Mark R. Levin - Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America

The man of system is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. He goes on to establish it completely and in all its parts, without any regard either to the great interests or to the strong prejudices which may oppose it. He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board.

Adam Smith
The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759

AN INTELLECTUALLY BRACING NEW VOLUME ON AMERICAS TRANSFORMATION AND THE CLASH BETWEEN CONSTITUTIONALISM AND UTOPIANISMFROM THE AUTHOR OF THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIBERTY & TYRANNY

MARK R. LEVIN

Hailed by Rush Limbaugh as the most compelling defense of freedom for our time, and the necessary book of the Obama era by The American Spectator, Mark R. Levins Liberty and Tyranny made the most persuasive case for conservatism and against statism in a generation. In this most crucial time, this leading conservative thinker explores the psychology, motivations, and history of the utopian movement, its architects, and its modern-day disciplesand how the individual and American society are being devoured by it.

Levin asks, what is this utopian force that both allures a free people and destroys them? Levin digs deep into the past and draws astoundingly relevant parallels to contemporary America from

Platos Republic
Thomas Mores Utopia
Thomas Hobbess Leviathan
Karl Marxs Communist Manifesto

as well as from the critical works of John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, Alexis de Tocqueville, and other philosophical pioneers who brilliantly diagnosed the nature of man and government. As Levin meticulously pursues his subject, the reader joins him in an enlightening and compelling journey. And in the end, Levins message is clear: the American republic is in great peril. The people must now choose between utopianism or liberty.

President Ronald Reagan warned, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. Levin agrees, and with Ameritopia, delivers another modern political classic, an indispensable guide for America in our time and in the future.

MARK R. LEVIN , nationally syndicated talk-radio host and president of Landmark Legal Foundation, is the author of Liberty and Tyranny, the 38-week New York Times bestseller that spent more than three months at #1 and sold more than one million copies. His books Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America and Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lovers Story of Joy and Anguish were also New York Times and national bestsellers; he also contributed the preface to his father Jack E. Levins Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address Illustrated. He has worked as an attorney in the private sector and as a top adviser and administrator to several members of President Ronald Reagans cabinet. He holds a B.A. from Temple University and a J.D. from Temple University Law School.

Follow Mark Levin on Twitter and visit him on the web at www.marklevinshow.com .

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Copyright 2012 by Mark R. Levin

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First Threshold Editions hardcover edition January 2012

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Designed by Joy OMeara

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Levin, Mark R. (Mark Reed), 1957

Ameritopia : the unmaking of America / Mark R. Levin.

p. cm.

1. United StatesPolitics and governmentPhilosophy. 2. DemocracyUnited States. 3. UtopiasUnited States. 4. UtopiasPhilosophy. I. Title.

JK31.L47 2012
320.97301dc23

2011042260

ISBN 978-1-4391-7324-4
ISBN 978-1-4391-7328-2 (ebook)

To my beloved family

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CHAPTER ONE
The Tyranny of Utopia

CHAPTER TWO
Platos Republic and the Perfect Society

CHAPTER THREE
Thomas Mores Utopia and Radical Egalitarianism

CHAPTER FOUR
Thomas Hobbess Leviathan and the All-Powerful State

CHAPTER FIVE
Karl Marxs Communist Manifesto and the Class Struggle

CHAPTER SIX
John Locke and the Nature of Man

CHAPTER SEVEN
The Influence of Locke on the Founders

CHAPTER EIGHT
Charles de Montesquieu and Republican Government

CHAPTER NINE
The Influence of Montesquieu on the Framers

CHAPTER TEN
Alexis de Tocqueville and Democracy in America

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Post-Constitutional America

CHAPTER TWELVE
Ameritopia

IN LIBERTY AND TYRANNY , I described the nature of individual liberty and the civil society in a constitutional republic, including the essential principles of Americas societal and political order. I also discussed the growing tyranny of governmentstatism, as I broadly labeled itwhich threatens our liberty, the character of our country, and our way of life. At the time I warned that if we do not come to grips with the significance of this transformation, we will be devoured by it.

The symptoms of the tyranny that threatens liberty and republicanism have been acknowledged throughout time, including by iconic Americans. For example, Supreme Court associate justice Joseph Story, among Americas most prominent legal thinkers, explained in 1829, governments are not always overthrown by direct and open assaults. They are not always battered down by the arms of conquerors, or the successful daring of usurpers. There is often concealed the dry rot, which eats into the vitals, when all is fair and stately on the outside. And to republics this has been the more common fatal disease. The continual drippings of corruption