Book Reviews: No Apology: The Case for American Greatness |
I go through periods of time when I don’t read anything, but then I read a lot. I just finished Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. Romney covers much of the same territory in his new book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. Romney and Diamond look at what makes countries successful. However Romney goes on to say that we, and the whole world, should want America to successful. Diamond points out that in the past, what made cultures successful was access to large land mammals that were capable of being domesticated, access to large grains, natural resources, east and west continental alignment, enough time to develop immunity to germs, and that with time these advantages led to agriculture, which lead to the ability to employ artisans who did not farm full time, which led to inventions. Well, that is all in the past. Thomas Friedman says the world is now flat, because all societies have access to information, and we live in an information society. Romney completes the circle and points out that the future will be determined by the culture of our citizens. If you’re so politically correct you don’t want to use the world culture, you can say our collective wiliness to live intelligently will determine our future. Our wiliness to provide stable homes for our children, to work hard, or take risks. The question of America’s future is if we have grown fat and lazy or if we are still the fearless people who crossed oceans and continents for a better future.
So anyways it seems that Romney is very informed, and makes an obvious case for how we can stay strong. Democrats try to say that it is a republican talking points as though a republican should not make republican recommendations, and that democrat politicians never write books making democratic recommendations. If you oversimplify, and misrepresent something it much easier to dismiss. But I believe that if America dismisses the warnings in this and other books written by intelligent people (that aren’t just self obsessed blather) we risk the freedoms of our children, and billions of people.
Well it’s sort of a rough draft of a book review, but I don’t get paid for this, and so it will have to do. Read the book, tell me what you think, but more importantly buy it for a democrat. I’m listening to Guilty by Ann Coulter on the way to work, and reading Romney at home… and let’s just say that Romney is more likely to reach an independent and less likely to brow beat them. Coulter is entertaining to watch as a warrior with the left, she makes serious arguments, and brings facts to the table. But for me Romney writes a presidential book that I think would be very difficult to argue with his policy recommendations. Again, if it says the truth, and we ignore it, we will be hurt not him. The only question is if what Romney says we should do what we should really do, and I think it is obvious that we should not spend more than we have, that we need strong families, and that more specifically his policy recommendations will lead to these outcomes.
