As President Barack Obama prepares for his inauguration, Breitbart News sat down with radio talk show host Mark Levin, the bestselling author of the blockbusters Liberty and Tyranny, Ameritopia, Men in Black, and Rescuing Sprite. Levin painted a stark picture of the reality facing the country – the rise of tyranny – but he also offered hope in one word: “fight.”
“I don’t think Obama knows exactly what he’s going to go for in his second term,” Levin said, “as he will look for opportunities to exploit as events unfold. I am sure they’ve drawn up a partial a list, and we already know that it includes, but is not limited to, gun control; attacks on the First Amendment such as religious liberty; amnesty for illegal aliens; union expansion; institutionalizing Obamacare; institutionalizing voter corruption; de-industrialization via the EPA; destroying the capitalist-based economy via tax increases, smothering regulations, massive deficit spending, and endless borrowing; and hollowing out our military; etc. This will effect all of us. It will do extreme damage to the nation in many respects. I think Obama sees himself as correcting historic wrongs in this country, as delivering the fruits of the labor of other people to people who he believes have historically been put upon. I think there’s a lot of perverse thinking that goes on in his mind, radical left-wing thinking. He was indoctrinated with Marx and Alinksy propaganda. You not only see it in his agenda but in his words — class warfare; degrading successful people unless, of course, they help finance his elections, causes, and organizations; pretending to speak for the so-called middle class when, in fact, he is destroying their jobs, savings, and future. Obama’s war on our society is intended to be an onslaught in which the system is overwhelmed.”
How to fight that agenda? Levin said the answer certainly doesn’t lie in the current Republican Party leadership. “I think the Republican Party, its apparatus, its so-called leadership, the parasitic consultants, represent an institution that is tired, old, almost decrepit, full of cowardice and vision-less. It has abandoned the Declaration of Independence and any serious defense of constitutional republicanism. The Democrat Party is now a radical 1960s party; it’s the anti-Constitution, anti-capitalism, anti-individual party. It largely controls the federal government, including the massive bureaucracy and much of the judiciary — what I call the permanent branches of the federal government. The Democrat Party represents the federal government, and the federal government expands the power of the Democrat Party. They’re appendages of each other. On the other hand, the GOP today stands for capitulation, timidity, delusion — so mostly nothing. Republicans may speak of the Constitution, limited government, low taxes, etc., but what have they done about them? Next to nothing if not nothing. Even when Bush 43 was president and the Republicans controlled Congress. What did they do? They went on a spending binge. They expanded Medicare, the federal role in local education, drove up the debt, etc. Meanwhile, we are lectured by putative Republicans like Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Tom Ridge, and a conga line of others trashing often viciously NOT Obama and what the Democrats are doing to our nation, but conservatives, constitutionalists, and tea party activists who are the only people left standing for liberty against tyranny in this country.”
But, said Levin, the answer isn’t to start a third party – “The problem is a practical one. If we go third party, I can see the Democrats winning elections for a generation. Given the radicalized character of that party, that would seal our fate, and the fate of our children and grandchildren to, as Reagan put it, 1000 years of darkness. The day may come, perhaps soon, when abandoning the GOP for a new party is the best way to deal with events and stop the rise of tyranny. I think the answer at this moment is for conservatives to retake the Republican Party. Reagan did it, and Reagan was opposed by the Republican establishment every step of the way, including the Bush family. But this is a constant fight, just as fighting the Democrats is a constant fight. After the Reagan presidency, Bush 41 and Bush 43, who’d opposed the Reagan Revolution, immediately dragged the nation back into the Republican mush. In fact, they sought to distance themselves from Reagan and his achievements, using such silly phrases as “a kinder and gentler” conservatism or “compassionate conservatism,” as if all the opportunities, wealth, jobs, and enterprises Reagan’s policies launched were neither kind nor compassionate. There is an intransigence in the Republican Party that sabotages and obstructs those who have answers for this nation based on our founding principles. And so we had a brief eight-year period where Reagan showed us the way and created a foundation on which future Republican presidents could build, and they haven’t. They invoke Reagan because he is beloved by the American people, but they reject his principles and policies. Keep in mind, George W. Bush was the most profligate spender in world history until Obama came along; the Tea Party grew out of the last months of Bush 43 and the early months of the Obama presidency. Yet Bush administration staffers are everywhere today: the media, advising candidates, leading fundraisers, etc. And they arrogantly and condescendingly lecture conservatives about responsible, moderate governance. They also cheerlead for more establishment candidates, like John McCain, Mitt Romney, and the like, who are not only sure losers, but have no grasp of the urgency of our times and the principled agenda necessary to address it. Meanwhile, the Reagan and traditional conservatives, the constitutionalists and the tea party leaders, are all but unheard and unseen on TV, even some of our favorite outlets.”
