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Political Hay
Obama or Romney: The Books of November
Reading your way through the most important election in American history.
The American Ambassador to Libya is murdered.
Angry Islamic radicals climb the wall of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and destroy the U.S. flag.
Meanwhile, 23 million Americans are unemployed.
While the U.S. heads towards a fiscal cliff.
But why?
Why Obama? Why Romney?
What are these two people really talking about?
There are answers, of course. Many of which can be found in book form.
I know, I know. Who has time to read a book these days? It may take less time than listening to a Bill Clinton speech, but it’s still a time-taker. You could get through the 2012 election circus watching television and reading websites.
Or, you could read your way through it. Book by book. Understanding what’s really at stake in what many have called the most important election in the nation’s history — other than that clamoring dust-up that was 1860. Getting there one page at a time.
Making lists of this type are always perilous ventures. Inevitably there will be cries of “how could you have forgotten….”, immediately followed by a book so obvious the list maker looks the idiot. Or, immediately followed by a book so not-obvious it makes the list suggester look the idiot.
Be that as it may, here’s a list of books relevant to understanding the conservative side of this election. From understanding why there are 23 million unemployed to realizing why U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens was murdered yesterday, there is something here that helps explain the conservative case — and why the left always gets the same terrible results.
The Constitution
• They aren’t books —
but beginning with the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution of the United States is a must.
Mark Levin has effectively written a fabulously perceptive constitutional trilogy. In order that would be:
• Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America brings together a tutorial on history, the law and how the Supreme Court has gotten out of control. The machinations of the Court this past summer of 2012 in legitimizing Obamacare occurred years after this book first appeared — yet is perfectly explained in these pages. Understanding the need to keep Obama from appointing more liberal Justices — and for a President Romney to ensure he is appointing real conservatives — begins in these pages.
About the Author
Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (48) | Leave a comment
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Mimi | 9.13.12 @ 7:33AM
What a great list Jeffrey...and thanks for that! Back in 2009 I gave away my Liberty & Tyranny to my son. It got passed around,and around...I wanted to read it again so I was able to order from the Conservative Book Club @ $5.95...I ordered 2 at that price. One for me to keep & one to give away. They have for quite a reasonable price all the BOOKS on your list!
AmericanCynic| 9.13.12 @ 2:49PM
He forgot the most important book:
"TAX CUTS For All My Friends: The GOP Strategy For the Last 30 Years"
LOL!!!
Nick| 9.13.12 @ 3:06PM
Hey, the wiki historian is back!
You forgot the Foodstamp President's latest tomes:
Apologize, Apologize, & Apologize Some More (For Being American), as well as
How To Fund-Raise When Your Embassies Are Attacked
AmericanCynic| 9.13.12 @ 4:10PM
Nick, I'm sure you think the Egyptian American film-maker who posted an Arabic translation of his Hate-Film on 9/11 was okay because you like seeing American diplomats and soldiers killed. Good job you! ;) Yes, I will defend his civil liberty right to make that film, free speech isn't always pretty. I will, however, condemn slimy Americans who try to instigate war by pretending to be Israeli-American. You, however, probably love the guy. The end justifies the means for haters like you, huh?
RCV| 9.13.12 @ 4:22PM
That's an indefensible attack on Nick. He and I disagree politically on most things, but it's pretty outrageous to accuse him of wanting American soldiers and diplomats killed.
AmericanCynic| 9.13.12 @ 5:00PM
I'm sure you feel it's also indefensible to accuse our president of similar things, right?
AmericanCynic| 9.13.12 @ 5:14PM
Do you feel Nick agrees too?
Nick| 9.13.12 @ 7:26PM
That's a lie, AC. I've never accused O'Bama of wanting to see anyone dead.
Except, unborn babies (fetus in Latin,) that is.
Nick| 9.13.12 @ 7:23PM
Oh, did I hit a nerve, AC?
Hey, you never told me what those Marine MOS numbers stood for.
Thanks, RCV. I appreciate your defense of my character. I mean that sincerely.
Now I feel a little guilty for being so hard on you, lately.
But, I'll get over it! Bwah-ha!
Albert Constantine Jr.| 9.13.12 @ 11:28PM
I can't believe he described himself as a non-com, since Marines use the term NCO almost exclusively.
Nick| 9.13.12 @ 11:46PM
Yeah, we said NCO in the Army, too.
I left you a reply on tags, in the other thread, but, you seem to have the hang of it, now. Glad I could help, sir.
RCV| 9.14.12 @ 1:59PM
Feeling guilty is a normal state for those of us who were raised as Catholics, Nick. ;-)
CJW| 9.13.12 @ 3:57PM
You prefer "Cheap sub prime loans for all my Dem friends," by Bawny Frank and Chris Dodd.
