Call me a ‘conservative liberal’ please.

Up until now, when people have asked me what is my political philosophy, I’ve said that I’m a libertarian republican, both lowercase. In other words, I believe in a republican form of government (representative government with the different classes and powers balancing each other) and that this government should have powers limited by a constitution. While this still describes me, I will now be calling myself a conservative liberal.

In Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers, I wrote about how the Founding Fathers were conservative liberals. Here is what I wrote:

Eighteenth-century Britain was both conservative and liberal. Britain was conservative with its constitutional monarchy and traditional system of peerage and honours. Britain was also the most liberal nation in the world, with the people’s rights guaranteed by the Magna Carta. This conservative-liberal synthesis was brought over to the colonies, where it flourished for more than a century. Edmund Burke explains that the American colonists were “not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas, and on English principles.”

Unlike most revolutions, the goal of the American Revolution was not to change society. In fact, the Founders and most Americans fought to maintain society as it was. The Declaration of Independence opens with:

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…

With the Declaration of Independence, America was dissolving the political bands connecting it to Britain. America was not dissolving the bands that held its society together. Not once does the Declaration of Independence mention society or changing the social system. One Founding Father even lamented that, amid the chaos of the revolution, “For the want of civil government the bands of society are totally disunited, and the people…have become perfectly savage.” This destruction of the bands of society is not what the Founding Fathers wanted and they worked hard to prevent it.

If Britain were to overthrow its monarchical government, that would be a radical change in its society. However, for Americans, who had no inherited classes or titles, dissolving the political bands between Britain and America would leave society virtually untouched. Although the signers of the Declaration of Independence could not be considered conservative from a British viewpoint, they certainly were from an American perspective.

These leading men were also liberal in the classical sense of “a commitment to the liberty of individual citizens,” “the proper role of just government as the protection of the liberties of individual citizens,” and “a commitment to a system of free markets.” As Frederick Douglass said about the signers of the Declaration of Independence: “They loved their country better than their own private interests… In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests… They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny.”

Therein lay the delicate balance. The Founding Fathers wished to protect the liberties of the American colonists and stop British tyranny while still maintaining law and order.

I have the same goals as our Founding Fathers. I want to promote liberty by removing the tyranny of an abusive and unresponsive government. That makes me a classical liberal. (Modern liberals, or neo-liberals as I call them, believe in something entirely different.)

However, unlike many libertarians, and this is why I am abandoning that moniker, I do not want overly rapid change. While I would love to see a dramatically smaller government, I do not believe we can go from a government spending 40% of GDP to one spending just 10% of GDP overnight. It will take many years. Drastic changes in the nature of our government done overnight would create so much chaos that it would give demagogues the opportunity to seize power. This makes me a conservative in the classical sense of the word.

So please, call me a conservative liberal. More so, learn what it means to be a conservative liberal and we can follow in the footsteps of our Founding Fathers.

– Michael E. Newton is the author of the highly acclaimed The Path to Tyranny: A History of Free Society’s Descent into Tyranny. His newest book, Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers: The Fight for Control of the American Revolution, was released by Eleftheria Publishing in July.

What Would The Founders Think? review ‘Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers’

What Would The Founders Think? posted a great review/summary of my new book, Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers: The Fight for Control of the American Revolution.

Michael Newton’s latest book, Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers, is a densely packed, meticulously researched, compendium of  historical knowledge.  Newton has done a great job assembling a formidable bibliography1 of both original sources and the works of respected historians, synthesizing them into an exposition of the forces responsible for the American experiment.

Newton documents the disparate roles played by “angry mobs” and by “Founding Fathers.”  These two forces were not always in sync with one another.  At times the irascible mobs were in control, and the aristocratic Founders struggled to reign them in, guide their passions, or even just keep up.  At other times, like during the period of Constitutional Convention, it was the Founders who struggled to convince the masses of the efficacy of their plans.

