Dennis Prager’s Challenge For Today’s Youth – From Patriot Academy, Part 1: What is happening in America today? Why does the Left want to fundamentally transform America? What is the difference between the Left and Liberals? Why isn’t the Left protesting Brazil or the Arab Muslim world? We are in the greatest crisis in American history (with exception of the Civil War). Tune in to hear Dennis Prager answer these important questions and learn why freedom is a value, not an instinct!

Air Date: 09/29/2020

Guest: Dennis Prager

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith and the Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live, where we’re talking about today’s hottest topics on policy and faith and the culture. Of course, we’re always looking at those topics from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. And today, we’re going to look at those topics with somebody really special today.

We got Dennis Prager with us. That’s right. PragerU. The Dennis Prager Fireside Chats, the radio program, all the things that he is doing to influence the culture, including that ‘Rational Bible’ by the way, you’ve got to get ‘The Rational Bible’ if you haven’t gotten it yet.

At any rate, Dennis Prager joined us at Patriot Academy just a few weeks ago and so we’re going to bring that to you right here at WallBuilders Live. We’ve had the chance to share a few of those speeches and interaction with some of those great folks like Ben Shapiro and Michael Knowles and many others. But man, I am so excited to bring you Dennis Prager today.

By the way, my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach. Usually here on WallBuilders Live, I’m with David Barton, America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders, and Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders.

But today, we’re going to take you back to that Patriot Academy interaction with Dennis Prager. He had the chance to visit with these young leaders from across the country and you’re going to love it. Let’s dive right in. We’re going to take a quick break. When we come back from the break, we’ll be with Dennis Prager at Patriot Academy.

A Moment From American History

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. In the early 1700s, the Reverend John Wise preached that all men were created equal, that taxation without representation was tyranny, and that God’s preferred form of government was the consent of the governed. All of which is language recognizable in the Declaration of Independence.

Why? Because in 1772, the Sons of Liberty led by founders such as Sam Adams, and John Hancock, reprinted and distributed the Reverend Wise’s sermons, so four years later, much of the Declaration reflected the language of those sermons by John Wise.

In 1926, on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, President Calvin Coolidge affirmed “The thoughts in the declaration can very largely be traced back to what John Wise was saying.” Few today know that the Declaration was so strongly influenced by the Reverend John Wise.

For more information on this and other stories, go to wallbuilders.com.

Welcome Dennis Prager

Rick:

Dennis, super, super excited to have you, man, thank you so much for all that you do. You are a blessing to this country and frankly, the world because of what you teach. And our family certainly have been enjoying it. So as long as you have Otto with you, and only those that watch the Fireside Chat will know what I mean by that.

But if Otto is with you, then I will gladly turn it over to you. If Otto is not with you, then you’re just done, we’re not even going to… He’s not with you, where is Otto?

Dennis:

My wife is actually looking for him. He heard you calling for him. This is a very mean, is he coming? Okay, you have to understand he’s not a lap dog, so we need a crane to lift him.

Rick:

Yeah, okay.

Dennis:

Otto, Otto, they’re asking for you around the country. He is by the way, America’s most famous dog. I just want to say that I’m not America’s most famous man, but he is America’s most famous dog. Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Otto.

Rick:

Otto, you’re an honorary Patriot Academy student. You’re not an honorary…

Dennis:

Is that right? He’s the bull. He’s very special.

Rick:

I love it. I love it. Hey, Dennis, thanks for being with us, man. I’m just going to turn it over to you. I’ll pass to you some of the students’ questions when you’re ready. But just thank you for being here, man. Thanks.

The Greatest Crisis in American History

Dennis:

So it’s an honor to be with you. I rather be with you in person. I have been opposed to the lockdown from the second week. I still am. Sweden had no lockdown and they sent their kids to school. Much of the world is in the grip of panic.

Hysteria is the human condition tragically, but that’s another matter. I am only saying that because I do wish I were with you. So I’m going to be very brief, because I would like to take some questions from those of you who are with me right now.

So let me be very blunt with you. This is the greatest crisis in American history with the exception of the Civil War. And to a certain extent, the ideological rift between the South and the North on slavery of course was 180 degrees. But on many other subject, they had an agreement on certain many basic principles.

The rift between the Left and the Right today is unbridgeable and it is on every issue. There is nothing Left and Right agree on. There are things that Liberals and Right agree on. In fact, I make a very big distinction between Liberal and Left. I have a video of PragerU, a five minute video and I have it in print and in articles that I’ve written, “Differences between Liberal and Left.” I’ll give you just a couple of critical examples.