The tendency toward a meaningless Republicanism isn’t confined to the Republican Party, Levin stated. It’s in the media, too. “I’m not that impressed with some of the new conservative faces and voices. For starters, most of them aren’t conservative at all. They’re establishment Republican, or at least reflect that bunch too often. They are voices for the impotent GOP leadership, giving them cover while shooting at real conservative voices who are doing much of the heavy lifting. Sadly, when you look at some of the great outlets for conservative thought and activism of the past, it’s a crying shame, because many of them have abandoned their past role as serious and substantive breeding grounds for conservative strategies, policies, and new intellectuals. Instead, they spend an inordinate amount of time analyzing polling data and otherwise naval gazing — when they’re not taking shots at other conservatives or promoting their TV appearances. With respect to policy, you could see this when the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Bill Kristol attacked the tea party back in 2011, when the tea party opposed the disastrous debt-ceiling deal. They even reduced themselves to calling them Hobbits and Obama Republicans. But, of course, the tea party was right, the Journal and Kristol were wrong, as recent events have demonstrated. You can also see it with the recent fiscal cliff debacle, which grew out of the 2011 debt ceiling deal, where certain columnists were cheering the brilliance of the Republican leadership in agreeing with Obama to not only raise taxes on the so-called rich and eliminating numerous deductions, but they insisted they had actually cut taxes by defending the status quo re most of the tax brackets that have existed for the last 12 years. And now, having declared victory in the fiscal cliff matter, they’re already surrendering ground on the latest debt ceiling deadline, arguing for a three month deal. This is now said to be a new, ingenuous strategy for forcing the Democrats in the Senate to pass a budget and expose Obama as a big spender. It’s laughable and pathetic. Our society is deteriorating as the federal government devours more and more of it, we are on an unsustainable course that threatens our liberty and all we have built and earned, and these people act as if it’s just another day of wheeling and dealing. At a bare minimum, at least make the case to the American people, and if the people decide they want to live in chains, then there’s not much we can do about it. But make the damn case and fight like hell!”
“As for the new media, I think they have already wrested some control away from the mainstream media, which is more accurately characterized as the statist media. The so-called mainstream media promotes big government and those who advance it. Obama, for example, is their champion. When you look at the audience numbers for the networks, and you see the newspaper subscriptions dropping, that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned. The years of near-monopoly control over what is said to be news by self-serving liberal propagandists needs to end, as the recent outrageous comments by Bob Schieffer and Tom Brokaw make clear. And their progeny are no better — not just at MSNBC but at other supposedly more mainstream outlets. I call these people pretend journalists. So, I think the new media is absolutely crucial: the more competition the better, the more citizen involvement not just in government but in free speech the better. The more the merrier, and I think a difference has been made and will continue to be made. In the end, though, the consumer needs to be discerning. Just because something is said in the new media or appears in the new media does not make it so. This is particularly true with the Left’s emergence on the Internet and in social media. Over time, it will sort itself out. But I would encourage conservatives to continue to make maximum use of new technologies to preserve our nation and defeat the Left.”
But Levin said that the country rests on the blade of a knife right now, and that every effort is necessary to preserve its liberty. “Right now we have a government with so much power, a government so ubiquitous, a government so cancerous in its growth and so exponential in its expanse, that I cannot conceal my great fear for the future of this country. Trying to figure out how to unravel it all is a very difficult undertaking. I have friends who are conservatives who are very intelligent, I know a number of people who are in public office, and they say, ‘Be positive, if we win the next election, things will be okay.’ But it’s not just about winning the next election. That’s the minimum we need to do. We need to roll back the size of the federal Leviathan or it will surely be our undoing. Republicans have been allergic to this. We need to roll back the debt, even though the last Republican administration contributed mightily to it. The way to start is by cleaning out the old guard in the GOP and installing fresh, bold, articulate, knowledgeable, confident, courageous conservatives. We must find a way to depose the old, decrepit, tired so-called leaders who’ve used the system to climb to the top, but once at the top demonstrate they don’t belong there. We also must find ways to devolve political and economic power back to the states and the individual. It is a fool’s errand to believe that the same people who’ve brought us to the brink are the people who can solve the dire problems they’ve contributed to. This is a puzzle that must be solved.”
Will the country be able to come back from Obamaism? Levin said that the road would be an uphill one: “To be perfectly honest, many countries haven’t come back from this. It’s happening from within. When an individual like Obama uses the instrumentalities of government against us, when he uses the power that the Constitution grants to a president to evade the Constitution and abuse power, when he uses liberty to exploit opportunities to promote the tyranny of centralized government, it’s extremely difficult for people who are not paying attention or who are not engaged in the political process to help us stop what’s taking place. Only when things get so bad do many of them realize what’s happening, and that’s usually too late. Reestablishing the civil society will be extremely difficult. I have hope, but I’m not going to delude myself or others that this is just another election cycle or just another president or just another agenda we can easily overcome if we win the White House back in 2016. The President is making institutional, structural changes to our country. Do I think the country can survive? I think America will certainly exist. But what kind of America? The question is whether we will be a free and prosperous people or just another miserable place where rights are denied and needs are scarce and distributed by the government. I believe knowing the perilous state of the nation, and not pretending otherwise, and knowing that only we conservatives have any hope of stemming this tide and gradually reversing course, we will fight this in every legitimate way we can. And hopefully our already significant ranks will grow. We have no choice but to stand and fight. Everything is at stake,” said Levin.
But there is a bright spot: the American public still cares about the Constitution. In fact, they care more than they did even a decade or two ago. “The one positive aspect I see today,” Levin continued. “There are more people in America now who have at least a general concept of how the Constitution is supposed to work, including the Bill of Rights, and a general concept of what the Declaration of Independence means, including the emphasis on the value of every individual. This was not so 10 or 20 years ago. That’s not to say that such an understanding can easily transfer into modern politics. But I think, in part, that’s why you see so many millions of people frustrated, because they know our government shouldn’t be operating this way. Even though we lost the last two elections, and Obama’s reelection was by no means a blowout despite a fairly weak Republican nominee, so many people keep talking about the Constitution. I view this as a very positive thing. Are there more of us than there are the others — that is, those who reject our heritage and are conquered by or have surrendered to the Leviathan? History will tell us one day. The choice is in our hands right now.”
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