Read more…

A roundup of reviews: ‘Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers’ and ‘The Path to Tyranny’

In the past two weeks, my books have received a number of positive reviews. Here’s a roundup:

Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers

Very Educational and Entertaining read

I picked up Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers as I had read Michael Newton’s previous book The Path to Tyranny: A History of Free Society’s Descent into Tyranny and really enjoyed it. His new book lives up to the same quality as the previous one and I would highly recommend both to anybody.

The book covers the social side of the American revolution and covered aspects of the whole thing that I was largely unaware of. The American revolution is often compared to the French revolution, with the American revolution being seen as the thinking mans revolution and the French revolution as the revolution of the mob. It was fascinating to see how close the grand American experiment came to becoming just another “also ran” mob based revolution and how the genius of the founding fathers prevented it descending into one.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough as a behind the scenes look at a time in history that came perilously close to going off the rails.

Superb Analysis, Enlightening!

This book provides excellent analysis of the founding of our nation. There is enough history to keep the story flowing, but the span of years involved could not possibly be covered in depth as pure history…the genius of this book is the political and economic and governmental/legal analysis. The author describes the angry mobs of our American Revolution, the leadership of the Founding Fathers, the course of the Revolutionary War (with a number of surprising facts accompanying the analysis), the weakness of the Articles of Confederation, the forming of our Constitution (and the author ducks no thorny subjects, for example there is extensive analysis of slavery), and the early years of the fledgling Republic. Many of the financial issues (central Bank, taxation, size and scope of government) are a “distant mirror” (to borrow Barbara Tuchman’s phrase) of our times. The analysis is crisp, thorough, and based on the evidence. The bottom line comes from Hamilton: “Liberty without government leads to anarchy while government without liberty leads to tyranny.”

Michael E. Newton has done it again.

Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers: The Fight for Control of the American Revolution is chock full of interesting facts, startling patterns, and answers to questions that were never raised in my social studies classes. Who knew that all of the colonists weren’t English? How could I have studied the revolution and never heard the name Apollos Rivoire? Of course western expansion needed the railroads to be developed first. Why didn’t anybody ever tell me that before?

If today’s Tea Party, by virtue of its very name, is a throwback to the angry mobs of yesteryear, who are the people who will step up to be our new founding fathers?

The angry mobs brought us a revolution. The founding fathers developed the miracle of our Constitution, to prevent that revolution from descending into chaos, anarchy and tyranny.

Michael E. Newton presents the American revolution and the twists and turns of the first decades of our country in a book that is readable and enjoyable, one that I wish I could have read years ago.

The Path to Tyranny

Past Futures by Ana the Imp

The Path to Tyranny is a lucid and compelling treatment of an important subject, one that should be of interest to all who value liberty… An important book that really does speak to the times, a book that holds up a Janus-like mirror to the present, showing past futures.

Read the whole lengthy review…

Counter Argument

This book was disturbingly amazing in its review of historical events. It is well cited and developed and even though the author writes from his own political perspective not even the most hardened leftist could argue the historical data presented in this book. That by itself is the most disturbing aspect of it. I can only hope that more and more Americans read this book and discover the path we are truly teetering on.

Be Very Afraid

Michael E. Newton’s THE PATH TO TYRANNY is a compressed and incredibly well-written and researched book. Let me warn you: it is more frightening than a Stephen King novel. Mr. Newton analyzes ancient and recent societies, explaining how they came about, how they prospered, and how they descended into totalitarianism and disappeared. Newton’s account of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire alone is worth the price of admission. The amount of facts and history he crams into the chapter is impressive. Same goes for Russia’s wild ride from absolute monarchs through revolution then communism, and Germany’s path from defeat in WWI through hyperinflation and the hapless Weimar Republic to Adolf Hitler.

