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Ameritopia is an analysis of historic works and individuals that guide two distinctly different philosophical beliefs concerning the destiny of man and government -- Utopianism versus Americanism. Levin's examination of Plato's The Republic, More's Utopia, Hobbe's Leviathan, and Marx and Engels' The Communist Manifesto illustrates the principles that would lead to a Utopian society. By contrast, the Founding Fathers of the United States were profoundly influenced by Locke and Montesquieu. Both envisioned a representative government by consent of the governed with constraints preventing centralized rule and a division of power balanced among the branches of government. Traveling throughout the then-new country, Alexis de Tocqueville observed that in America men were more equal than in any other country or in any other age. In Democracy in America, de Tocqueville stated that as opposed to that with which he was familiar in Europe, the government was not apparent in the everyday lives of Americans. After presenting contrasting utopian and constitutional philosophies, the third section of Ameritopia exposes the undoing of much of the Founding Fathers' work. Their carefully crafted safeguards were intended to protect the rights of individuals, guard against federal tyranny, and impede governmental invasion into the private lives of individuals; the very themes that are evident in the works of Locke and Montesquieu. President Roosevelt showed great contempt for the Constitutional constraints on federal power when he introduced a Second Bill of Rights in his 1944 State of the Union Speech. In it he indicated that the government has the authority to grant or deny rights that the Framers called "God-given and inalienable." Subsequent generations have successfully assaulted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Levin points out that not only has the power of the federal government flourished, but a "fourth governmental branch" has come into existence. That is, the enormous labyrinth of bureaucracies that enforce regulations now controlling many aspects of American life. Levin describes the courts as compliant in the country's descent from a government under the rule of law to a country with a judiciary that interprets laws to the detriment of citizens' liberty. Levin states, "The 'living Constitution' is a constitution on its deathbed." (Simon and Schuster, 2012, 288 pp., $26.99) |
These all have one common thread: A centralized ruling authority that is chosen by philosophers or "masterminds" who should and do "impose a structure upon a society."
