If you have read one of my blogs before, you realize that I
am profoundly conservative, both socially and politically. I do not think that I was necessarily born
that way. I am a product, to a great
degree, of my upbringing and my early school education. I liked to read a lot
growing up and, like a good part of my generation, I watched a lot of
television. I tended to gravitate towards historical programs, if they were
available. My parents were socially
conservative and generally politically conservative, in theory, though my
father was a registered Democrat. However, I am relatively sure that he would
be apposed to what the Democrat Party embraces, if he were alive today. The
point is that I had pretty good conservative roots. As I grew older and began to think for
myself, I struggled with the fact that the things I was being told by society
and popular media were distasteful to me. Part of this is because I am a
religious man and much of what society is pushing these days is 180 degrees out
of my comfort level. By 1980, I became a died-in the-wool Conservative. My
political thought had become firmly entrenched in conservatism. I knew what I
felt, but like most people I wanted to reinforce my feelings with logical
thought. I have spent significant time and effort the last few years trying to
educate myself, or reeducate myself in some cases, to better understand our
history. It is extremely valuable to know where we came from philosophically
and how this nation and culture evolved.
So I have read and, in some cases, reread documents and books to
reaffirm the things I understand and believe. If you want to know how I arrived
at my current state of belief, I would suggest the following books and
documents which I have read and studied:
The Declaration of Independence; it needs to be read every 4th
of July to remind the thoughtful patriot of why our forefathers thought this
government was necessary.
The Constitution of The United States; especially the first
ten amendments known as our Bill of Rights; The Bill of Rights made the rest of
the document relevant. It should be read every year as well.
The Federalist Papers; these are the arguments put forth by
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, to interpret the Constitution
and belay the American people’s fear of a more powerful central government and to
show that its powers would be limited and would not trample on personal
liberties. The Anti-federalist Papers argued the opposite, but I admit that I
have read those more sparingly. After all, their arguments did not prevail and
the Articles of Confederation, which the anti-federalists were not anxious to
abandon, were a total failure and were leading the fledging United States to an
early grave.
The Bible, The Book of Mormon and The Koran; though other
religious texts can be read and studied as well, these books are invaluable, if
read with the intent of understanding what makes their adherents tick. The Bible and Book of Mormon are, in a nut
shell, about people who are admonished by God to be faithful to Him and to love
their fellow man, and how, if they become prideful and ignore God’s power in
their lives, they will, of their own doing, become ripe for destruction. The Bible was the root of the Judeo-Christian
culture that drove the founders and eventually inspired them to create a
republic like ours. The founders, such as Samuel Adams, were steeped in the
study of The Bible and saw their state as similar to the children of Israel. The
Bible showed that people needed to trust in God and not the arm of the flesh. Against
God’s will, the people of Israel rejected the rules of judges and asked for a
king. They suffered almost continually thereafter because of their choice. The
Book of Mormon also endorses the rejection of kings because a people can’t
always count on having a good one. The Book of Mormon is especially relevant to
America in what Mormons perceive as the Latter Days. The story line in The Book
of Mormon parallels our current time, if you believe that Christ is returning
soon and that wickedness sows the seeds of destruction. It also specifies
America as a land of promise, which will be blessed as long as its inhabitants
are righteous and worthy. I’ll probably
get my head cut of for saying this (hopefully, only figuratively), but The Koran
seems to me to be very disjointed, erratic in its doctrines and extremely
uninspiring. It seems to be mostly about Mohamed’s revelations to rewrite
events in prior scripture and to teach followers to bring others into
subjection. It is easy to see how extremist Muslims can interpret their
scripture to kill and terrorize non-Muslims. The Allah of The Koran is much
scarier than Jehovah of the Old Testament. The Koran is a must read to get a
more accurate picture of the religious fanatics who want to carry its teachings
to the destruction or subjugation of all non-Muslims. I have read several books
on Mohamed and Islam but, though some of the books were sympathetic, my
discomfort with jihadist mentality was not eased. The point is that one cannot judge a book by
its cover. If the book is revered as God’s word, it warrants actual reading
before discarding.
Plato’s The Republic, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Thomas More’s
Utopia, Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, and John
Locke’s and Montesquieu’s Treatise on Government ; More, originated the term ‘utopia’,
but all of these books or documents describe what the authors believe to be the
utopian or most ideal political system. Machiavelli describes how to create
power and rule by force. The Machiavellian approach to gaining power can be
recognized in many of the rulers on the Left. Plato actually describes several
options, but none are an actual democratic republican form as we have. All of
the systems envisioned by these men, with perhaps the exception of Machiavelli,
were socialistic in nature and depended on an enlightened ruler or ruling class
to keep order. However, there is not much in their theories to explain how to
keep the ruling class in order. Locke and Mantesquieu are the odd men out here,
though. Locke’s notions of natural law, moral duty and limited government along
with Montesquieu’s ideas about divided powers in government, namely executive,
legislative and judicial, were the fountains of thought that the founders
turned to when issuing the Declaration of Independence and constructing The
Constitution of the United States. If you don’t want to take the time to read
all of these works, but want to get a good understanding of their basic
messages and how they have historically impacted world politics in general,
threaten our system or endorse our form of government, you can read Mark
Lavin’s Ameritopia. As is his wont, he has thoroughly studied the subject and
puts these works in true context.
I have also read numerous biographies of our founding
fathers. If you want the best understanding of the lives of the founding
fathers and what they wanted to create, I would suggest that you read about the
lives of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin and read as much of their own
words as possible. I have read several biographies on George Washington,
including: George Washington: A life, by Ron Chernow; His Excellency: George
Washington, by Joseph Ellis and Being George Washington, by Glenn Beck.
