest colonists did not govern themselves in the manner or hold the same worldviews of their descendants who rebelled against the Crown. They may have been the ones to have escaped actual repression and persecution, but they themselves tended to lead rigid, restricted lives in a communitarian setting. The “libertarian” mindset was the result of follow-on generations and newer waves of colonists evolving away from the regimen of the first colonists. By the time of the revolution, a majority of Americans had created a prosperous and free society, largely based on what they considered to be a purer interpretation of English common law.
Americans rebelled because they felt they never had it so good, the opposite stimulus from that which drove/drives most revolutions (such as the catastrophic French one). This phenomenon is central to the American character and belief system — a belief system that progressives have found “offensive” since at least a hundred years ago. Americans who are true to the original spirit should embrace prosperity as part of the creed of The Pursuit of Happiness. If we should ever have another Constitutional Amendment, it should be one that enshrines the Declaration of Independence and its affirmation of Natural Law as a component of the Constitution itself.
As Scots-Irish from Southern Ohio, I don’t split hairs and I call a spade a spade…I will NEVER give up my guns nor my bible nor bend a knee to any man or government or institution, only to God…many of you with your comments do not see the danger of the progressives or liberals or communists or fascists or what ever they chose to call themselves this year, it is all about power and bending YOU to their will…war is coming, life is a b**ch and she is in season.
What a Cool Aid drinker you are. Nobody’s asking you to give up sh\t. That’s a load of BS that you’ve been suckered with. Your REAL enemy are the corporatist oligarchs who have been redistributing the country’s wealth for the last 30 years. Back in the 80′s the upper 5% of the population owned 50% of the nation’s wealth, now that number is up to 85%. There is no trickle down; sucking us dry. These tea parties are financed by these same oligarchs who are stealing our wealth and shipping our jobs overseas. This is the only western nation that does not protect the jobs of it’s own workers. They’re giving jobs to the Indians and Chinese and starving our own. Is that patriotic? NO! You’re being suckered, buddy. Your fighting against the wrong side.
I really believe that the founders never meant for America to be a country as we now know it with a centralized federal government ruling over individual states from a centralized authority in Washington. Rather their intention was for us to be a very loose confederation of individual states with each having its own laws and only convening when needed for the common defense. In fact, many of the founders didn’t even want a body in D.C. to coordinate the common defense because they knew that would lead to what we have today with Washington D.C. telling the individual states that they have to murder their own babies and give the babies that are born to sodomites. When centralized control is accomplished, then all a tyrant has to do is take the reigns.
“I really believe that the founders never meant for America to be a country as we now know it with a centralized federal government ruling over individual states from a centralized authority in Washington. Rather their intention was for us to be a very loose confederation of individual states with each having its own laws and only convening when needed for the common defense.”
Could be, but the 800 lb gorilla in the room for the people who don’t like the present and look back fondly to the original documents for some excuse to “return” (not possible, anyway) to those golden days of yesteryear is the fact that of course the Founders could not conceive of America becoming what she has become because they were men from individual states, trying, or sometimes trying not to create a country. They were setting up, and often disagreeing vehemently upon guidelines, that would at first permit us to come together as a country, and then remain one.
Now here is the big shocker. Over the course of 250 years, the country itself developed its OWN identity, beyond what the Founders could conceive, just as a son and succeeding generations may grow far beyond what any particular father may conceive. The idea that a couple hundred guys, no matter how brilliant, inspired, and let’s hope lucky, too, they happened to be, could give us a document in which their “intent”
is held up as the trump card (when, of course, it also achieves the political and spiritual goals of the justices or citizens waving the card). Good grief, the “Founders” were all over the place and everything was a barely patched together compromise.
This is not to say that it is not a brilliant document, which somehow “worked,” because it obviously did “work,” and we do need some central core of guiding principles on which to make our own judgements. But it has become the bludgeon of conservatives to stop any “progress” they don’t like. “Hey, the Founders did not INTEND that!” It took a war to clarify the intent of the Founders regarding slavery, and Lincoln did amend the Constitution, with the Declaration of Independence, as someone has previously asked to have done.
By the way, the Founders were flexible; if they weren’t, there would have been no Founding. They may have head to beat each other around the head and neck to achieve the flexibility, but they did it…barely.
