DLT EP30 FINAL YT

Hi, Dennis. We're ready for your thoughts this week. I'm ready for my thoughts this week, too. I'm going to begin with a really dark one, but I can't shake it. I'm not going to spend time on it. I just feel I have to mention it. And I'm sure most people watching this or listening are aware of it. But Dave Chappelle, the comedian at a Madison Square Garden event, said the following. Ever since that guy, Charlie Kirk, got murdered, and I shouldn't say this publicly, but I feel better. If one needs to graph or document the decline in American life, this would be one of the spots, one of the examples you would use to exemplify the decline in American life. This is not something that would have been said in the past. That one feels better at the murder of a 31-year-old man with whom one differed politically. Forget the fact that Charlie was a kind, giant man. I cannot imagine me saying anything like that. It wouldn't even enter my mind if a political foe of mine had been murdered. And the only question I have. is, how is the Madison Square Garden reaction? I watched it, and it seemed that he didn't get a load of laughs or a big applause. But I would love somebody who would be able to measure it, to actually measure it. As I said, it's worth noting to say that, I mean, I didn't follow Dave Chappelle beforehand, Unless he. He went to Erica Kirk. I kneeled on the ground and apologized. I can't imagine ever wishing that man anything but a failure in his endeavors. So, Marissa, that's what I just wanted to begin with. Were you aware of that? Well, yes. And, you know, Dennis, I did watch some of the reactions at Madison Garden to Dave Chappelle's comment. And there were people who laughed and applauded. But I would also say that New York does not reflect America. And so sadly, sometimes New York seems to be the barometer of what is going wrong with America. And when people applauded to what Dave Chappelle was saying, I just think it's yet another proof that there's something deeply wrong in the culture there. Oh, you mean the city that elected an Islamist communist as mayor? You think there's something wrong? I think you're right. I thought I thought there was something wrong when I left New York in the 1970s. After going to Columbia University, I never had good vibes, and so it's very sad. A lot of good people in New York, but there are a lot of not-so-good people. Anyway, I want to talk to you about the big question that I keep reading about and hearing about on YouTube, the question of, is MAGA dead? Is the Republican Party dead? Is conservatism dead? So I want to talk about that. I think that what we have here is the consequence or are the consequences of generations of not teaching America's youth what America is about. If you were to ask most conservatives in my lifetime, what is conservatism? Not their fault. They wouldn't really have an answer. I wrote a book about the answer called Still the Best Hope. Why the world needs American values to triumph. And it is true. The American value system is the greatest ever invented. It is the American trinity, as I call it. And we at PragerU spread this. And it's got to be spread far and wide. E pluribus unum. In God we trust and liberty. I didn't make that up. PragerU didn't make that up. That is found on every American coin, on all American currencies. That's the American trinity. And if we don't keep those going, then America ceases to be America. Therefore, I'd like to offer a thought here that instead of America first, we think in terms of America's values first, because America Without its values is not America. You see, maybe Norway, without Norwegian values, whatever they may be, is still Norway. And that may be true for many countries, but it is not true about America. America is its value system, and its value system is that trinity. In God we trust, e pluribus unum, and liberty. Let me start with liberty. Everybody knows liberty, so I'm starting with it. Well, liberty means first and foremost, I think, freedom of speech. But it is only possible when we have limited government. This is the American innovation in human history. Limited government checks and balances on power the giants who founded America. Understood that the more power people have, the more corruption and ultimately dictatorship. They were afraid of human nature and they were right. I am afraid of human nature. And if you're not afraid of human nature, you don't know your history. All the staggering amount of torture and rape and murder and slavery that has taken place. They knew that human nature Had to be kept in check. Limited government is not some sweet phrase about economics or politics. It is the essence of what freedom constitutes, or what constitutes freedom, I should say. And we are getting bigger and bigger government. Half of American young people want socialism. That means, basically, unlimited government. That's what they believe in. They don't believe in private property at the DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America. Everything should be communal, communal property. What was their line? They want to reject the cold hand of individualism and replace it with the warmth of collectivism. Wow, that's really scary. So, what does it mean when we say America first? It's got to mean America's values first. Otherwise, America first is no more noble than Germany first was in the 1930s. Every country could say its country first, and that's fine, providing they have good values. Anyway, liberty, that in God we trust. Guess what's on the Liberty Bell? As I have said probably a thousand times, the Liberty Bell, the most iconic representative