skybalon's review
3.0
Interesting book that proposes a number of constitutional amendments designed to improve the US, at least in the author's opinion. In my opinion each of the amendments has some merit and worth a deeper discussion. The author tends to base most of his arguments upon the "original intent" of the founders. This is fine as far as it goes and the author does go the extra effort to show how their ideas are still relevant. I still wish more discussion was included on other reasons that these amendments make sense. If you are predisposed to the conservative side of the political spectrum, you'll probably enjoy this book, if you are on the liberal side--it probably won't be convincing enough.
utbw42's review
4.0
More readable than Ameritopia yet not quite as impressionable as Liberty & Tyranny, this one is an outstanding and completely factual look at how our government, emphasis on the federal level, has engaged in subverting, dismantling, and rewriting the Constitution to infinitely increase federal powers to the detriment of the states and the American people. Levin has put forth an entire list of intelligent and well thought out amendments that would go a long way to diminishing the federal government's powers and returning power to the states and our citizens. Truly a book for our times...I would recommend it to ANY U.S. citizen.
brettt's review
3.0
I've never listened to Mark Levin on the radio for any longer than it took me to change the station; he has a graceless manner and attitude that make him even less appealing than the usual run of airwave shouter. And that manner often bleeds into his written work, which means my encounters with it are also rare.
But a couple of excerpts of The Liberty Amendments piqued my interest, so I dug in and found it a good deal less heated than Levin usually manages, with some definite food for thought whether you agree with his ideas or not.
Levin's thesis is that the modern federal government differs wildly from the vision of the initial founders, having been brought to such a state by various folks with various agendæ who used the wiggle room in what proved to be imprecise wording in the original operating instructions, the United States Constitution. Levin suggests a slate of amendments to tighten these loopholes and return the function to something closer to these original intentions. Since elected federal officials are a large part of the problem, he favors the amendment process that works through the states, using the second model from Article V.
Whether the amendments he proposes are good ideas or not are up to you to decide if you've read the book. I confess some hesitancy about providing the United States Congress a limited ability to void decisions by the Supreme Court, and I'm not convinced by Levin's interpretation of the Marbury v. Madison case that established modern judicial review. We're talking about Congress here. On the other hand, if no special wisdom attaches to being a United States representative or senator, we should probably remember that "Supreme Court Justice" is not an automatic IQ-raiser either. Supreme Court decisions have supported slavery, affirmed racial segregation and upheld the WWII internment of American citizens of Japanese descent, and the overturning of some of those cases happened many years later. Why should the justices' fallible understandings be privileged over all others?
Term limits are thrown around as a solution to many problems that they may in fact not lessen at all. We can always vote the bums out and every now and again we do. But even though poll after poll shows we even think our lawmakers as a group are as dumb as 535 sacks of hammers, we keep viewing our particular sack of hammers as just what the nail in front of us needs. As long as we expect everyone else to get rid of their congressional idiot while we retain ours, we're stuck in a kind of prisoner's dilemma limbo of legislative inadequacy.
The Liberty Amendments may or may not contain realistic solutions to our nation's problems, and it may or may not be a collection of political thoughts tailored through language and presentation to meet a current vogue of libertarian-leaning expression. But Levin has identified some of the problems that are behind or underneath the problems we see all the time, and he's brought a much less heated view of them to these pages than he often does. Serious consideration of those problems, at least, is not a pointless task.
Original available here.
But a couple of excerpts of The Liberty Amendments piqued my interest, so I dug in and found it a good deal less heated than Levin usually manages, with some definite food for thought whether you agree with his ideas or not.
Levin's thesis is that the modern federal government differs wildly from the vision of the initial founders, having been brought to such a state by various folks with various agendæ who used the wiggle room in what proved to be imprecise wording in the original operating instructions, the United States Constitution. Levin suggests a slate of amendments to tighten these loopholes and return the function to something closer to these original intentions. Since elected federal officials are a large part of the problem, he favors the amendment process that works through the states, using the second model from Article V.
Whether the amendments he proposes are good ideas or not are up to you to decide if you've read the book. I confess some hesitancy about providing the United States Congress a limited ability to void decisions by the Supreme Court, and I'm not convinced by Levin's interpretation of the Marbury v. Madison case that established modern judicial review. We're talking about Congress here. On the other hand, if no special wisdom attaches to being a United States representative or senator, we should probably remember that "Supreme Court Justice" is not an automatic IQ-raiser either. Supreme Court decisions have supported slavery, affirmed racial segregation and upheld the WWII internment of American citizens of Japanese descent, and the overturning of some of those cases happened many years later. Why should the justices' fallible understandings be privileged over all others?
Term limits are thrown around as a solution to many problems that they may in fact not lessen at all. We can always vote the bums out and every now and again we do. But even though poll after poll shows we even think our lawmakers as a group are as dumb as 535 sacks of hammers, we keep viewing our particular sack of hammers as just what the nail in front of us needs. As long as we expect everyone else to get rid of their congressional idiot while we retain ours, we're stuck in a kind of prisoner's dilemma limbo of legislative inadequacy.
The Liberty Amendments may or may not contain realistic solutions to our nation's problems, and it may or may not be a collection of political thoughts tailored through language and presentation to meet a current vogue of libertarian-leaning expression. But Levin has identified some of the problems that are behind or underneath the problems we see all the time, and he's brought a much less heated view of them to these pages than he often does. Serious consideration of those problems, at least, is not a pointless task.
Original available here.
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