Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto

Author and conservative talk radio host Levin (Rescuing Sprite, Men in Black) takes on the Statist, a liberal straw man, in this collection of polemics against left-wing tenets (like ""economic and social justice""), touchstones (like the New Deal) and institutions (strongholds of liberal thought like academia and the mainstream media). With ""an insatiable appetite for control"" and a veil of ""moral indignation,"" Levin finds the Statist not only in congressional Democrats and President Obama's White House, but in ""neo-Statists"" like compassionate conservative Michael Gerson, and the Fed and Treasury under G.W. Bush. Many of Levin's arguments reiterate familiar tropes, including a ""strict constructionist"" view of the Constitution that sees Social Security as patently un-American. Predictably, Levin opposes the extension of health benefits, derides global warming (implicating Obama's ""global warming czar"" as a leader in ""the Socialist International's Commission for a Sustainable World Society""), and fights back against immigrants, whom the Statist portrays ""as universally more virtuous than the citizen."" For those new to the Tea Party, Levin offers a handy roundup of conservative talking points, but anyone paying attention to talk radio over the past few years won't learn anything new.