Liberals believe in free speech, the Left does not. The Left has never believed in free speech, never. Since Lenin, to the Democratic party today, which is now Left not Liberal, there is never been a period where the Left was in power and permitted opposition to speak. And this is exactly what is happening on campuses and in work environments today.

The Difference Between the Liberals and the Left

The Liberal believes in free speech, the Leftist does not. The Liberal believes in racial integration, the Left believes in racial segregation. The Liberal believes that race does not matter, the Left believes that race is determinative. The Liberal believes in capitalism, the Left believes in socialism.

So again, it doesn’t matter what the issue is, Left and Right differ on everything. The only thing that Liberals ironically, Liberals and the Right agree on much more than they differ. But Liberals have been brainwashed, and I mean that literally into believing their enemy is not the Left but the Right.

The most prominent Liberal to understand that his enemy is the Left not the right is Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard law professor. And in the movie, ‘No Safe Spaces’, which I made with Adam Carolla, which you should see about free speech.

In Alan Dershowitz’s apartment in Manhattan, he said to me, and it’s in the film, as an American, as a Liberal, as a Democrat and as a Jew, I fear the Left much more than the Right. The Liberal should fear the Left much more than the Right, but the Liberal has been brainwashed into believing that the enemy is the Right.

So back to my opening comment, we are in the greatest Civil War since the Civil War. I pray it does not become violent. But in the meantime, you can have a nonviolent or relatively nonviolent Civil War and we do. So let me explain in a nutshell what is happening.

There are those who believe in America, the American experiment and the American Revolution and there are those who wish to tear it down, the Left wishes to tear it down. They don’t deny it. And that includes, by the way, Barack Obama, who said, five days before his election in 2008, to a cheering crowd of foolish Americans, we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.

The Left Does NOT Love America

The Left wishes to fundamentally transform the United States of America. I do not wish to fundamentally transform the United States of America. That is called revolution. That is to undo your society.

And by the way, that is my proof that the Left hates America. Liberals don’t hate America. Again, it’s another difference. If anything you wish to fundamentally transform, you hate.

Let me just ask you. If you met a woman who said, you know, I would love to fundamentally transform my husband, or a man who said, you know, I’d love to fundamentally transform my wife, would you assume that either one love their spouse? It’s an absurdity, correct. You don’t love what you want to fundamentally transform. You may love the vision of the ultimate transformation, but you don’t love it.

This country is the last best hope on Earth as Abraham Lincoln said. Liberals believe that until recently, I don’t know what they believe. The Left does not believe that at all. They will even tear down statues of Abraham Lincoln. They wish to tear down the society. This is the last best hope of mankind, the United States of America.

It is the freest contrary. It is the greatest attempt to have people of all ethnicities and races get along well. We generally did until very, very recently, like the last few months when the Leftist riots that have taken place, and I don’t mean only riots in the streets. I mean, the whole notion of every White is a racist: one of the most ridiculous lies in the history of lies.

And by the way, I have written and you should read it. I’ve written a book on anti-Semitism. I am very involved Jew my whole life and I taught the Jewish history at Brooklyn College City University of New York. And my book on anti-Semitism, I have written about this, and about how anti Americanism is similar to anti-Semitism.

The Blood Libel

And what I’ve written specifically is the greatest libel in modern history, the greatest medieval libel was called the ‘Blood Libel’. Most of you have never heard of it. But it’s a very famous thing in Jewish history, where Jews were accused by Christian anti-Semites of killing Christian children to use their blood to bake matzah, the unleavened bread for Passover. That’s called the Blood Libel.

We now have the ‘Race Libel’, that America is a racist society. I consider that the second biggest national libel since the ‘Blood Libel’ of the Middle Ages. That is how serious this libel is, and libels lead to death and I am worried about that happening in the United States. This is in fact, the least racist multiracial country in the world, what we have done for people of every background.

Here’s a little piece of data you should memorize. 3% of the slaves who came to the Western Hemisphere, 3% came to the United States, 97% went to the Caribbean, and South America, mostly Brazil 3%. A grand total of about 340,000 slaves were brought to the United States, 12 million were brought to South America and the Caribbean. Why isn’t there screaming against Brazil?

Why isn’t the Left demonstrating against Brazil? Why aren’t they rewriting Brazil’s founding like the New York Times is rewriting America’s founding to 1690? And why aren’t they protesting the Arab Muslim world? 17 million African slaves traded by the Arab Muslim world. You never hear a word about that. In fact, if you mentioned it, you’re called an Islamophobe. Whereas the greatest phobia today in the world, is in fact ‘America-phobia’.

