West Nova News

In his forthcoming book American Leviathan, American Majority founder Ned Ryun writes that the naive optimism held by Progressives led to them putting "tremendous power in the hands of a relative few," in contrast to the realism of the Founders who believed consolidated power could not be trusted to individuals. 

Following is an excerpt from the book:

"Whereas the Founders were optimistic realists, the Progressives were utopian statists, deeply naive, willfully so, about human nature and the dangers of concentrated power. They mistakenly, including the post-millennial Social Gospel types, sought utopia in a fallen world; many of those who led the Social Gospel movement, such as Walter Rauschenbusch, believed that they could in fact, through the vehicle of the enlightened state, build the Kingdom of God on earth. All of this nonsense led Progressive Statists to work on concentrating tremendous power in the hands of a relative few. In defiance of the ages, in Progressive thinking, human nature was not inherently evil but was perfectable and could rise to a higher plane. Therefore consolidated power inside the state was good because it could 'perfect' human nature."

American Leviathan, set to be released on September 17, 2024, details the rise of Progressive Statism and an administrative state that led to the current state of the government in the 21st century. The book also analyzes how a strengthened executive branch could undo the powers given to the administrative state. 

In addition to being a regular contributor to American Greatness, Ryun is founder and CEO of American Majority, an advocacy organization that wants to “put in place new conservative grassroots political infrastructure.”

Ryun previously created Generation Joshua, a civics education program, was appointed to the 1776 Commission by former President Donald Trump, and is a former writer for President George W. Bush. Ryun lives with his wife and four children in Virginia.