of the American Revolution, there is only one sentence inscribed on the Liberty Bell, and that is from the Hebrew Bible, from the Old Testament, from the book of Leviticus, and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. Leviticus 25. Now, why do I mention that? Because liberty is dependent upon and God we trust. That's why all three are related. All three of the Trinity are related. And freedom is related to God. Because if God is not sovereign, then people are. And when people are sovereign, you don't have freedom. That's the way it works. That's why in the Declaration of Independence, it is stated as clearly as possible that we are endowed with inalienable rights. And the reason? Because we were given them by a creator, not by people. So you will only have individual worth and liberty if you have in God we trust. Again, the genius of having these three, all three are necessary. To make America great, and to make American values first. So, liberty, in God we trust, and e pluribus unum, from many one, we don't care, we never cared, where you were born. We cared that you wanted to be an American when you got here, or once you were here, that you became a member of what I was taught as a kid, the melting pot. The left rejected the term melting pot, and it's dead. I bet most young people never heard the term melting pot. But that's what we have. Otherwise, there wouldn't be an America. We're not an ethnicity. We're not a race. We are American values, this great, brilliant, gigantic trinity. And again, that's what we should be talking about, American values first. Rather than America first, it's very important that we have an understanding of what we're talking about. That's my solution to the problem of whether or not the Republican Party, conservatism, and MAGA will survive. They'll survive if we put the emphasis on American values, or specifically, the great American trinity. If MAGA is based on the American trinity, it can live on and should live on. But if it's not, it's just an empty slogan, and it will fall apart at the first loss of an election, which may already have begun to occur. Everything amounts to values. This is what I have come to realize. I've taught it all my life, and I've realized it even more so. Since my accident, and I have talked about it in my speech for PragerU that I gave in Miami. One more little tidbit, Marissa. Apparently, the Charlie Kirk trial is now going to be held. It's set for June 2028. What is going on here? All my heartbreaks for America and my heartbreaks. For Erica Kirk, just to wait that long? It's really taking the defense years to figure out a defense? What will they discover in two years that they wouldn't have discovered in one year? Or three years that they wouldn't have discovered in one year? It's actually a mockery of justice, how long it's taken for this case to be brought. My God, there is so much to fight for. That's why there's a Jewish... And Chinese saying, both ancient cultures have a saying that may you live in interesting times is a curse. Oh, how I yearn for the relatively boring 50s and 60s. Oh, the 60s got rather interesting, unfortunately. I tell you, this is not an insignificant point. Robert Nozick, a Columbia University philosopher. It blew my mind when I first read him, when he spoke about how we don't attach enough importance to boredom, to the subject of boredom, when trying to understand the genesis of evil in the world. Yeah, I'm going to talk about that another time, but it's very true. Anyway, we've got to rephrase it. American values first. Dennis, I've been getting so many phone calls, people asking me, what can we do? How do we make sure that American values remain on the forefront of every action we take, whether it's at PragerU or people who are involved in politics? Obviously, the concern that you have about whether MAGA is going to survive or will MAGA acknowledge what it needs to do and put the American trinity first. But ultimately. What advice would you give to those of us who want to do something, who are lamenting over our country being destroyed from within and from without? What actions can all of us take to save our country? The first thing you have to do is learn what they are. Most people can't define American values. And if they know what the American trinity is, they learned it from us, which I'm delighted about. But it's not the term in use outside of my having coined it some decades ago. No, people need to learn what American values are, and they have to pass it on to their children, and they have to teach it to their friends and to their friends' children. You can't fix things if you don't know how to fix them. And that's the answer, the American value system. We should change the phrase from America first to America's values first. It would cause tremendous upheaval in the world. No longer would the world see it as nationalism, pure and simple. They would see it as a value system. Americans would have to ask, well, what does that mean? And then we give the answer. So the first thing we do is spread the word and learn it. You're going to really appreciate this question that came in from Prager United members. Alex, 30-year-old from Dallas, Texas, very much on point. Many younger people today say morality is ultimately subjective or socially constructed. What is the strongest argument you can offer for why some things are simply right or wrong, regardless of time, place, or majority opinion? Just ask that person, what if math were subjectively, uh... Assessed. What if math were subjective? That two and two equals four would be a subjective statement, not an objective one. That would mean that