The second is ‘Christianaphobia’. Is that funny that there’s Islamophobia, there’s anti-Semitism, but there’s no word for hatred of Christians and I’m a Jew saying this. Why isn’t there a word for hatred of Christians? Why isn’t there a word for hatred of America? Two of the biggest hatreds on earth today are those two hatreds. Certainly, in America, they are. They burn Bibles and the American flag in Portland a few nights ago.

A Civil War for the Survival of the US

So we have a civil war here for the survival of the US. You’re all young, you may not have a free country in a few years. And I am not a panic monger. I am not a fear monger. I wrote a book on happiness.

I lectured about happiness around the world. But I’m telling you, the America that you are inheriting now is so different from the America I grew up in. It is so much less free. And this is not brand new. This is happening over the course of two generations. The free speech issue on campuses.

CNN last week had an article on women getting cervical cancer checkups and the age recommended was raised from 21 to 25. And the article begins, “Individuals with cervixes can now postpone their X-rays until their examination until 25.” Individuals with cervixes, you can’t say women. That’s the Orwellian world you are inheriting, not to mention the debt that you are inheriting.

When your generation votes Democrat, I can’t think of a more suicidal act of voting than when your generation. If my generation votes Democrat, it’s absurd, but it’s not suicidal. If your generation does it, it’s suicidal. How are you going to pay back that money?

You’re going to tax the rich. If you took every billionaires money away completely, left them as paupers, you would pay our debt for a year or our budget for the year, it would be over. Then what do you do the next year?

Capitalism is the only thing that has ever lifted human beings from poverty, and the Left, they don’t care about the lifting people from poverty. Socialism spends the money that capitalism creates. No capitalism, you can’t even have money to fund socialism. These are essential things for you to understand, there is a civil war.

Patriot Academy

You may not, you, your generation, I’m speaking to you as I do with PragerU all the time, 65% of our billion views a year are people under 35 years of age, because what we’re saying is very relevant to your life. And it is very relevant to your life that you may not have freedom. And you know why? This is something you need to understand. Freedom is a value, not an instinct. Is that clear?

Have you noticed the vacuum of leadership in America? We’re looking around for leaders of principle to step up and too often, no one is there. God is raising up a generation of young leaders with a passion for impacting the world around them. They’re crying out for the mentorship and leadership training they need. Patriot Academy was created to meet that need.

Patriot Academy graduates now serve in state capitals around America, in the halls of Congress and business, in the film industry, in the pulpit and every area of the culture. They’re leading effectively and impacting the world around them. Patriot Academy is now expanding across the nation and now’s your chance to experience this life changing week that trains champions to change the world. Visit patriot academy.com for dates and locations.

Our core program is still for young leaders 16 to 25 years old, but we also now have a citizen track for adult, so visit the website today to learn more. Help us fill the void of leadership in America. Join us in training champions to change the world at patriotacademy.com

People Do Not Long for Freedom, but Provision

Dennis:

People do not yearn to be free, they yearn to be taken care of. Rick was kind enough to mention my Bible Commentary, which I am proud to say his bestselling Bible Commentary in America for the last few years, ‘The Rational Bible’ because I use reason alone, not faith to make its greatness known and understood. And I point out, what did the Israelites, the Hebrews do after they got out of Egypt?

They complained, let’s go back to Egypt, we prefer the food. It’s exactly what they said. They preferred the food of Egypt and being slaves to being free and eating the miraculous food of the desert called manna. Nothing is new. Nothing is new. People don’t want to be free.

When Patrick Henry said give me liberty or give me death, he was discussing, he was enunciating and pronouncing a value, not an instinct. The Left appeals to human instincts. The American value system does not. That is why leftism is far more popular in the world than liberty. Equality, equality, but it’s not equality before the law. It’s equality of result. That always means impoverishment of everybody.

I don’t want equality of result. I have no problem with there being people far richer than me. I grew up in the middle of the middle class, so it never occurred to me. So, oh, wow, look at all these richer people than me. What do I care? Was my family able to meet its needs? Yes. Then I can make a happy life for myself. By the way, happiness is a big factor here.

Happiness

I’d written a book on happiness. I believe happiness is a moral obligation, and my motto was “Happy people make the world better, and the unhappy make it worse.” I have met happy and unhappy Liberals, happy and unhappy Conservatives. I’ve never met a happy Leftist. Unhappy people become Leftist. And you know why? I’ll tell you why. You have a choice in life. Everyone suffers. Everyone.

