Posts By Author » Dennis Prager

Rational People Fear Big Government, Not Big Business
22 May 2012 12:03 am

You cannot understand the left if you do not understand that Leftism is a religion. It is not God-based (some Left-wing Christians’ and Jews’ claims notwithstanding), but otherwise it has every characteristic of a religion. The most blatant of those characteristics is dogma. People who believe in Leftism have as many dogmas as the most fundamentalist Christian.
One of them is material equality as the preeminent moral goal. Another is the villainy of corporations. The bigger the corporation, the greater the villainy. Thus, instead of the devil, the left has Big …

Romney Understands America
15 May 2012 12:03 am

On Saturday, Mitt Romney delivered a speech to the 6,000 Liberty College graduates.
It was an important speech, not only because it seems to have closed the gap between Romney and evangelical Christians but also because it spelled out major themes in Mitt Romney’s understanding of America.
Romney: “You know who you are. And you know whom you will serve. Not all colleges instill that kind of confidence . . . .”
This is a truism. Most American universities seek to graduate men and women who are as committed to secularism as nearly …

Conservatives and Gays
8 May 2012 12:05 am

In addition to labeling conservatives and Republicans “anti-woman” (for opposing government-mandated free contraception), “anti-black” and “anti-Hispanic” (for advocating photo identification for voting), and “anti-science” (for skepticism regarding the belief that man-made carbon emissions will destroy much of the planet), Democrats now regularly label Republicans “anti-gay” (for opposing same-sex marriage).
All these charges are demagogic. But when it comes to the “anti-gay” charge, conservatives need to clarify to themselves as much as to the general public where they stand.
As an opponent of the most radical redefinition of marriage in history (more radical …

November Is a Plebiscite On the American Revolution
1 May 2012 12:02 am

Election Day 2012 will not be a presidential election. It will be a plebiscite.
Americans will not only be voting for a president (and a House and a third of the Senate). They will be participating in a plebiscite on the definition of America.
If Americans re-elect the Democrat, Barack Obama, they will have announced that America should be like Western European countries — governed by left-wing values. Americans will have decided that America’s value system — “Liberty,” “In God We Trust,” “E Pluribus Unum” — should be replaced.
The election in November …

Why America is Still the Best Hope
24 Apr 2012 12:02 am

Does it break some unwritten rule for a columnist to bring his readers’ attention to his own book? If so, I ask your indulgence.
But, after nearly a thousand columns and twelve years since my last book, I hope readers will forgive me for noting that today, April 24, 2012, HarperCollins is publishing the culmination of a lifetime of thinking and years of the most challenging writing of my life.
The book is “Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph.” It is an argument on behalf of …

Why Would a Pro-Castro Sentiment Only Offend Cubans?
17 Apr 2012 12:02 am

As all baseball fans and many other Americans know, the manager of the Miami Marlins, Ozzie Guillen, told Time magazine that he loves Fidel Castro.
The news focus has been on Guillen’s remarks — for which he has profusely apologized — and whether the Marlins were right to suspend him for five games.
More important, however, have been the reactions to Guillen’s comment. They sustain a thesis that I develop in my book (“Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph”) that comes out next week: Leftism poisons …

Still the Least Racist Country in the World
10 Apr 2012 12:03 am

In light of the tragic killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin — and the manufactured hysteria surrounding it — one thing needs to be stated as clearly and as often as possible: The United States is the least racist and least xenophobic country in the world. Foreigners of every race, ethnicity, and religion know this. Most Americans suspect this. Most black Americans and the entire left deny this.
Black Africans know this. That is why so many seek to live in the United States. Decades ago, the number of black Africans …

They Don’t Know Us
3 Apr 2012 12:02 am

Apparently, many liberals were disappointed in the administration’s performance before the Supreme Court. They felt that the government’s lawyer, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, did not respond effectively to the challenges of some of the conservative justices.
The editor of Commentary, John Podhoretz, offered an explanation on his magazine’s blog. “American liberals,” he wrote, “know their own language, but they don’t know the language of their ideological and partisan opposite numbers. … Conservatives speak liberal, but for liberals in the United States, conservatism might as well be Esperanto.”
I have argued this point …

Are the “Less Fortunate” Less Fortunate?
27 Mar 2012 12:02 am

In his front-page-of-the-business-section “Economic Scene” column in The New York Times last week, Eduardo Porter wrote, “The United States does less than other rich countries to transfer income from the affluent to the less fortunate.”
Think about that sentence for a moment. It ends oddly. Logic dictates that it should have said, “transfer income from the affluent to the less affluent,” not the less fortunate.
But for Porter, as for the left generally, those who are not affluent are not merely “less affluent,” they are “less fortunate.”
Why is this? Why is the leftist …

The Real Reason the NAACP Went to Geneva
20 Mar 2012 12:02 am

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP, has gone to the United Nations — specifically the U.N. Human Rights Council — for, in the words of USA Today, “help battling what the organization views as forces attempting to push back voting rights.”
Those “forces” are laws being passed by various states that require a photo ID for voting. The NAACP move is so absurd and so self-destructive that one has to wonder why the organization has done this. According to the Freedom House 2011 assessment of freedom …