By far the scariest, though, is Chapter 8: The United States of America. The parallels Newton draws from previous civilizations descending into oppressive autocracies to the path of the present day U.S. is frightening. Before they cratered, all the societies followed the same pattern: villification of the successful and redistribution of wealth through progressive taxation; expansion of government and bureaucracy; the rise of an exalted political class; promotion of pure democracy over the principles of a republic; the emergence of one person, a dictator or tyrant who crushes freedom and liberty with the promise to return the crumbling society to its former glory. Mr. Newton’s succinct final chapter about the U.S. includes a sub-chapter about the complexity of federal laws, which now include over 4,000 crimes defined and buried deep in the federal register, unknown to anyone until nabbed by a federal toady who cries “gotcha.” The sub-chapter is entitled “We Are All Criminals Now.” Bravo Michael E. Newton. Please tell us more.

Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers is now available!

I am proud to announce that Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers: The Fight for Control of the American Revolution is now available for sale at numerous online stores, including Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Additionally, Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers is also available on Kindle.

If you would like a preview, you can read a portion of the book and search through it over at Google Books. (Amazon’s Look Inside feature should be enabled shortly).

Angry mobs launched the American Revolution when they protested against British acts of tyranny. These rebels threatened, harassed, and chased away British officials and Loyalists. The Founding Fathers agreed with the goals of these Patriots, but not with their methods. Fearing anarchy, the Founders channeled the passions of the mobs toward independence.

Working together, the angry mobs and Founding Fathers defeated the mighty British army and won independence, but the new nation that emerged was anarchic and chaotic, much like the angry mobs themselves. Meeting behind closed doors, the Founding Fathers conspired to depose the Confederation government, wrote a new constitution, and created the world’s most successful republic.

‘Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers’ tells the little-known story of how these two groups fought for control of the American Revolution.

New cover for Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers

Coming this summer! Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers: The Fight for Control of the American Revolution

Introducing to you my newest book, coming out this summer:

Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers:
The Fight for Control of the American Revolution

Angry mobs launched the American Revolution when they protested against British acts of tyranny. These rebels threatened, harassed, and chased away British officials and Loyalists. The Founding Fathers agreed with the goals of these Patriots, but not with their methods. Fearing anarchy, the Founders channeled the passions of the mobs toward independence. Working together, the angry mobs and Founding Fathers defeated the mighty British army and won independence, but the new nation that emerged was anarchic and chaotic, much like the angry mobs themselves. Meeting behind closed doors, the Founding Fathers conspired to depose the Confederation government, wrote a new constitution, and created the world’s most successful republic. Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers tells the little-known story of how these two groups fought for control of the American Revolution.

* Details subject to change prior to publication.

New website. To announce new book on May 2.

Been very busy over here at ThePathToTyranny working on my new website. MichaelENewton.com is now up and running and ready for expansion. I will still be blogging here at thepathtotyranny.wordpress.com, so no need to change your bookmarks of subscription if you follow me here.

On that note, I will be announcing my new book on Monday May 2 at noon Eastern time (plus or minus a few minutes). As I’ve mentioned many times, this new book will be about the competing ideologies of the American Revolution. God willing, the book will be out this July (or maybe early August).

So watch your email, facebook, twitter, or my new website on May 2 for details on my upcoming book.

Lord of the Rings meets the American Revolution

So here I am writing about George Washington’s military strategy and campaign in the American Revolution and I’m reminded of two quotes from Lord of the Rings.

“The quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail. But hope remains, if friends stay true.” ~ Galadriel

“There never was much hope. Just a fool’s hope.” ~ Gandalf

My motto for writing, according to Abraham Lincoln.

I have previously posted my motto for writing:

“My design was not so much to contribute new facts as to shape the narrative in such a way as to emphasize relations of cause and effect that are often buried in the mass of details.”

~ John Fiske, The American Revolution, Volume 1:vii.

Abraham Lincoln expressed a similar sentiment in his famous Cooper Union Address:

The facts with which I shall deal this evening are mainly old and familiar; nor is there anything new in the general use I shall make of them. If there shall be any novelty, it will be in the mode of presenting the facts, and the inferences and observations following that presentation.

What Would the Founders Do About Egypt and Hosni Mubarak?

Read my piece over at What Would the Founders Think.