I thought I'd get around to starting Levin's book today. Man, was I surprised to find fault in the very first paragraph. Actually, I wasn't surprised. IMO Levin is a neoconservative, so it's not really out of place for him to make the following statement: Chapter One
On Liberty And Tyranny
There is simply no scientific or mathematical formula that defines conservatism. Moreover, there are competing voices today claiming the mantle of "true conservatism" - including neoconservatism (emphasis on a robust national security), paleo-conservatism (emphasis on preserving the culture), social conservatism (emphasis on faith and values), and libertarianism (emphasis on individualism), among others. Scores of scholars have written at length about what can be characterized as conservative thought. But my purpose is not to give them each exposition, as it cannot be fairly or adequately accomplished here, nor referee among them. Neither will I attempt to give birth to totally new theories.
LOL!
Good Lord, where do I start?
First of all, neoconservatives are not conservatives. Libertarians are not conservatives. Conservatives are conservatives and stating that a conservative can be any of these or any combination of these is ridiculous and only serves to water down the true meaning of a conservative.
For example, red is red and blue is blue. Add blue to red and you get purple. Add leftist positions to conservatism and you don't still have conservatism, you have neoconservatism, a moderate or in enough degrees, a liberal. Does Levin ascribe to the 'big tent' theory in which conservatives should allow all sorts of positions that traditionally are not conservative? Go along to get along? It would seem so.
Levin has a hard time defining conservatism because he doesn't understand it himself, or that would be my guess anyway. Not only does Levin start out by mischaracterizing conservatism, he also mischaracterizes neoconservatism, paleo-conservatism and libertarianism. Conservatives also believe in a strong national security which Levin attributes to neoconservatism, but conservatives don't believe in attacking countries preemptively who have not attacked us, nation building or policing the world.
A conservative is someone who wants to preserve, maintain and protect the Constitution as it was written, including the Bill of Rights, who wants to preserve, maintain and protect the form of government established by our founding fathers as outlined in our founding documents. A conservative wants to follow the advice given us by our founding fathers as to how our great country should work and conduct itself.
A conservative doesn't follow the Wilsonian, leftist position that we must project our strength and values around the world in order to remake the world in our image.
A conservative would follow the advice laid out by our first President, George Washington who said, "Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty."
It was Washington's belief that the United States must remain a neutral third party in order to survive.
Or Thomas Jefferson who stated, "Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none." Conservatives should then be against our entangling alliances in the UN, Nato, the WTO and any other multi-national organizations. Those organizations have done nothing for us except to erode our sovereignty and condition Americans to accept these alliances.
These are the visions of our founding fathers about how we should conduct ourselves around the world and it is THAT, that a conservative wishes to preserve.
A conservative definitely wants to preserve the culture of America as Levin puts forth about paleo-conservatives, including our form of government. A conservative has definite libertarian leanings and wholly agrees with our founding fathers vision on rights and liberties as laid out in our Bill of Rights.
A conservative DOES NOT adhere to the neoconservatives vision of foreign policy.
I'm looking forward to what else I might read in this book.
Has anyone here read it?