Or, "How to evade federal income taxes" by Cholly Rangel?
Maybe,"How to get a Raise from $100,000 to $350,000 in a no show job (hint:helps if your husband is Barack who can request an earmark for your employer)", by Michele Robinson.
AmericanCynic| 9.13.12 @ 4:22PM
Actually "How to evade federal income taxes" was co-written by Reversible-Mitt Romney
For the record, I would like to see Charlie Rangel kicked out.
I'm a proud liberal, CJW, not a Democrat Party apologist.
CJW| 9.13.12 @ 4:36PM
What's the difference?
AmericanCynic| 9.13.12 @ 5:10PM
For a die-hard Republican apologist I imagine it IS difficult to see the difference.
George Carlin, a complex thinker and consummate wordsmith, often pointed out the danger of limiting issues or observations to just 2 possibilities. I'm sure you are familiar with the "glass is half full (empty) = optimist (pessimist)" analogy, right? When George was asked to describe that glass, he said "I see a glass that's twice as big as it needs to be."
In politics, we need more people willing to look at things outside what was previously framed as a one or another option.
CJW| 9.13.12 @ 5:33PM
Maybe you did not understand the question. What is the difference between you, a liberal, and the Dem Party, such as its platform, Obama/Biden speeches?
AmericanCynic| 9.13.12 @ 6:31PM
I'm an Atheist, most of the Dems believe in a one true God. (evidently one that is so insecure he has to have his name everywhere). The Dems put it back in their platform, which I understand. The GOP sprinkles it on almost everything! ;)
I see no reason to define what city is the capital of another country in the platform. I think it's ridiculous that the GOP does this too.
Yes, I support Israel, but not to the detriment of America's foreign policy or foreign service American lives.
Most of the other things in their platform I'm okay with. Many of the planks in the GOP platform I'm ok with too.
I think that the abortion language in the DNC's is preferable than the wording in the RNC's, but I believe anything about abortion shouldn't be in either.
I believe in gay rights period (marriage and everything else citizens are able to do).
Where my liberalism crosses over into libertarian-ism is that I believe the government needs to stay out of the bedroom of consenting citizen adults.
I think if cities want to ban certain guns they should be able to. There will always be OTHER places that people can live and shoot-off their high-powered, assault type, unlimited magazine "hunting" rifles. Some citizens don't like to mingle with people with guns on their hip and their opinions are just as valid as those of the NRA zealots.
AmericanCynic| 9.13.12 @ 6:32PM
I think affirmative action needs to be phased-out to achieve true racial equality. Race, orientation and gender discrimination laws need to stay in place, but affirmative action has to completely go away.
I also believe parts of the country are slower to change or adopt progressive viewpoints.
In metropolis America, Atheism is the new Gay. In rural America, Gay is still the new Black. In the deep South of rural America, Black is still the new Jew! LOL!
My 6 year stint in the USMC (3 over-seas), gives me a different viewpoint than the average American liberal too.
I liked both Obama and Biden's speeches, but I thought Clinton's speech was one of the best political speeches of our generation.
Gary B| 9.13.12 @ 7:36AM
Unfortunately, the authors of these books are preaching to the choir. Being products of our public education system, the target audience can't even read. The best approach would be to convert these works into reality TV scripts. Maybe that would work.
Gary B| 9.13.12 @ 8:46AM
Sorry... nowadays, cynicism has become second nature to me. You see, I'm a conservative, the most betrayed group of citizens in the country. We're experts at voting with hand and holding our nose with the other. We'll be doing it again in November. I'm thinking of getting a tattoo. It'll say, "I'm a Cheerleader for the Lesser Evil."
TeaPartyNow| 9.13.12 @ 11:16AM
Conservatives and the cause for conservatism, freedom, liberty, private property, whatever you want to call it got slaughtered this year by the agenda for keeping the status quo in liberal republican D.C. elites. I've been calling them elites, but looking at Paul Ryan, they look more like poop eating flunkies. Thank God I suppose, I don't have to vote for Romney. I live in Washington State so my vote for president never counts.
Keep the faith though, & keep conservative. The establishment republicans had to sc--- us one more time before we figured out that they can't help us any more.
Eventually people will be so debt laden and desolate that they will come crawling to conservatives for help. And we will bring America back to independence from governments. We could have done it this time if we hadn't trusted the establishment again. We can fight and win, but never with Mitt Romney. We will take government despotism and scour it from our lives. We the People can. Mitt Romney, never. He just can't lead us into recovery from within ourselves. And in all honesty I think that this year establishment republicans wanted to lose again so it could continue to blame everything on the left while it holds the status quo up in the highest.
