The liberal-conservative debate. Detailed analysis and critique of American conservatism, liberalism, libertarianism and populism. Discussion of U.S. foreign policy and the size of government. Discussion of many political issues (equality, freedom, justice, virtue, dissent, democracy and religion) and how they relate to liberalism and conservatism. Improving U.S. public policy. Adding economics to the liberal-conservative debate. All written by an academic economist and long-time conservative.

The spirit of freedom is a burning passion to live unrestrained. This book is a collection of thought provoking ideas, comments and essays covering certain aspects of political and economic history and what can be expected the future. The American Dream started with the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620. The American way of life is the result of subsequent events that built the greatest economic engine in the history of the world. In 2012, there is substantial evidence to suggest America is sliding back. Hopefully, this book will help stem the tide. Individualism and collectivism are forever a concern in society. The purpose of this book is to contrast those subtle and not so subtle differences. In 1952, Leonard E. Read wrote: "Man is an individual being. Man is also a social being. His material success even his existence depends on the progress of others. Yet, man's fortunes and existence depend also on himself. In some respects he is tied to others, but in most respects he must be freed from others. Defining this relationship between man and his fellow-men, discovering precisely where man should act socially and where he should act individually, has been a challenge throughout the ages. And the solution, if it has been found, is not well known in our times. Today, all over the world in America as elsewhere the social side of man is being emphasized to the detriment of man's individual side. Nothing on this earth but understanding and the clear explanation of such understanding can erase this twentieth-century catastrophe." The foregoing description is as valid today as it was in 1952 and earlier. The common thread of events is consistent and has repeated itself throughout history. We hope to clarify that common thread and enable readers to recognize the differences that affect their lives and the lives of the generations of children that follow. ABOUT THE TITLE: Living FREE refers to Liberty (Freedom) or Individualism, which is the political philosophy or ideology stressing independence and self-reliance. Individualists choose to realize their goals and desires on their own terms without external interference from government or others. FREE Living refers to Power (Force) or Collectivism, which stresses human interdependence based on a group or common interest collective. The importance of separate individuals is subservient to the interests of the group with an emphasis on community and society with priority given to group goals over individual goals. According to Kenneth A. Wells, Author of Guide to Good Leadership, "A good listener tries to understand what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but because he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with." So it is with this book for its readers. Our world is built on differences of opinion. Once again, one should understand what one is disagreeing with. Can you imagine what life would be like if everyone had the same thoughts and opinions? Success and failure is the Miracle-Gro(r) food of life that makes society stronger. Competition makes us better people, fosters better businesses and ultimately, enhances the lives of our families. If future generations understand the importance of individual liberty and free enterprise, they too can better enrich themselves and their families. The unique opportunity and rewards of free enterprise present the poor with an opportunity to join the wealthy. Few countries in the world offer such rewards for hard work. This book simplifies some of the issues, but is deep enough to challenge conservatives and liberals alike. Finally, the message and story line of this book is: Capitalism always wins and socialism always fails. That is the natural way of things and how life is meant to be. Don't fight the Free Enterprise Market Economy and regulate it to achieve a level playing field if you must, but for the economic good of society ... embra

The prevailing sentiment of contemporary intellectuals is that the human condition has never been better. History is regarded as lengthy episode of oppression that human beings have gradually but steadily fought to overcome with considerable success. Evidence of these successes that are commonly offered include increased material consumption, better health and longer life expectancy, technological development and, above all, the ongoing triumph of "democracy" and "human rights." However, the nineteenth and twentieth century produced an array of dissident thinkers that expressed a great skepticism of modern civilization. Their individual critiques were often vastly different from one another. Yet the common idea that emerges from work of these genuine intellectual mavericks is one that laments the loss of traditional societies, and pessimism about the new world that modernity has brought. Instead, the modern project has been regarded by thinkers as different as Nietzsche, G.K. Chesterton and Alain De Benoist to have been a cultural and spiritual degeneration that diminished rather than elevated the nobility of man. This work by Keith Preston examines the ideas of these thinkers, and considers the potential relevance of their insights in the postmodern age.

