Please try to keep comments substantive. When I can, I try to throw out comments that are basically rants, and direct insults at other folks who have taken the time to post.
I should do it more often, but a) I have a day job and b) I’m crashing on a book.
For the most part I let stand nasty remarks about me, provided there is at least some substance to them.
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by Michael Ledeen
...transcend[s] mere descriptive narrative and seek[s] to fix a value—political, philosophical or strategic—on the events of 9/11…
—Tunku Varadarajan
Wall Street Journal
by Michael Ledeen
Michael Ledeen takes a fresh look at Tocqueville’s insights into our national psyche and asks whether Americans’ national character, which Tocqueville believed to be wholly admirable, has fallen into moral decay and religious indifference.
by Michael Ledeen
American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Ledeen offers an updated version of the rules for leadership laid down by Machiavelli. Its the nature of humans to do evil, and war is our natural state. Anyone who would wield power in such a setting, writes Ledeen, echoing Machiavelli, “must be prepared to fight at all times.” This is as true in business, sports, and politics as it is on the battlefield.
Kirkus Reviews
by Michael Ledeen
With the skill of a born storyteller, Michael Ledeen weaves together key moments in the fall of communism. His insider’s knowledge of the interplay of complex personalities and Byzantine strategies makes a compelling narrative, one enlivened by his wry wit and flair for the dramatic.
In this call to embrace the worldwide democratic revolution, the author argues that global democracy should be the centerpiece of U.S. strategy.
Regarding the demise of racism as a direct result of this election, I believe that is a far, far too optimistic a position. Yes, many voted for Obama–a black. The same people, by and large, would have voted for him if he were white, blue or pink, I assert, since he was a Democrat, and not GWB or a surrogate.
Real racial progress hinges on the assimilation of all ethnic groups into an America Culture that is by definition law-abiding, responsible to their families and children, productive, and fully literate in the English language. This conversion has to be done from within these ethnic groups, not from without.
Thus, this election of Obama is a one-off recognition of such a conversion having taken place by himself and his family, and no one else.
ML: I don’t agree. I think it lays to rest the notion that “Americans will not elect a black man to the presidency,” and I think it’s a great thing. I’m one of those who worked very hard in the sixties to put an end to discrimination, and it’s great to see this change take place.
I can certinly agree with that, since it is a simple fact. Obama was elected.
Having said that, I suggest (again) that Obama has a unique persona that makes this election win a one-time thing, not any sort of trend-setter for blacks in government or in the nation generally.
You gave me a blanket disagreement, I take it, so you also do not think assimilation efforts must occur from within racial groups by their conforming to the social norms the rest of us do, such as obeying the law, strong marriages, cared-for children, learning to use the English language, and I would add adopting a more acceptable value system, to mention a few norms.
You seem to ignore the majority of serious problems in the black community as a whole that far greater adherence to these social norms would help to correct. Need I catalog these problems for you? They are quite well-known, and having a black president will not solve them in any substantive manner.
In fact, a case could be made that it may well make things worse, if only through overly excessive expectations by blacks.
If you worked to end discrimination, that is a good thing, but that alone has not adequately addressed the problems of the black community that I would catalog from my vantage point. Virtually none of them can be solved externally from the blacks themselves, and money is not the root or the palliative either.
Michael, two questions:
Why bother with offering blog ‘comments’ at all? Better to offer an email connection, perhaps? At least that way you’d not have to deal with grand-standers salivating over their avatar’s rhetorical genius. Troll’ing for attention. Whatever.
Also, Africa – So your trip wasn’t a post-manuscript-submittal respite? [Heh - I had hoped that you'd come back from Kenya with BHO's Nairobi birth certificate.]
Please let us know here when the new book is out, when you’ll be on radio, that d=sort of stuff. Hey, maybe prep the book-rack to the right, too, to launch it.