My interest in this book stemmed from reading James Ostrowski’s “Progressivism: A Primer on the Idea Destroying America.” Full disclosure: my own viewpoint has become increasingly “libertarian” over the past few years. I chose to read “By the People…” because I was looking for something more academic and less vitriolic than Ostrowski’s offering.
Anyone who tempers their Conservative, Liberal, Progressive or Libertarian ideology with some healthy pragmatism, should find this book to be a stimulating read. Murray is seeking to build common ground between ideological groups by showing us the patent absurdity of the levels to which the U.S. has allowed government regulation’s reach into everyday business and private ownership of property. Murray shows us how this has been done through the establishment of the “regulatory state;” backed by the power of Federal agencies that operate with a wide berth of independence from the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government. His retrospective look at the judicial path the U.S. Supreme Court took to open the door for this situation, offered in the book’s opening chapters, is enlightening and highly readable to a non-legal scholar such as myself.
Murray hopes to build a coalition of people across ideological and political lines who are concerned that the federal regulatory state has grown without (much) regard for constitutionally-enumerated individual liberties. The basis of the coalition: agreement that many Federal regulations which are primarily adjudicated by the administrative law courts (separate from criminal or civil courts) are “ridiculous.” Murray would inspire his coalition to act in ways that would force a rollback of the regulatory state. Murray provides examples of “ridiculous” agency enforcement actions that would be laugh-out-loud funny – except for the head-shaking realization the Feds really did these things to someone.
Unlike Ostrowski, whose suggestions for combatting the loss of individual liberties are scant, Murray devotes a large section of his book to ideas on what his coalition of concerned Americans can do to fight against a government that in some cases, is clearly out of control and out of touch with the aspirations the Founding Fathers had for the United States.
Readers can debate as to whether Murray’s ideas can work. Within the confines of his own fertile mind, the American Enterprise Institute scholar sounds an optimistic note. It would be very interesting, and I dare say important, to put them to the test. I found some of the reasoning by which he demonstrates the practicality of his ideas for combatting the regulatory state, to be a bit tortured. But give him credit for thinking through possible solutions and not being counted among the many of us who may perceive that we are now completely at the mercy of a Federal government, unstoppable in its growing overreach, that neither Democrats nor Republicans seem able or inclined to restrain.
I for one, will be reading more of Charles Murray’s books in the not-too-distant future.
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Top reviews from other countries
Frederick Ford
... are inundated with laws and regulations and you would like to read about what can be done - this ...
Reviewed in Canada on June 13, 2015Mary-Anne
This book was easy to read and very informative to an outsider (Canadian) ...
Reviewed in Canada on April 19, 2016