CrackerHound| 9.13.12 @ 12:42PM
You still need to vote TeaPartyNow.
That's one of the basic tenents of a Teapartier.
I live in Texas and I still drag people to the polls to vote for conservatives.
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.13.12 @ 11:26AM
Gary,
just shut up and vote elmer fudd this go round. We are in troube.
Von Mises Jr| 9.13.12 @ 8:01AM
All three Levin books are outstanding. Liberal Fascism by Goldberg is excellent, especially the first five chapters that describe Mussolini, Hitler, Wilson, FDR and the 1960's fascism.
If you visit www.mises.org, you can find most of the books in print from Von Mises and Hayek. If you don't have the time to read the entire book, they sell Study Guides inexpensively. "Road to Serfdom" is condensed to about 45 pages and cost about $5. I read the entire book and got hold of the condensed version, read it and then gave it to my nephew. Since he is not my son, he will not have to suffer through the quiz.
C. Vernon Crisler | 9.13.12 @ 11:05AM
I would definitely recommend Goldberg's book *Liberal Fascism*. It's not just a political book but also has a lot of good historical discussion (as with Mark Skousen or Ralph Raico's books).
I'd also recommend that everyone buy a Kindle (or Nook or Nexus). You can download many of these books and carry a virtual library with you wherever you go -- restaurants, airplanes, hotel rooms, break rooms at work, and who knows where else.
The basic Kindle is as large as a dime novel, and I already started reading a biography of L. Von Mises, also Rothbard's books on economic history (love/hate some of what he says). Plus, I have access to the complete writings of Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hegel, and many other books.
And the added bonus, when I'm out of range of my own wifi, I can't connect to the Internet from my basic Kindle, so less distractions than with a laptop; more time for actual reading vis-a-vis surfing.
Von Mises Jr| 9.13.12 @ 7:12PM
I agree Vern except I still believe in owning the physical tomes. You never know when the new readers and old versions become incompatible. Also, I think you download and it is only a license, not a family library edition.
I am just cautious since when I tried to find stories about Robert Bae who spilled the beans that Salazar and Browner forging the recommendation of the BP Oil Drilling Report and could not find it, I realized we are living "1984" where history goes down the "Memory Hole."
I have the works of Aristotle, some Plato, "Shorter Summa," and several books on the History of Philosophy. You also learn much from Mises such as "Theory and History" that I highly recommend.
I just finished Plato's "Early Socratic Dialogues." It is so insightful and I used the example of Perp the Sophist that uses tortured logic. E.g. is the man who learns wise or ignorant? If he is wise he already knows it, but ignorant and he cannot learn. Of course the ambiguity is the words learn is used as a noun and then a verb.
CJW| 9.13.12 @ 1:56PM
Von
May I suggest PJ O'Rourke's "Parliament of Whores." Funny, insightful.
C. Vernon Crisler | 9.13.12 @ 4:13PM
I've tried to read PJ, but for some reason I just can't get beyond the first few pages. Not sure why.
CJW| 9.13.12 @ 4:15PM
Which books did you try? He is different.
Von Mises Jr| 9.13.12 @ 7:00PM
CJW, I love PJ O'Rourke and read that book, "Eat the Rich" and a couple others. He is hilarious.
I was on a Vonnegut kick for years and his books are also very funny and insightful. His writings are odd since he was a major liberal nut. But apparently he was able to laugh at himself and liberal conundrums?
CJW| 9.13.12 @ 7:55PM
Remeber Vonnegut was in the Rodney Dangerfield move, "Back to School," where he wrote a term paper on Vonnegut for Rodney, but Rodney got a C ? Great movie, with Sam Kinnison talking about Vietnam and Korea.
Indy| 9.13.12 @ 8:15AM
If you don't have the time, consider the audio books at least for Levin's Liberty and Tyranny and Ameritopia, I keep lending mine out to share with others.
Reckless Endangerment is an eye-opener.
Yes, we can certainly add to the list. White Guilt by Shelby Steele is excellent. The Shadow Party by David Horowitz / Richard Poe documents the influence of George Soros and there is much to learn about Hillary Clinton. The Secret Knowledge by David Mamet who writes about his transition from liberal to conservative is also good. Now, if I can just find the time to read the books I have stacked up.
scotchieguy| 9.13.12 @ 9:35AM
Radical Son by David Horowitz (how he grew up a revolutionary son to Marxist parents in NYC), then suddenly became a conservative in the 1980's
Black Rednecks and White Liberals by Thomas Sowell (six chapters dealing with different topics but the best is "Black Rednecks." You will never look at black culture the same. Outstanding).
