Liberty and Tyranny is a fit title for Mark Levin’s best seller that is taking the nation by storm. It is not merely an abstract philosophical or theological treatment of America’s history and emerging society. Rather, it reminds us of the reality surrounding our nation’s founding. The Founders believed that our rights as American Citizens were divinely given to each and every one of us by God, and that the free exercise of these God given rights resulted in our “Liberty.”

Levin’s book begins by taking us back to America’s founding. He rightly reminds us that, “Equality, as understood by the Founders, is the natural right of every individual to live freely under self-government, to acquire and retain the property he creates through his own labor, and to be treated impartially before a just law.”

He describes our Founders as wise, educated, sophisticated, well read women and men who made great efforts to be contemporary and well informed across a broad range of subjects and interests. Those in Washington DC today who feign to govern us would do well to emulate our Founders.

This book is more than a treatise on colonial history. It is also a presentation of the morality, beliefs, mind set and motivations of those who breathed life and liberty into a fledgling America in the middle of the seventeen hundreds.

Levin’s point is that, “Man is more than a physical creature.” And that, “Each individual is created as a unique, spiritual being with a soul and a conscience and is bound to a transcendent moral order established by Divine Providence and uncovered through observation and experience over the ages.”

Levin quotes Edmond Burke who says that, “There is but one law for all, namely, that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity –the law of nature and of nations.” Levin concludes that, “This is the Natural Law that penetrates man’s being and which the Founding Fathers adopted as the principle around which civilized American society would be organized.”

Today liberals and democrats worship the supremacy of a Federal Government. No matter how far they wander in their travels, daily they subconsciously bow to the idol of Federal Government. Because these modern day liberal Democrats venerate the Federal Government so much, Levin characterizes them as “Statists,” and concludes that their actions, if unchecked, will eventually lead the nation into “Tyranny.”

These Statists are not only deeply religious people but are determined to install the Federal Government as the supreme object of worship throughout the land, with a Democratic Party President playing the role of benevolent dictator. One of the Statist’s aims is to exclude God and religion -- as our Founders knew and practiced it -- from all aspects of America’s public life.

This is in direct contrast with Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln who believed that morality, religious, and political liberty cannot be separated, that “Morality cannot be maintained without religion.”

Levin points out that in the final analysis, the Statist is driven by a lust for power. Only by amassing huge amounts of political power can he deceive the people into believing that he can remake American society into his Statist image, and that any resistance from citizens opposed to government control of their private and business lives is futile. “Only then can the impossible be made possible.” Furthermore, “The individual will be seduced by the notion that he is receiving a benefit from the state when in reality the government is merely rationing benefits.”

“But for all his talk of America changing the world, the Statist speaks not of American sovereignty but ‘global citizenship.’ He speaks not of America as a nation-state but as one nation among many. Rather than maintain its superpower status and act in its own best interests, the United States should relinquish its hard-earned position in favor of multilateral power sharing and conduct foreign policy—including decisions about military action in its own defense—through coalitions and international organizations. In this way, America’s interests are subsumed and contained by the supposed interests of the whole. And the rest of the world will look approvingly upon the United States for empowering other countries to participate in decisions about America’s survival.”

At the end of this great book, Levin lays out his vision of a Conservative Manifesto which addresses the vital issues of our day:

Taxation, environment, limiting judicial power, reducing the size of government, education, immigration, controlling entitlements such as health care, foreign policy and national security, the establishment of the faith of our founders, respect for and enforcement of the constitution.
In closing, Levin quotes President Ronald Reagan, “Freedom…must be fought for, protected, and handed on for (our children) to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States when men were free.”

For Americans to live free, it is necessary for “Liberty” to triumph over “Tyranny”. Liberty and Tyranny is a great book. Every American should own a copy to read, to refer to frequently and to share with others often.