So you have a choice in life. Is suffering part of life? Or do I blame America for my suffering? The Left blames America, so they don’t deal with their issues. You cannot be happy if you think you’re a victim. I have a whole chapter on victims in my book on happiness. The Left perpetuates the most unhappiness-inducing doctrine. You are miserable because you are a victim.

Oprah Winfrey is a victim. Is that sick? Or is that sick? You have a choice. It’s one of the two. Yeah, Oprah Winfrey, just saw it yesterday, talking about White privilege. Woman is one of the richest humans on the face of the earth. I just read today the list of Chicago and Illinois officials who were black, everyone, the Superintendent of Police, the mayor, everybody is black. And we’re talking about systemic racism. You are living in the age of the lie because the media have no interest in truth.

Because as I said, while I didn’t say, it’s another one of the models of my life, “Truth is not a Left wing value.” There are people who lie on the right and there are people who lie on the left, and there are people who tell the truth on the right, and there are people who tell the truth on the left. But truth is not a Left wing value. That’s why the New York Times could get a Pulitzer Prize for saying America was founded in 1619 and not 1776.

The Most Important Question About Slavery

Every country on earth has had slaves, every single society in the history of the world. The only question intelligent and honest people ask is not who had slaves, it’s who abolished slavery? And the answer is America and Britain, the Judeo-Christian world.

One final thought before I open up to your questions. This is why I am worried, really worried and I don’t worry easily. That’s why I have a bulldog. Just you look at him, you don’t worry. But this is why I’m worried. So please listen carefully.

In Europe, they believe in God and country. The average person in Europe believed in God and country. They believe in the Judeo-Christian value system. They believed in the Bible, the God of the Bible, and they believe in patriotism. I love my country and I honor God.

This was the typical person in Europe. World War I shattered that belief. It just did. Rightly or wrongly, people no longer believed in the nation and they no longer believed in Christianity, the dominant religion of Europe. What happened?

Within two decades, you got fascism, Nazism, and communism, the greatest mass murdering machines in human history. Something had to fill the void that the death of Christianity left. Okay. So they murdered each other in the tens of millions for a couple of decades. Then World War II came, alright, then that was over.

And now since World War II, Western Europe has been sort of inoculated against ideology. The biggest concern of the average Western European is where will I go on vacation, how few days of work can I have and how can the government take care of me? That’s their concerns.

The Fascists

They’re not Christian. They’re not communist. They’re not Nazi. They’re not fascist. They’re just give me dinner or give me death. Give me a cafe. Give me a trip to another country or give me death. So they’ve sort of inoculated themselves.

Now, let’s go to America. America stayed religious. Americans believed in God and country after World War I. But then after World War II, not because of World War II, but it happened, starting at the end of World War II, they died In America or began dying in America as well.

Rick:

Alright, friends, we are out of time for today, we’re going to pick up with Dennis Prager tomorrow right here on WallBuilders Live. You don’t want to miss that second half of the program. So honored to have him with us at Patriot Academy, that we wanted to bring it to you our WallBuilders Live listeners.

If you’d like more of these presentations and these opportunities to hear from great speakers like Prager and Shapiro, and Knowles and Klavan, and all these other folks, Dinesh D’souza, all of that is available on our website today at wallbuilderslive.com.

You can listen to the archives, where we’ve aired the special moments with them. Or you can go to patriotacademy.com and you can actually sign up to be one of our monthly donors, and you can get the videos as well. So you can actually, as one of our donors have access to all of these presentations from these great speakers, and that includes our folks from across the nation, that are part of Patriot Academy.

Dennis Prager Challenges Today’s Youth – From Patriot Academy, Part 1

So you can hear from some of our speakers that we have on a regular basis by signing up and being one of our monthly donors there as well. It’s great information. It’ll encourage you. It’ll inspire you. It’ll equip you to be a better citizen as well.

And that’s what we do every day here at Wallbuilders Live, so be sure to check out wallbuilderslive.com today and donate there as well. As a listener supported program, you know how this works. If we don’t have support from our listeners, then we don’t grow, we don’t get to add new stations, we don’t get to reach more people. So every time you make a donation to WallBuilders Live, you are literally locking shields with us, coming alongside us and being a part of the team that is helping to restore America’s constitutional republic. You can do that today at wallbuilderslive.com.

Don’t miss tomorrow, the conclusion with Dennis Prager right here on WallBuilders Live!