A powerful book on American values

Dennis Prager is a talk show host, who has just come out with a book called Still the Best Hope. The subtitle to the book says it all: "Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph." It is a look at three world systems, which are currently competing for the world's attention – leftism, Islamism, and American values. He analyzes each, showing the weaknesses of the first to and defending American values is the best way for the world to improve. For the next few blogs I would like to include quotes from this book because I think it's powerful.

1. Prager says there is an American Trinity of values: Liberty, In God We Trust, and E Pluribus Unum. He says, "Liberty represents personal freedom, which according to Americanism is dependent upon small government, free economy, and a God-based society. In God We Trust represents a society that regards its liberty, its human rights, and its moral values as ultimately emanating from God. E Pluribus reprerepresents the American value of a society based on neither ethnicity nor race."

2. "Conservative intellectuals are sometimes wrong, but the list of foolish and dangerous ideas on the Left dwarfs the list of such ideas among conservatives: Marxism; Communism; people are basically good; poverty causes crime; men and women are basically the same; women are as likely to seek and enjoy sex without the prospect of commitment as are men; more government money solves most social problems; America was as responsible for the Cold War as was the Soviet Union; a human fetus has no worth, unless the mother says it does; all things being equal, it is not better for a child to have a mother and a father; humans are just another animal."

3. "A major part of the reason for the foolishness of Leftist ideas is the secular world from which they emanate. Its rejection of the basic book of wisdom of the Western world, the Bible, and its similar rejection of almost all pre-20th century wisdom literature along with its emphasis on the value of "change" have led people to rely on their hearts for insights into life. And the heart is the worst place to find wisdom."