Who Is Happy?
13 Mar 2012 12:02 am

After 25 years of lecturing on happiness, writing a book on the subject (“Happiness Is a Serious Problem”) and devoting an hour of my radio show every week for the last 13 years to happiness, here are some conclusions about who is happy.
People who control themselves.
Happiness is dependent on self-discipline. We are the biggest obstacles to our own happiness. It is much easier to do battle with society and with others than to fight our own nature.
People who are given little and earn what they have.
That is why lottery winners …

Many Muslims Are Making Many Atheists
6 Mar 2012 12:02 am

Here in Sydney, Australia, where I’ve been lecturing for a week, I may have had one Australian-born waitress or waiter and one Australian-born taxi driver. As is my wont, I ask all of them where they were born and, whenever possible, have some discussion about their native country.
I say “whenever possible” because, unlike in the United States –where taxi drivers, whether foreign- or American-born, are known for being talkative — that has not been my experience in Sydney, where apparently the influence of the famous British reserve is still very …

What You’re Paying for Your Child to Learn at College
1 Mar 2012 12:02 am

As high school seniors throughout America will be receiving acceptance letters to colleges within the next month, it would be nice for parents to meditate on what they’re getting for the $20,000 to 50,000 they’ll pay each year.
–The United States is no better than any other country, and in many areas, it’s worse than many. On the world stage, America is an imperialist country, and domestically, it mistreats its minorities and neglects its poor while discriminating against non-whites.
–There is no better and no worse in literature and the arts. The …

If You’re Ever Murdered, Here’s an Idea
21 Feb 2012 12:02 am

I’d like to offer a simple proposal that, if enacted, could generate a great deal of a most precious resource: moral clarity.
It concerns the death penalty.
Opponents of capital punishment for murderers argue that the state has no right to take a murderer’s life. Apparently, one fact that abolitionists forget or overlook is that the state is acting on behalf of the murdered person and the murdered person’s family, not only on behalf of society.
In order to make this as clear as possible, here is my proposal: Americans should be able …

Chris Christie on Israel — and What It Means to Be a Leader
14 Feb 2012 12:02 am

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) last week. In the few words reported by the Weekly Standard magazine, he said just about everything one needs to know about Israel; about America and Israel; and about American political leadership:
“America should stand by its friends and its democratic allies, even, and sometimes especially, when it’s unpopular to do so.”
“… It may not be fashionable in some of the chancelleries, the foreign ministries, and salons around the world to talk about why America stands with Israel …

They Have Islamist Fanatics, We Have Secularist Fanatics
31 Jan 2012 12:02 am

The Muslim world is threatened by religious fanaticism. The Western world is threatened by secular fanaticism.
Both seek to dominate society and to use state power to do so. Both seek to eliminate the Other — for Islamic fanatics, that means non-Muslim religions and secularism; for secular fanatics, it means Christianity and virtually any public invoking of God. The Islamists impose Sharia law; the American Civil Liberties Union and the left generally impose secular law. The Taliban wiped out public vestiges of Buddhism in Afghanistan; the ACLU and its allies seek …

Evangelicals and Romney: Should Theology Matter?
24 Jan 2012 12:02 am

As an American, a Republican, and a fiscal and social conservative — and though I have endorsed no Republican candidate — there is one thing that would disturb me greatly if Mitt Romney were not the Republican nominee: if Romney’s Mormon faith were a factor in his defeat.
Many evangelical leaders have said that if Romney is the Republican presidential candidate, they would not vote for him in the general election. What is implied — and sometimes explicitly stated — is that his Mormonism prevents them from voting for him in …

Ron Paul and America’s Alleged Racism
18 Jan 2012 12:01 am

In the Republican presidential candidates’ debate on Jan. 7, Congressman Ron Paul said: “I’m the only one up here … that understands true racism in this country is in the judicial system.” He said this racism has to do with “enforcing the drug laws” and then added: “They (blacks) get the death penalty way disproportionately.”
Two groups immediately defended Paul — his supporters and commentators on the left. The former support anything Paul says, and the left supports anything that Paul says that portrays America as ugly (see, for example, the …

Leftism Makes You Meaner
10 Jan 2012 12:02 am

Only a fool believes that all those with whom he differs are bad people. Moreover, just about all of us live the reality — often within our own family — of knowing good and loving people with whom we strongly differ on political, religious, social and economic issues.
That said, I have come to believe that the more committed one is to leftism, the more likely one is to become meaner.
Two examples in just the past week offer compelling evidence.
Prominent left-wing commentators used the way in which Rick Santorum and his …

Why Thomas Friedman Abetted Anti-Semitism
20 Dec 2011 12:02 am

After a lifetime of studying the left, I have concluded that leftism is a form of moral poison. It causes otherwise decent and kind people who take it into their systems to say and/or do cruel and sometimes evil things.
While not specifically about the left, a major new scholarly book, “Pathological Altruism” (Oxford University Press), explores this phenomenon of people wanting to do good things yet ending up doing bad. It applies to The New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas L. Friedman, who has a deep altruistic urge to …

Who Is Brett Kimberlin?

Premium Right Ads

Blogads Right

Previous Features

The Best Quotes From “Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To”

Hey Lady Gaga, Kids Have a Time-Tested Answer for Bullies: Punch Them in the Mouth

Seven Differences Between Winners And Losers

The Problem With The Occupy Wall Street Generation

The 20 Most Influential Black Republicans

Talking With Chuck D. From Public Enemy About Farrakhan, Air America’s Failure, And Open Borders

User Info

Features

Archives Best of RWN Humor John Hawkins Interviews Quotes Special to RWN