Indy| 9.13.12 @ 10:08AM
Agreed, Sowell's book is in my stack and Radical Son on my list to purchase along with many others and I just saw Andy McCarthy has a new one coming out - more late nights to come
http://www.nationalreview.com/.....na-johnson
Von Mises Jr| 9.13.12 @ 10:24AM
Hey scotchieguy, I love Sowell and read almost all his books in print. I would suggest "Vision of the Anointed” and "Quest for Cosmic Justice." Levin's "Ameritopia" is similar and great since he uses the socialist Utopian ideologies of Plato, Thomas More, Hobbes and Marx and contrasts them to Locke, Montesquieu and Tocqueville. A wonderful read that exposes one too many great thinkers and a few not so great.
Indy| 9.13.12 @ 9:02AM
The Communist by Paul Kengor, insight into Frank Marshall Davis, Obams's mentor, I'm reading it now, Wow...just wow on the things they have in common
The New Leviathan by David Horowitz - follows the money of how the Left is funded
Righteous Indignation by Andrew Breitbart - he understood Alinsky tactics.
TeaPartyNow| 9.13.12 @ 11:28AM
Righteous Indignation is one of the best books I have ever read. I bought it the first week it came out & quickly e-mailed Andrew to tell him that his book was incredible. It is both highly informative and easy to read. Andrew is awesome.
I have all of Levins' books because I love the tigh tassed madison, but they are no where near easy to read. And he makes the mistake, as he always does, in Ameritopia of not tying anything with what we are living with today. He can think of some things that are wrong, but he can never apply them to today, and issue a fix for America. The fix is not in them, as Levin says "vote for Romney" America will remain a deeply degraded, perpetually declining nation until the American People wake up and govern their nation again. Our recovery is not better government, it is in better American People, or it does not come. We must change our governments and our communities, ourselves our simply cease to be.
TeaPartyNow| 9.13.12 @ 11:35AM
Sorry, only Mark Levin would know what a tigh tassed madison is. I used to call him Madison, & I was Jefferson even though I am female. And if you call him today and ask him if he has refered to God, thinking of me, he wouldn't be able to deny it. Mark Levin is Madisonian, but he is also a tigh tass. If I didn't flip him sh--, it wouldn't get done.
Who Knows?| 9.13.12 @ 9:52AM
What?
No Bible?
TeaPartyNow| 9.13.12 @ 11:04AM
So because other people understand what is wrong, we should elect the guy who can't fix anything, Mitt Romney? The right doesn't even understand what god given rights are, or religious freedom. The right has had wrong answers to allot of our problems, and they can't change into the right ones. God given rights is a guarantee of private property rights. You have the right to what god gave you. God gave you abilities. God did not give you the right to take from others. The right uses god given rights to shove jesus down every Americans' throat, period.
And the freedom of religion, John Locke says we need religion because only citizens who believe in a moral imperative can self govern their own lives, and their nation. Also Locke says that it has to be decided by each individual because other people can not tell a person how to govern themselves. The right more often than not thinks that they have the freedom to insist that everyone worship jesus only or get the h- out of America. & this right, is wrong.
The right loses by habit of losing. It (whom ever "it" may be) rejected a conservative fighter who would have won every issue for conservatism (Rick Santorum) this year for a clueless Romney who will give everything away to the left. I live in a liberal state so my vote for president won't count anyway.
But if you think that anyone else will vote for zero solutions Romney you are wrong. You went with the moderate again. The rights' function ability is severely low.
CrackerHound| 9.13.12 @ 12:51PM
TeaPartyNow: "The right more often than not thinks that they have the freedom to insist that everyone worship jesus only or get the h- out of America. & this right, is wrong."
Wow...you are really out to lunch with that. You sound like the paranoid liberal atheists that seem to be everywhere nowadays.
Look, there is nothing wrong with religious people talking about Jesus frequently, even if it scares you. It doesn't mean they are trying to force anything on you.
Boar Hunter| 9.13.12 @ 2:50PM
TeaPartyNow illustrates why we should never have given women the right to vote.
TinaB| 9.13.12 @ 4:51PM
Thank you, CrackerHound, you are correct.
AmericanCynic| 9.13.12 @ 6:37PM
"Paranoid liberal atheists?"
We're not the ones running around screaming, "There's a war on Christians...a jihad on Christmas!!!"
LOL@Projectionists
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.13.12 @ 11:35AM
Tea Party.
a lot of us are Christians. We don't want Jesus "down your throat" but merely to ease into your heart.
Christianity was good enough for our founders, as was a musket in every pair of hands.
I will settle for my 7.65 magnum.
The Dan Machine| 9.13.12 @ 12:10PM
All of Bastiat's work can be found for free at www.fee.org. "The Law" and "That which is seen, and that which is not seen" read like they are responses to many of Obama's current policies.