Bernard Lewis: What Went Wrong?

This summer’s  Claremont Review of Books contains a featured review essay by Robert R. Reillyⁱ which discusses Bernard Lewis’s essay collection “Faith and Power,” ⁱⁱ and the nonagenarian historian’s reflections upon the so-called Arab Spring unrest in the Middle East, particularly North Africa.ⁱⁱⁱ As distilled by Reilly, Lewis’s views reiterate what the historian described to the Wall Street Journal’s Bari Weiss during an April 2^nd interview. ^iv

Over half way through the year 2011, there might be some thought among Western leaders that we had reached a watershed moment in the war against fundamentalist Islamic terrorists. Osama bin Laden is dead despite the words of conspiracy theorists and Al Qaeda has been badly battered and bruised metaphorically while suffering losses of leadership from the air and on the ground. If Al Qaeda had a vertically integrated command structure, there would be good reason to celebrate.

Reflections on “The Response,” in no particular order: 

1. It was a major bummer for mainstream media, which tried to Alinsky the event by demonizing participants, including yours truly. Chris Matthews, for instance, devoted several minutes of his Friday broadcast specifically to try to marginalize me, and by marginalizing me, the event itself. It didn’t work. The media was breathless over rumors that just 8,000 people were going to show up. It just wigged them out that 35,000 people showed up to praise and pray for seven hours.

Let’s be brutally honest.

Most politicians are known to make glorified speeches in support legislation that they justify based on security/economic and/or righteous grounds. That all sounds nice and lots of gullible people fall for it. Media pundits argue the points left and right. But here’s the bottom line:

It’s about power. 

What is being termed a “historic debt ceiling compromise deal,” complete with backslapping and self-congratulations at the highest levels, is being considered by the Senate and the House rank-and-file. And consider they will. With many provisions going against the principles of both the TEA Party contingent and the far-leftist Progressive faction, there is a lot to consider. Significantly, lost in this “grand compromise” are these facts: a) Almost all of the spending cuts trumpeted as victory for the TEA Party Movement come after the 2012 General Election and with the election of a new Congress, b) The agreement does not eliminate deficit spending, rather, it simply lowers the amount of deficit spending, and c) Because the agreement doesn’t reach the $4 trillion mark mandated by the ratings agencies there is still a chance for our nations credit rating to be downgraded.  

There is a direct correlation between America's downward spiral and the nation's departure from adherence to the U.S. Constitution. During the first hundred years, America experienced growth and prosperity never before imagined by people who never knew what freedom was. It was a rough and tumble century; not everyone prospered. Many people were victimized by profit-hungry capitalists. The answer to this inequity, according to some of the 19th century philosophers, was government management of the affairs of people and their business activities. Proponents of these ideas claimed the name "Progressives."