A testament to what it means to be liberal by one of the most prominent political philosophers of our era There was a time when liberalism was an ism like any other, but that time, writes Michael Walzer, is gone. "Liberal" now conveys not a specific ideology but a moral stance, so the word is best conceived not as a noun but as an adjective-one is a "liberal democrat" or a "liberal nationalist." Walzer itemizes the characteristics described by "liberal" in an inventory of his own deepest political and moral commitments-among other things, to the principle of equality, to the rule of law, and to a pluralism that is both political and cultural. Unabashedly asserting that liberalism comprises a universal set of values ("they must be universal," he writes, "since they are under assault around the world"), Walzer reminds us in this inspiring book why those values are worth fighting for.

Barack Obama wasn't the only beneficiary of the calamitous Bush years. Something of an industry punchline since its formation in 1996, MSNBC suddenly gained a comprehensible voice during the era, while pinning its hopes upon the inspiring senator from Illinois. Obama's victory spelled success for the network, which saw a sizable ratings increase and began positioning itself as a viable alternative to the right-wing propaganda of Fox News. However, a close inspection of the station's programming and an analysis of their celebrity hosts generate troubling questions about the state of the American media. MSNBC has shilled for Obama's wars, defended the administration's illegal spying programs and failed to hold our broken political system accountable. Medium Blue serves as a primer to help navigate the ultimate futility of our distinguished liberal media.

Join Senator Ted Kennedy and President Ronald Reagan in the greatest debate in history Don't miss this opportunity to experience Kennedy and Reagan as they share their life stories and philosophies while they discuss and debate the most important issues of our time. Who will win? All lovers of politics and history will enjoy reading the ultimate Democrat/Republican philosophical debate. Imagine yourself in the same room with Ted Kennedy and Ronald Reagan as they eloquently duel each other to convince Americans that their own philosophies are the best for the future of the United States. Have a front row seat to relive history in Kennedy and Reagan's own words while they spar with each other. Read the play that emotionally moved audiences on stage in New York City and is also performed by its author, John C. Kendall, in the movie version which is currently available on amazon.com movies. In a review of the movie version of this play the following comments were made by Dr. Myles Martel, President Reagan's debate coach, "Your representations of Reagan and Kennedy are terrific. You have captured well --impressively-- the essence of both their personalities and political philosophies--hardly an easy feat. Further, I am quite taken with your acting and producing talent."

Before Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck, there was Jesse Helms. From in front of a camera at WRAL-TV, Helms forged a new brand of southern conservatism long before he was a senator from North Carolina. As executive vice president of the station, Helms delivered commentaries on the evening news and directed the news and entertainment programming. He pioneered the attack on the liberal media, and his editorials were some of the first shots fired in the culture wars, criticizing the influence of "immoral entertainment." Through the emerging power of the household television Helms established a blueprint and laid the foundation for the modern conservative movement. Bryan Thrift mines over 2,700 WRAL-TV "Viewpoint" editorials broadcast between 1960 and 1972 to offer not only a portrait of a skilled rhetorician and wordsmith but also a lens on the way the various, and at times competing, elements of modern American conservatism cohered into an ideology couched in the language of anti-elitism and "traditional values." Decades prior to the invention of the blog, Helms corresponded with his viewers to select, refine, and sharpen his political message until he had reworked southern traditionalism into a national conservative movement. The realignment of southern Democrats into the Republican Party was not easy or inevitable, and by examining Helms's oft-forgotten journalism career, Thrift shows how delicately and deliberately this transition had to be cultivated.

Liberal Socialist Democrats (the "LSD" Party) have insidiously changed this country to fit their delusional utopianism over the last 100 years; Barack Obama said he would "Fundamentally Transform the United States of America;" he was right. Socialism hasn't worked anywhere, so why do they think it will work here? Future generations will hold all democrats, moderate republicans, liberal judges, liberal universities, labor union leaders, public school systems, liberal media elites, Madison Avenue and Hollywood responsible for destroying the greatest country in history. How do these liberal socialist democrats and their sycophants "HUSTLE" the votes of the poor, seniors, women, Black Americans, Latino Americans, the young, homosexuals, climate wackos and other minorities to gain power and control? They promise benefits from the public treasury... Other people's money Democrats use deception and class warfare between Americans so they can gain and maintain power. They need the poor to stay poor, and other "groups" to feel disadvantaged so they can con them into thinking they "care." They only care about more power, more control, more money and more fame... Their drug of choice That's why they hustle/con the poor into believing they can't succeed without governments' help. They don't dare educate, inspire or motivate them to the success of entrepreneurial capitalism. Tell me the last time a democrat on a Sunday morning news program told an uplifting story of how a poor person overcame all obstacles to succeed and move from poverty to prosperity? You can't, because it doesn't serve the LSD party Why the poor settle for socialist crumbs is a sad mystery... How do the poor move from poverty to prosperity? Education and hard work within a God-fearing, free-market, capitalist society - where God is the author of our destiny, past, present and future... Liberal socialist democrats are the modern day slave traders, and the government is their plantation Just read Dr. Walter E. Williams' "The State Against Blacks." The most socialist countries around the world are failing, and the most socialist cities and states in America are being crushed and filing bankruptcy, but the LSD Party will never give up. Don't believe me - compare the suffering of North Koreans to the highly prosperous South Koreans, or California to Texas, or Detroit to Dallas. Socialism has never worked Any honest study proves this... How is this going to end? Predictably, in the proverbial gutter, just like so many addictions end. Maybe then, we can hit the reset button and get back to the "Pursuit of Happiness" in the greatest country in history... If Americans can put men on the moon - we can fix these problems, but we must elect God fearing men of integrity first. That is the essence of this book. We absolutely must must elect conservative "statesmen" instead of the smooth talking liberal socialist democrat celebrity "hustlers." If nothing is done soon, babies born today will be looking at $2 trillion per year in annual interest on the federal debt before they leave college. It will be too late then

What is the man who cannot be known apart from his socio-political environment? As Zbigniew Janowski asserts, one does not ask who this man is, for he does not even know himself. This man is suppressed and separated, and not by Fascism or Communism. In present-day America this has been accomplished by democracy. "Only someone shortsighted, or someone who values equality more than freedom, would deny that today's citizens enjoy little or no freedom, particularly freedom of speech, and even less the ability to express openly or publicly the opinions that are not in conformity with what the majority considers acceptable at a given moment. It may sound paradoxical to contemporary ears, but a fight against totalitarianism must also mean a fight against the expansion of democracy." Janowski all at once brazen and out of bounds states what he calls the obvious and unthinkable truth: In the United States, we are already living in a totalitarian reality. The American citizen, the Homo Americanus, is an ideological being who is no longer good or bad, reasonable or irrational, proper or improper except when measured against the objectives of the dominating egalitarian mentality that American democracy has successfully incubated. American democracy has done what other despotic regimes have likewise achieved--namely, taken hold of the individual and forced him to renounce (or forget) his greatness, pursuit of virtue and his orientation toward history and Tradition. Homo Americanus, Janowski argues, has no mind or soul and he cannot tolerate diversity and indeed he now censors himself. Democracy is not benign, and we should fear its principles come by and applied ad hoc. It is deeply troublesome that in the way democracy moves today it gives critics no real insight into any trajectory of reason behind its motion, which is erratic and unmappable. The Homo Americanus is an ideological entity whose thought and even morality are forbidden from universal abstraction. Janowski mounts the offensive against what the American holds most sacred, and he does so in order to save him. After exposing the danger and the damage done, Janowski makes another startling proposal. It is a "diseased collective mind" that is the source of this ideology, the liberal anti-perspective that presses man into the image of the Homo Americanus, and its grip can only be broken through the recovery of instinct. Homo Americanus cannot be free again until he is himself again. That is, until the shadow that belongs only to him is restored, and he is thereby no longer alienated from others. Despite the condemnation Janowski seems to be levying on the citizen of the United States, he betrays a great hope and confidence that the means to shake ourselves awake from the bad dream are nevertheless in hand. Janowski's work is the next title in St. Augustine's Press Dissident American Thought Today Series. It occupies a controversial overlapping terrain between the philosophical descriptions of liberalism as a tradition, psychology and the fundamentally influential critiques of democracy offered by Thucydides, Jefferson, Franklin, Tocqueville, Mill, Burke and more. More anecdotal than analytical, Janowski offers the contemporary proof that the reader is right to be scandalized by democracy and his or her own likeness of the Homo Americanus. Once upon a time it was the despicable Homo Sovieticus fruit of tyranny, but now we fear democratic society too might fall and all its citizens never be found again.