there's no math. So if morality is subjective, there's no such thing as morality. It's the exact same thing. That's why my latest book, I beg people to read, and it's called If God, If There Is No God. The Battle Over Who Defines Good and Evil. By the way, it came out this week in Spanish. If you know anybody whose native language is Spanish, please get a copy for them. It's up on Amazon. I devoted my life to these efforts, and I just want people to take advantage of them. If God is dead, there is no God. Morality is subjective. There is no good and evil. There are just opinions about it, simple as that, so that they don't even realize that when they say it, it shows you how rigorous thought has been obliterated in our universities and high schools. You can't, if morality is subjective, there is no morality. Just as if math is subjective, there is no math. I had this question that came in from Terry, 36, Beverly Hills. Dennis, what is the Hebrew Bible's attitude towards women? It seems like they play a major role in events, but I'm also told that the Bible treats women as second-class citizens. Can you sort this out for me? Oh my God, I can write a long essay or a short book on the Hebrew Bible's view of women, especially the Torah. Virtually every woman... In the Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy is unbelievably strong, frequently stronger than the men in the same stories. Certainly, Rebecca is, for example, stronger than Isaac, but they're heroes. The daughter of Pharaoh is this unbelievably strong Who saves Moses, and it's one after the other. The woman is the last thing God creates, meaning by definition that in many ways, the finest of his creations, because as God creates, the last item is always a little beyond the previous one. So we have the human being as the last creation. And it's the highest form of creation. But within the human being, we have the highest form as the last form, the female. I would argue, and I have unbelievable reverence for the rabbis of rabbinic Judaism and of the Talmud, but they were humans. I don't believe that they were divine. The Torah is divine. Um, and? The rabbis. They did not have as high a regard for women as the Torah did. They had a high one, but not as high. There's a famous statement in the Talmud, don't speak too much to a woman. Let's see, I'm translating from Hebrew. This is about one's wife, how much more so the wife of your neighbor. In other words, don't talk too much to a woman, even your wife. I mean, these were human beings, in some ways products of their times, but it's not true in the Hebrew Bible. There, it is a truly illustrious view of the human female. I know that there was a rabbi in the Talmud, I think it was Rabbi Akiva, somebody will have to correct me, but he used to refer to his wife as Beiti, my house. And I oftentimes thought about that because I think that women can really create some boundaries that men really need. And if it wasn't for feminism, maybe things would be a little more normal even in our own time. But the Hebrew Bible does remind us how we need strong women in order to maintain a society. That is sustainable, and if only women, I think, were stronger, then men would be able to be stronger as well, at least stronger in the roles that we're supposed to play. Well, yeah, well, no weak human is worthy of respect. We need strong men and strong women. It's as simple as that. I have a, it's interesting that you brought up Isaac because the next question that came in from Prager United, this is a Jane, 54-year-old, from Sherman Oaks, actually. Thank Dennis, you hear a lot about Abraham and Jacob in Genesis, but not so much about Isaac. He seems much less significant than the two other patriarchs. you Is he really, or am I missing something? Yeah, he's not. He's not an Abraham, and he's not a Jacob. so much. But he kept it together. He kept the monotheistic mission together. And for that, he gets great credit. He gets great credit for the way he dealt with realizing he was the sacrifice of his father. We give Abraham credit, but we should give Isaac credit. And by the way, I want to remind everybody that the opening verse, Of that chapter is that God tested Abraham. Nowhere is it implied that God would ever want child sacrifice or any human sacrifice. But that is correct. He was not the same type of giant that his father or son was. But so what? He was his own type of giant. Given that every character in the Bible is someone to learn from, and I oftentimes think that the characters in the Bible are reflected in certain periods of our own lives sometimes, what do you think we should learn from Isaac? Continuity, that you carry on, even if you're not loud or quote-unquote great. The American mission has to be carried on by the average American. And they become the heroes of the story. Not a few people who carry it on. That's, in that sense, Isaac is the average person who carried on a great value system. That's what we, most of us, need to learn. Yeah, I guess many of us play secondary characters and we're still important. Good one. Well, thank you, Dennis, for all of your wisdom. And again, for those of us who are going to be with you at the gala on December 6th, we're excited. We can't wait to see you in Mar-a-Lago. And for those who still want to join, you can find out how to get tickets on PragerU.com so that you can see Dennis in person. Prager United members, we are so grateful for everything that you do for us, for supporting the show and sending in questions. God bless you all, and we'll take our morality first lesson from today. All right, Marissa, looking forward to seeing all of you at Mar-a-Lago.