Washington was the most impressive man of character of his time. He was truly
indispensable in the formation of our nation. He set a very high standard as
our first president, under our existing constitution. Very few have come close
to him since.
Franklin’s autobiography is a good start in studying him,
and then you should go on to read Walter Issacson’s Benjamin Franklin: An
America Life. Benjamin Franklin was a
remarkable intellect among the intellectual giants of his time and he was considered
by his contemporaries as the first great American.
I also recommend biographies of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson
and Alexander Hamilton. The ones I have read are: David McCullough’s, John
Adams, Joseph J. Ellis’ Founding Brothers, and Alexander Hamilton by Ron
Chernow. These books show how very different
personalities united in purpose to form a unique nation and, against the
warnings of George Washington in his farewell address from the presidency,
inadvertently created a party system which divided the nation for the rest of
its history.
Other historical figures of whom I have read biographies with
much interest include: Daniel Boon, Andrew Jackson, Davy Crocket, Abraham
Lincoln, Fredrick Douglas, George Washington Carver, W.E. B. Dubois, Theodore
Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald
Reagan and both George Bushes. Each of
these historical figures made lasting impressions on their contemporaries and
represented a particular world view. The political figures, in particular,
changed the direction of politics and the philosophical direction of the nation
for important lengths of time; some for the good and some for the bad, in my
opinion. I particularly enjoyed reading Ronald Reagan’s diaries. It was a
window into the man and his true character, that even an autobiography could
not sufficiently provide.
I recently read Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father and encourage
others to give it a read. Again, you
cannot theoretically discard a book without actually reading it first and
sustain complete intellectual honesty. If
after reading it, there is any doubt in your mind about his screwed up view of
the world, I would ask you to read Dinesh D’Souza’s The Roots of Obama’s Rage. There can be no doubt as to what Obama is
doing to the country, as his “useful idiots” enthusiastically follow along. They should read both too.
Since I am conservative in my politics and world view, I try
to read all of the conservative books I can fit in. I have read the
historically utopian viewpoints that Liberals keep trying to resurrect from the
bone yard of political thought and I easily reject them out of hand. The
arguments against such silliness are legion. Books of a conservative viewpoint which
I have read in the past few years that strengthen my position include: Thomas
Sowell’s Basic Economics and Black
Rednecks and White Liberals; Ann Coulter’s Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their
Assault on America, How to Talk to a
Liberal, If You Must, Slander: Liberal Lies about the American Right, Treason:
Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, and Godless: The
Church of Liberalism: Amity Shlaes’ The
Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression; Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism: The Secret
History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning; Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged; and David
Horowitz’s autobiography, Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey.
Sowell’s books
explain how the real economic world works and how we have misconstrued the
origins of “black” culture and unveils liberal fallacies. He is meticulous in his research and might be
the most intelligent and practical man, who happens to be a black man, in the
country. Ayn Rand was pretty morally
messed up when it comes to life style, but she was right -on about the
destructive effects of socialism, and how it destroys the spirit of innovation
and work ethic. Atlas Shrugged is a
rather laborious read when the characters drone on for pages making a simple
point so, after a page of a character’s argument, you can skip a few pages to the
next event and you will not miss anything. Nevertheless, you should read it
once. I found David Horowitz’s book
about 15 or more years ago and found it fascinating. He tells of his parents
being communists and how it was the plan for the Communist Party in America to
join infiltrate the Democrat Party and take it over, moving it towards the
radical Left. He tells how, as a radical Marxist, he worked with the Black
Panthers and Weathermen organizations, but that he eventually became
disillusioned with their politics and violent intents and of his conversion to
conservatism. The rest of these books
are highly researched and historically accurate exposes of forgotten history.
The Left, since the days of Woodrow Wilson, has been controlling the history
that our children and young people study from grammar school through college,
shaping their views and attitudes. These books mentioned above put history
straight and have helped me understand that my innate world view is
correct.
The study of history and philosophy must be a part of our
education, if we are going to have a chance of making informed decisions, come
election time. With our vote, informed or not, we are nudging our nation in one
direction or the other. My study of history shows that we have been, with a few
exceptions, steadily moving away from the founders’ model. If you think moving
further left is good, you should do so fully informed. However, you will not be
informed by today’s mainstream media. Their agenda is clear to anyone paying
attention. They have bought into the old
utopian idea that socialism is a perfect solution to the world’s ills. The problem is that socialism has lowered the
creativity and production of the people subjected to it in every place in the
world it has been tried. My study has shown me that individual liberty and the
pursuit of individual happiness should be every person’s goal. Artificially making the playing field level
for everyone limits the gifted and encourages the less gifted not to try.
Granted ,most of my reading leans toward conservative
thought, but I have invested time in studying the classics and recognize that
all liberal thought is generated by the same utopian sources mentioned
above. I read Obama’s book and concluded
that it was self promotional tripe. Researchers have since discovered that much
of it was made up of whole cloth. He deliberately “combined” some of the
characters and fabricated certain events to better lay out his narrative. He intentionally hid the identity of some of
the persons in his autobiographies, like his old mentor “Frank”, who was in
truth the “poet”, Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the Communist Party and
part time pornographer. It would not do
for his political aspirations, for him to divulge too much about his past
associations and their philosophies. Incidentally,
his mentor, Frank is not even mentioned in Obama’s audio version of the book. When
the occasional light has been shown on his past connections and affiliations,
the New York Timeses and NBCs of the news media totally ignore it. I’ve
found that I can get more information about the Left’s true agendas from
writers and news outlets on the Right.
Most Americans think they have no choice or they do not
care. They will, in time, realize that
they have foolishly given up another piece of their freedom to be a little more
comfortable in their lives, but only when it is too late My challenge to anyone reading this blog is
to get yourself a clue. Don’t vote until you know something and form a truly
informed opinion. Read a good book!
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