I, unfortunately, am inclined to believe that it is too late. It may not be a civilian war we or our children witness but there will be a great deal of sporadic and violent outbursts here and there that the “authorities” will not be able to keep up with. I simply feel the welfare state is too large to merely be readjusted or ratcheted downward in time to fend off upheaval.
My ancestors, the McCants, fought with Francis Marion, the Old Swamp Fox, in South Carolina. Today they would be labeled domestic terrorists!
Its getting close to election time again so I switched over to CNN for once to see what they were slinging, same thing as three months ago
Then I switched over to MSNBC and it was at least alot funnier. It seems that some rock scientist at NBC actually thinks that Lawrence O’Donnell deserves his own show? I can instantly recognize true comedy potential when I see it. Lawrence O’Donnell, Hollywood’s elitist bully who is famous for being a writer and producer of the controversial NBC drama series “The West Wing.” Despite this flash of Hollywood success, by 1987 O’Donnell admitted that he was “unable to make any kind of living” as a screenwriter and sought financial help from his family back in Boston. Wow, surprise there huh? Everyone knows that Larry has the contagious virus going around MSNBC called the “Olbermann Syndrome.” Larry’s commentary never included a smidgeon of intelligence but now it’s even worse, he now sounds like a cross between Mel Gibson and Keith Olbermann. As the syndrome progresses it will cause Larry to fall into the “Chris Matthews phase.” This will lead him to believe that he is his own guest, in other words, he asks and answers every question.This will lead Larry to start spitting when he pronounces certain words, it’s similar to Sylvester the Cat’s lisp. Sylvester’s lisp of course was much worse but at least the people he talked to stayed dry. The next phase is the Dylan Rattigan phase and he will find himself starting to spend time in Hugh Hefner’s grotto and believing the women when they tell him “you were great” or he will start believing the info coming out of MSNBC. The last stage of the syndrome is called the Bill Maher psycho phase. This phase will start with an eye “tremor” or eye itch, similar to the one that Inspector Dryfus had (Inspector Clouseau’s enemy) in the Pink Panther movies. The angrier you get, the more it twitches. The more it twitches the angrier you get. And of course with this last phase, he will start believing the notes the Progressives have him reading.
I would just quickly point out that First: Lawrence enjoys demeaning and bullying women. Second, King Lawrence himself criticized other religions including his own Catholic faith, but declined to publicly criticize Islamic fundamentalism because he said he was afraid for his life. A “European socialist” is what as Mr. O’Donnell calls himself. O’Donnell describes his politics as follows: “I’m a European socialist, believe me — I’m far to the left. But I understand. I’m a kind of practical socialist. I know we failed. A lot of our ideas have failed, so I’m not with them anymore. I’m willing to take from a grab-bag of stuff that works.” I think “coward” would be the best description, Lawrence.
Talk of revolution and/or secession is silly and unproductive.
We survived Woodrow Wilson and we survived Franklin Roosevelt and we survived Jimmy Carter. So I’m pretty sure that we will survive Barack (and Michelle) Obama, too.
Your last couple of generations would have been picking out their dinner from garbage cans if it wasn’t for FDR. I guess no one in your family has ever collected Social Security or Medicare, huh? Your ignorance and gullibility are astounding. GET EDUCATED! The Koch family and other like them are your REAL enemies. Privatize everything, so they get rich, then destroy the society just like the Wall Streeters almost did. Then ship all our jobs to India and China so you can no longer send your kids to college or pay you medical bills or mortgage. They’re screwing you and you’re too st@pid to know it.
Calling people stupid or the equivalent is evidently the left’s preferred strategy these days – both Obama and Pelosi have done it recently. It’s very unlikely to succeed. Insulting people just isn’t persuasive. I’ll refrain from saying that anyone who doesn’t realize this is, well, you know.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…………… Anyone who votes against their own self interest is more than likely st@pid. The other option is cr@zy.
Current relativity regarding american jews , (a misnomer in terms of genuene patriotism ) from the exploytation of the term of HOLOCO$T , JEWS BEING ENDOWED WITH HUSTSPA, are renouned masters of retorical diversion, misinformation , and pursifull confusion directed to a not complicated average american public ! First action recognizing the JEW as an enegmick political master ! Being capabile of powerful persuavasion on people , with ulterriour motives (not american ) but jewishly dedicated !