Dennis Prager: America's Ideological Landscape

as behooves a country with a strong sense of its own exceptionalism America's radio waves are markedly different from ours perhaps the biggest difference the plethora of conservative voices denouncing liberalism socialism feminism and all other isms that question what they see as the foundational rightness and greatness of America one of those voices belongs to Dennis Prager beyond his syndicated radio talk show he's also the author of many books and founder of the YouTube based Prager University it does not offer degrees but it claims to be a place where one is quote free to learn and with that we welcome Dennis Prager to our studio it's great to have you here hey thanks for having this sounds like a pick-up line but do you come here often Canada I do in fact I have been to nine of the ten provinces and I am a big Canada fan I am I do remember this is probably going back 25 years William F Buckley came to Canada to give a speech and he tells the story of coming up to the border and the border guard says to him so what is the purpose of your visit sir and he says I've come to D socialized Canada and I wonder if that's part of your rationale for your visit as well that's a very interesting question that would be a Buckley answer I have come to announce that there is something totalitarian and not allowing people to smoke cigars even in a cigar store that has actually transcended la in LA you are allowed to smoke a cigar in a cigar lounge that you can't hear and that people accept that is troubling we are very retrograde in that regard our way retrograde is not the word I've used I would say your coercive well how how off-putting do you find being in a you know generally speaking a liberal welfare state in Canada how off-putting is that to your normal sensibilities not much you and Australia have a lot in common in this way it's a nanny state both in in Sydney they told me that you are find and maybe it's true here I wouldn't be surprised are you find here by the amount of garbage you put out if you put out after over a certain amount you are you penalized not that I know they are in Sydney so so you have something to learn but by reaction to both countries is similar I really like the people I love coming here and you're a nanny state and it's too bad it's it's sad because the the energy that would be liberated from Canadians in a freer country would be remarkable we have had conservative governments here now for almost ten years that's right hasn't made a difference apparently in that I think it's made a bigger difference to the extent that I know in foreign affairs that is true that is definitely true especially visa via the Middle East well yeah one of the reasons that we really wanted to have you here today is the I think Canadians look with both astonishment and fascination at the American political scene particularly in the Republican Party which is going through just you know a phenomenal race for president right now I think there's 145 candidates running 146 as a four o'clock as a four o'clock running for the Republican presidential nomination so if I can I want to go through some of the bigger names with you we'll go through the list and let's go an inverse order here because I think a real clear politics Dustin polling and at one point three percent this is a guy who's been in the Senate for a long time from South Carolina Lindsey Graham what do you think of them I actually have a great deal of admiration for him he's extremely bright he I also think and I very rarely use this with anyone let alone politicians he's deep the man actually thinks through issues it's clear that he does on foreign affairs he's peerless he understands what is happening and he believes in what I believe in fighting evil which is why I left the left because the left fights carbon emissions not evil so Lindsey Graham is great on that and but he doesn't really stand a chance there is one woman in the race and she Drex in a 1.8 percent right now this is the former CEO of hewlett-packard Carly Fiorina also from California where yes I know her rather well I was the emcee at her senatorial campaign headquarters the night that she lost you one should not have me as emcee at these things I've never seen to winners no no I said find things but I but I don't know if I bring good karma in any Volvo biz not possible to bring good karma to a Republican in California so it's it's it's it you know it's easier to split seas and have the Israelites walk through the land but she's terrific she she is bright she gets in my opinion what America is about and needless to say although she does not emphasize it a woman would undo this what I think is a a childish appeal of voting for a woman if you're a woman and I find that demeaning to women but nevertheless Carly Fiorina would would help undo that advantage of Hillary Clinton at 2.0% is rick santorum former two-term senator from pennsylvania has run for president before what do you think of him rick santorum is another good man I don't think rick santorum has much of a chance I'm a little surprised that he's running I like him I campaigned for him in Pennsylvania but I think that his appeal is a little bit too narrow the governor of Ohio John Kasich is really you know him yeah I don't know him personally but he all the governors stand a good chance because governors are regarded in I think more highly than senators they run something and they have to appeal what to people of the other party mm-hmm very hard in Ohio to when is a Republican if you don't appeal to Democrats and yet he did that's right 3.0% Rick Perry former governor of Texas didn't have too much fun the last time he ran for prayer it was it was unfair everybody everybody including myself who does public work has a memory lapse of some point they wish to make that that was somehow used to demean his intelligence was just intellectually dishonest Rick Perry has wrongly the most successful among if not the most of among the most successful states in Amer during a very bad economic time that that's not little so he deserves more respect than he gets that's all I'm saying Donald Trump nuff said he's running he said he's in the race again right sorta I don't it has to be a sort of an exercise in narcissism I have nothing more to say chris Christie governor of New Jersey 4.8% at the moment yeah III don't see how far he can go and and and here again this is just one man I don't know what he stands for and that's not a good sign if I who make who it's my living to know what goes on in politics and international affairs as it is yours if I don't know what a front running Republican stands for I don't think I'm alone how about utterly blunt in the way he addresses issues yes utterly blunt is style not what you stand for not content okay well I don't suspect you're gonna have that same problem with this next guy the junior senator from Texas Ted Cruz who comes in at seven point five percent he's sort of the darling of a lot of different people right now what do you think of him Ted Cruz who I believe Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School who is a liberal and lifelong Democrat said was his most the most brilliant student he ever had at Harvard this guy is very bright his his downside is a as a somewhat dour demeanor my theory it's not mine but I heard it and I don't know who to attribute it to the happier candidate always wins and he doesn't seem like no he he means that he beats to laugh he needs the smile war the runner-up from last time Mike Huckabee the former governor of Arkansas eight point eight percent he's back in the race again Mike Huckabee is a is the is the opposite in that way of Cruz is appealing to the same base he was a governor not not a senator he he as he is very charming I have been with him a lot and he has television experience given his show on fox news and so I think he's a dark horse Rand Paul 8.8% the current senator from Kentucky this guy's an interesting fellow isn't he well interesting is always a euphemism for other feelings that people have I don't like him well he's different from he's the only one that I could not support because on two grounds one he has a semi isolationist view of American foreign affairs because he's a an avid libertarian I love libertarians on economic matters and I have no respect for them on international matters if there were an honest-to-goodness genocide the libertarian party would say though America is the strongest country in the world it owes millions of tortured people murdered people nothing I don't I don't believe in that I am a religious person and I take the obligation to help my fellow man seriously can we help every fellow man of course not but it's a little stupid to argue that because you can help everyone you help no one I also do not agree and I'm sure most of your viewers don't agree with me on this I do want the National Security Agency to monitor through their computers I want them to monitor phone calls for to find terrorists he does not oh he is the most adamant in in we are now emasculating our ability to find terrorists who blow up innocent human beings and the argument that it's for liberty is it's just nonsense no one's Liberty has been in any way compromised because of billions of phone calls running through computers no one is listening to my phone no one Google knows far more about me than the NSA and I say yes as the so does Rand Paul or he doesn't has a smart phone he says yes his okay if we know your phone and where you are and Dada Dada Dada Dada Dada you go yes so that the the app will work that's infinitely more involved in your life than the NSA help us understand this one ben Carson is a doctor he's never been in politics before never run for anything before he's running for president now he's at 9% yes which is pretty impressive for a guy who's never done it how come well let me tell you about my wife my wife is a lawyer and aside from that she's very bright very bright nice and she loves him she adores ben Carson what's he got ben Carson has a human touch and an insight into what ails America and a serious desire to break down barriers between black and white left and right and so on he is black for those who don't know yes that's correct Marco Rubio Republican senator from Florida 10.3% as we move closer to the top of the list I have a lot of respect for him on foreign affairs he's magnificent and remember a president is mostly foreign affairs and in the way our system works he is someone to watch he is a sort of he is a sort of Republican Hispanic JFK hmm great personal story right good-looking great personal story young articulate smart watch him yep Scott Walker Governor of Wisconsin 10.8% I had Scott Walker Walker on my show I don't tend to interview politicians it's not the nature of my show but I did interview him and I was quite impressed at he did not he did not have the staccato politician robot-like responses he actually responded to questions I was pleasantly surprised at his knowledge of foreign affairs he's smart he's courageous he took on big unions which are a major source of corruption the government unions in the United States because politicians give them what they want and then they pick for the politicians it's it's clearly happens here too how could it not that's one of the reasons I'm for small government because the bigger the government the more the corruption number one at the list right now the brother and the son of two former presidents bush well let me say and this is not fair to Jeb Bush I fully acknowledge it because he shouldn't have to pay a price that he did not sin for I the thought of a Clinton Bush run makes me think that America is deteriorating beyond even what I worry about this dynastic notion is very unhealthy for a country that prides itself on the individual comes from nothing and goes anywhere in life hers is pathetic I mean she was nothing more than than the wife of a president that is her entire claim to fame you're talking Hillary Clinton yes he at least was a governor not at least that's a big deal but so I I started unfair to her you thought she was secretary senator so what she did nothing she did nothing well it's it's you see what you are doesn't matter what you do matters she didn't couldn't be a father and neglect your children then you can't go around saying look hey I'm a father of three yeah but if you've never shown up in your kids lives then you're a lousy we get it so you say she is nothing less felicity that's correct that is my view nothing and the net the net result was a weaker America there is more death on earth because of her and President Obama's foreign policies then when george w bush was president with george w bush was president because when george w bush left the presidency iraq was pacified everyone acknowledges that thanks to what we call the surge and and he left and she agreed with leaving Iraq where when America leaves death follows when America stays you buy Samsung phones American troops are still in South Korea since 1955 and look at South Korea today it's a Samsung in my pocket and I use a samsung camera and I that was after Nikon and Canon and look at North Korea where American troops don't sit it is the hellhole of the earth okay if you're being a tad unfair to Hillary Clinton let me ask whether you're being a tad unfair to Jeb Bush as well I said I was yeah I agree I admitted it's not his fault I mean he is who he is and the fact but I don't trust him on foreign affairs which is I keep going back to because he took that he's taken the advisors of of his father the George W Bush the elder or George Bush the elder George changed up yeah George HW Bush and and I don't it's not a crowd that I feel comfortable with can you talk to us a little bit first of all of that list that we've gone through here do you have a champion yet nope what are you waiting to find out I'm waiting to find out how they how sellable they are see I could live with almost all of them but if you don't win it's it's quite irrelevant so part of the question I have the biggest is can you win do you see a winner amongst that group I see if a few a few are winners ah whoever will defeat her in the debate and not take they're not keep their gloves on because she's a woman because you know the fear of you look like you're picking on a when we're so sexist nonsense you know it's just I can't stand it's the demeaning of women again but in any event that will be that will be a big criterion for me do you like the Republican Party today well when I joined I was a Democrat after all I I'm a Jew from New York and went to Columbia I have every Jew I have every liberal credential so you know when you're a Jew in New York there's you know there's sex male although that's now changing sexes to be determined now I'm serious and New York you can change the sexes on your birth certificate but they were they also had it's not well-known in Canada or outside of New York in the u.s. there was a place for a party and it was just it was filled in Democrat Jew in New York Democrat who just died yeah exactly anyway I became a Republican when Ronald Reagan ran it in 1980 and for years I said there were two parties the the stupid and the destructive and I'm a member of the stupid I would say it's less stupid today and in that regard I'm more proud of it I am proud of the fact that even the most moderate Republican voted against what we call Obamacare the Affordable Care Act which is turning out to be a disaster as was predicted by by Republic is not what Paul Krugman writes in the New York Times every week Paul Krugman says it's actually working pretty well yeah well he should visit Kentucky the the latest news from Kentucky is that that hospital after hospital is shutting down because they can't afford to treat all the people who are coming in under under free government health formerly known as Medicaid now known as Obamacare you don't think Obamacare has brought anything good to the United States there's no such that it's brought something good there are people love insurance who didn't have it before every movement in history including the most vile did some good but on balance you're saying I want balance it's been a catastrophe yes that's what I do believe why well without even the specifics of Obamacare I am philosophically be ended because I think in Prak practice it works I am philosophically against having the government expand I I have a motto the bigger the government the smaller the citizen and I do believe that whether it's Canada Australia or that the worst obvious dream the Soviet Union the bigger the government as government gets bigger the human the individual citizen gets smaller because it takes over more and more of your life a third of Americans now receive money from the government this is this was so not what Americans did Americans took care of Americans through churches it's the most volunteering Society in the Western world the United States and that's that was our belief let me let me give my money to the poor through my charitable donations through my my volunteering work when the government takes that over it doesn't help anyone really it seems to but it's like a pusher you feel better in the beginning but not after time what specifically happened to the guy who was a New York Jewish Democrat to turn him into a California still Jewish Republican the biggest was communism my bottom line in life is I hate evil and I really do I hate evil eye and by evil people all what do you mean by evil and I always think wait a minute you mean you're are you asking that for debating so you know when you say it yes exactly I mean if communism isn't evil then there's nothing as evil communism Nazism fascism Islamism okay that's my list of the last hundred years and the left went AWOL on anti-communism they they they were anti they weren't pro-communist but they were anti anti-communist when Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union and evil empire which should have elicited yawns from morally clear people he was condemned by everyone from the New York Times to the LA Times it was universally condemned but why they're harder on their heart they were harder on Reagan than on Brezhnev today they're harder on Netanyahu than they are on how meny the second president of your country john adams said our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other that she'll stand up today that you took one of my favorite quotes from American history the United States was founded on a proposition that was unique whether one agrees with it or not unique but the government should be small we should maximize individual liberty but the founders knew what I know and what every religious Jew and Christian knows and what everyone knew before the Enlightenment that human nature is flawed and I'm being very generous I'm almost prepared to say stinks but flawed so how could flawed people have a good Society if the state is not controlling their behavior the only way is if I control my behavior by feeling that I am answerable to adjust God and that I have a just system of ethics to govern my life so it's entirely accurate what Adam said hmm that's why the big forgive me the bigger the government the smaller the God in Weston I'm not talking now in the Islamic world where they best the two but in in in in secular Europe government's got bigger and bigger as religion got smaller and smaller somebody's gonna have to control you if you don't control you answerable to God and your religion then you're gonna have to answer to the government are you concerned that on what seemed to be sort of the big called them conservative liberal left-right however you want to characterize them issues of the day the conservative side looks like it's losing on just about all of them is that where are you yeah why do you think you are losing on all of them because it's very hard for people who are not raised with the belief that they have to first change themselves to to grasp the profundity of that message when John Kennedy said in 1961 and his inaugural address ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country that was classic liberalism which is what I still love but right now it is the opposite ask what your country can do for you when you raise a generation that belief what can you do for me I'm gonna vote for the person who takes care of me what why do single women have such disproportionate votes for the left because the left says we'll take care of you you don't need a husband you know do you know that married women with children are just as Republican as as white men and it doesn't matter what what generally what the ethnicity of the woman is if she's married and has children she votes Republican single and children the most Democrat because they will take care of me this folks a bit of Mitt Romney's 47% line well it was that was a stupid law yeah but his point was that if the government is basically putting a check in 47% of the pockets in the United States Republicans are going to get those votes well right but it was a stupid line to say it the way he did knowing that every word he would say is recorded but he said so many few foolish lines given how long the and it's ridiculously long the American political processes for president I don't hold it against him but anyway he was calling on that line and sounded worse than it is but that's right that that's that's the reason that the Democrats want to give more and more people money because that's it's really paying for votes but you're talking economic issues and I'm also thinking of those give social issues as well Oh social issues a marriage or Asia or abortion or capital punishment the conservative side in the United States at the moment seems to be losing I agree with you losing doesn't mean you're wrong but losing that is correct yes I because it sounds the default position in America and in the West today is liberal or left that's the default position you know why do I care if if if two men love each other Who am I to say that's not a beautiful love I don't say it's not a beautiful love I've and in my own extended family is it two women who are married and they have two kids and I love those kids every bit as much as I do any of my other nieces and nephews etc etc but I am against the redefining of marriage because among many other reasons and it doesn't fit on a bumper sticker marriage equality fits on a bumper sticker to say that we haven't been wrong for 7,000 years in society by having marriage defined as male-female takes a lot more than a bumper sticker and the biggest problem is what it announces is gender doesn't matter and this is what I really worry about we are playing with the next generation in the Western world our society has the right to redefine how it sees issues it has totally yes but when it's funny though we can't though we can't define in California through Proposition 8 how we define marriage you can only define if you're on the left you can't define if you're on the right is that the bias of American culture American media American government American etc etc it's a yes that's correct as I say that's the default position that is the only way we are the only way you're taught how many conservatives are invited to give commencement addresses at u.s. colleges virtually zero you have nope I've been invited nope oh wow there's worse while I've been invited I would yes Pepperdine University which is a which is a Christian based University and I was given a doctor an honorary doctorate of laws that was it and once many years ago because the man knew me University of California Irvine Medical School but you're waiting for NYU we don't know but that was too it in in in in 40 years of public life and and I asked Charles Krauthammer who is a major intellect he's a Harvard trained psychiatrist that's real for a while yes and yes I didn't and he always makes that connect he was invited here to give a commencement address and in this entire career not one American University has in fact they've invited basketball players they invite comedians but they have never invited Krauthammer so Canadians are more open-minded than Americans or Krauthammer doesn't trigger the same reaction among Canadian liberals that he doesn't mind American liberals I think that's the fact okay how am i doing on time control room I want to go on but I got a feeling I got to let you go you got an event tonight let you go - well I would love to come every time I come to Toronto you know what can I get that writing room I know you're a terrific host I would be very happy to do it you're very kind I've enjoyed your radio show for many years and I hope you will come back inside yeah your listeners would love Prager University com five minutes with the greatest thinkers in the world awesome dennis prager nationally syndicated radio talk show host columnist author public speaker great to have you at evo tonight it was great thanks help TV Oh create a better world through the power of learning visit support TV org and make a tax-deductible donation today

Channel: The Agenda with Steve Paikin

Views: 55,696

Rating: 4.5721154 out of 5

Keywords: TVO, TVOntario, The Agenda with Steve Paikin, current affairs, analysis, debate, politics, policy, conservative, radio, U.S. media

Id: WMqruoJC6aQ

Length: 29min 29sec (1769 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 15 2015