Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 13:4 (Fall 2004)
Article: Review Articles
Author: Anonymous

RAR 13:4 (Fall 2004) p. 203

Review Articles

Letters To A Young Conservative Dinesh D’Souza New York: Basic Books (2002) 229 pages, cloth, $22.00

The classical principles of the American Revolution, D’Souza argues, are “liberal.” It is these same principles that are now best upheld by modern Conservatives. These vital principles include economic freedom, political freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Dinesh D’Souza argues that when these four basic freedoms are linked to a commitment to both civic and social virtue, the vision of life in America has been established correctly.

What does it take for modern Conservatives to refute the liberal dogma of the elite media and the baby-boom-generation university professors of our time? D’Souza argues that Conservatives must not only study and promote ideals but they must master the types of strategy that are necessary to refute the regnant lies of Liberals. This is his burden in these “letters” to a young student named Chris. What strategies will actually work in the battlefields of our culture? How do Conservatives adopt a philosophical conservatism that is both temperamentally radical and aggressive at work, school, college and everyday life? This is not an armchair philosopher’s detached look at issues but rather a guide for the young and the already convinced.

Dinesh D’Souza has become one of the most articulate spokesmen of our time for the cause of political and social conservatism.

Liberalism is not a bad word. In its original and classical

RAR 13:4 (Fall 2004) p. 204

sense it refers to the “free man.” In Greek the word was used to describe that man was not a slave. Liberals were the partisans of liberty. The American founders, in this sense, were Liberals. Liberalism meant limiting the power and use of government. D’Souza is clearly correct when he writes that this philosophy is found in the Bill of Rights when it says: “Congress shall make no law…” It was in the last century that this classical definition underwent serious change. The revolution of the 1930s and the 1960s changed the word liberal from this older use. Franklin Roosevelt championed the idea that people who lack the necessities of life are not free. He believed that giving people true liberty meant the government should insure citizens against deprivation, the loss of a job, calamitous illness, and impoverished old age. This social definition of the word liberal introduced, at least in the American sense, a whole new use of the word. Government would now have a wider role in people’s lives, and the liberal view was to champion that role.

In the 1960s this ideology was expanded once again. D’Souza writers: