more video of author michael moss at booktv.org. share your thoughts so far and see what others are saying on twitter at hash tag btv book club and on our facebook page. then join our discussion online at both social sites tuesday night at 9 eastern. .. >> guest: we first have to import them.

that is the problem but it is about exporting which is what the subtitle is about the world. people need the guidance to the good people. we are not born good. this is one of the basic differences between left and right. left-wing ideologies tend to believe we are born basically good, conservatives understand we are not. it is a huge source of the difference between left and right. if you understand, my preoccupation is with understanding why there is so much evil in the world since i was a child that has always preoccupied me. i take no credit for it but it has been. you need ideas to guide people's lives. you need ideology. there are three competing ideologies and the world today, islamism, islam, i will explain the difference in a moment, leftism and americanism. two of them are proselytizing. one is not proselytizing,

americanism. i define americanism very simply, not simplistically, in the book which is why there is the calling on the cover. 25 years ago, empty my pockets that night i looked at the collins i had emptied and sure enough it was amazing they were the american value system and every coin, liberty, in god we trust, he florida sued him. that is applicable to all societies in the world and i can explain them, the american trinity, those three values, is the greatest valuable system ever devised for liberty and goodness. >> host: how do you define leftism? >> guest: that is the largest single part of the book. leftism has characteristics and it begins for example with the belief that the greatest vehicle to goodness is the state.

that the state is the great, as i said, vehicle to goodness, that you rely on the state as much as possible for the welfare of people. begins with a belief that economic explains human behavior, not values so that the idea of poverty causes crime is a dogma on the left, we did not subscribe to leftism but judeo-christian values and to common sense know the basic cause of crime in our society is a malfunctioning conscience. people don't rate because of poverty. people are not killing because of poverty. they are killing because -- we can't say that. it is unbelievable. you can say bernie madoff stings, everything terrible and they should about bernie madoff, a white collar criminal but you

can save the average rapist and murderer is of that level. it is not really him, it is his parenting, poverty and so on. the blaming of outside forces for human evil is a deep part of leftism. the materialist view of life is part of secular leftism. leftism is opposed to a strong religious yossi because karl marx said the obstacle to revolution is religion. because religion says try to be happy in a world that exists and leftism says make utopia here, religion says utopia is in the next life. those are part of the characteristics and they're all developed in the book. >> host: dennis prager is our guest for the next hour. the numbers are up on the screen, 202-583-5885. in the east and central time

zone, 3886. in the mountain or out here in the pacific time zone where we are located today you can't get through on the phone lines and would like to attend a tweet@booktv is our twitter handle, go to facebook.com/booktv. you can post a comment under dennis prager's name, listed right on the top of the page. dennis prager, in "still the best hope" in the chapter why the left succeeds, part of the book what the left succeeds, favor groups are rarely to blame about certain issues. what do you mean? >> for example the most obvious being racial minorities, if they rape and kill it is because of racism and poverty. during the l.a. riots that took place in this city i was a talk-show host then as well and

i've never forget it, an nbc reporter said here i am at the corner of two streets where the riots were happening and i see a black gentleman throwing stones at drivers. i thought the man throwing stones is not a gentleman. the word i can't use the national television put the word that comes to mind is not gentleman. why did he say gentleman? he wouldn't have said there's a white gentleman wearing a hood burning across. would he have said that? of course not. the left of center doesn't have the courage and doesn't have the ideology that permitted to blame evil on evildoers. if the evildoer is black is white's fault. if the evildoers white is white's fault. you name it. the palestinian/is really conflict is another example. don't blame the palestinians. what they are doing is understandable in light of how

evil israel is. by the way, that is a very significant example of the upside-down world of the left that israel is now increasingly the villain in that conflict. in the history of the world there has not been a war between a free society and and and free society. it is a free and then for your two on free societies. this is the first time in world history that i know of that the free society is blamed for a conflict. that is thanks to the left. israel is the villain. not the palestinians, half of whom vote for a genocidal ideology to prevail. leftism as an upside-down moral world. i say this with sadness because a lot of people who subscribe to our decent people which incidentally is unique to us. we constantly understand there are good people w

differ. i have never heard a prominent leftist say conservatives are good people, people who believe that same-sex marriage is wrong and we should continue to keep the mail/female marriage we don't do this from 8, they have sincere beliefs in this regard. they can't say that because if we are not demonized then we can't be fought. we are fought by demonization, sexist in tolerance homophobic racist and bigoted is what we are and that is how they prevailed. we are not babbling ideas, we are battling bad people. we think they are wrong, they think we are bad. >> host: you write about left-wing takeover of universities and give as an example the university of california san diego and you disorganization at the

university. >> guest: by the way this is from heather macdonald at the manhattan institute. coin. >> host: vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion, chancellor diversity office, associate vice chancellor, faculty equity, assistant vice chancellor for diversity, faculty equity advisors, graduate diversity coordinator, staff diversity liaison, undergraduate student diversity liaison, graduate student diversity liaison, achieve diversity officer, director of development for diversity initiatives, the office of academic diversity and the pull opportunity, committee on gender identity and sexual orientation issues, committee on the status of women, campus council on climate, culture and inclusion, diversity council, cross-cultural center, lesbian trans gender research center in the women's center, that is a left-wing seminary, not a

university--and not one of these and this? >> they have nothing to do with teaching. it has to do with indoctrination and audiology. this is another tragedy. i was raised in the jewish tradition where the teacher was honored like a parent. you were taught, i was raised their bid is jew and still am religious, or about -- i have written two book and judy is in and a columnist for the jewish journal of los angeles so i am pretty steep than my religion and we were taught to respect each is exactly like parents. the hebrew root for torah, teacher and parent is the same. that is how holy the teaching role is in my tradition. the left has sullied the word teacher. i never thought it would be possible. is like the purest word you have. the teachers' unions have done to teaching in the public schools and what the left has

done to teaching at universities i do call them left wing seminaries. a christian seminary is there to produce committed christians. the university is now there to reduce committed leftists and they are succeeding. that is the biggest reason for election results, the biggest reason for the shift in american values. you don't hear these ideas in an american campus, not at usc, i am not picking on u.s. c, doesn't matter where we would be. there are fine teachers and every university no question but overwhelmingly is an indoctrination. a man of the left just had a guy from the e.u. san bernardine no, he said to him i am curious in light of the latest terror attacks, i am just curious, if there had been a show mocking is long on broadway like there is mocking mormonism do you think

first that anyone would have put it on and do you think there would have been violent results and the professor says oh no, it would have been the same. perfectly ok with that. this is what you are taught on campus, you are taught lies. ilya diversity is so scared of islamists that they refuse at the last moment in their own book on the mohammad cartoons in denmark to publish the cartoons. in a book on the cartoons they would not published cartoons. on a book on nazi anti-semitism would they have reproduce not the cartoons about the jews? of course because no jew is killing anybody anti-semitism and no question is killing anybody for anti christianity. it went from museum to museum, a crucifix in a, quote, artist's urine. can you imagine a picture of mohammad and urine what would have happened? the number of people around world that would have died.

we are taught there's no bigger threat from the world of islam then there is from the world of christianity. that is what is taught here and that every university virtually in america. >> where can people here your radio show? >> guest: it is national, go to dennis prager.com and something i tried to undo the damage of the university called dennis prager university.com. the finest painters in the world in sophisticated just five minute all i ask people for is five minutes, dennis prager univ..com. i am trying to do with whatever god gives me with the help and energy to undo the damage that is being done by leftism and the sad part is, i know this because my extended family is mostly liberal and i love them and i always think of them whenever i attacked leftism, am i attacking my dear extended family? not my immediate family, thank

god my boys are conservative but i love them and i know they are good but i believe they have been misled because all you study from elementary school to graduate school is from the left. is brainwashed, if all you studied was evangelical christianity from childhood to graduate school, wouldn't the liberals say you were brainwashed? why isn't it true that if you get secular leftism from elementary school through graduate school do you know that here in california textbooks are now by law must include the contributions of the transgendered? by law you have to have pages on transgendered contributions, people who crossed over sex or dressed in the other sex

clothing. isn't that absurd? isn't that totalitarian? i thought the purpose of the text book was to tell the truth, not make groups feel good. as i point out in the book leftism is overwhelmingly rooted in feelings. >> host: dennis prager is the author, "still the best hope" is the name of his most recent best seller. this is booktv on c-span2. do we from boca raton, fla. you are on the air talking with dennis prager. >> >> caller: i would like to ask dennis prager and his ilk what he just said about truth. why should people believe the bible when that is the biggest novel ever written? who believes the earth is 5,000 years old? how do you follow a book that tells you the earth is 5,000 years old and his last commentary about christian schools in to the seminary, the child molesters there, how does he say something like that and wants to be honest? i know he is a right winger and

won't give credit to anybody but my main question is why is he so hung up on religion when religion is just a false pretense? answer me. >> host: response from dennis prager. >> guest: i don't know anybody, and i am rather deeply involved in the jewish and christian world, who believes the earth is 5,000 years old. there are some people who do. i don't give a hoot. i think it i think the universe is 13.7 billion years old. whatever science tells me and prove i believe. is a nonissue to me. i don't read the bible for geology. i read the bible for moral guidance. so did every founder of this country including jefferson. jefferson removed the miracles but jefferson wanted -- what jefferson wanted the seal of the united states to be? look it up on the internet,

jefferson and franklin called deists both designed a seal, the seal of the united states was to be the jews leaving egypt. that is how steeped in the bible jefferson was not to mention adams, not to mention washington and seoul on. that is where we got the idea that we get our rights from a creator. it comes from that book. dozen come from dna, doesn't come from darwin, values don't come from secularism, secularism doesn't have a value system, secularism is the absence of religion but the judeo-christian value system gave us our values. if god doesn't say do not murder, murder is not wrong. this drives people crazy and i have debated this at oxford and elsewhere and the leading atheist philosophers all have agreed if there is no god, the wrongness of murder is solely a matter of personal opinion. i like yellow, you like.

, you like murder, that is the way it is. and i am fearful for the united states dropping the bible in favor of you know what, feelings because i don't trust the human heart very much. >> host: ala alone runs the world, reason and nature have no say, you write, that is probably the primary reason why after a certain date science seized 2 most likely could not develop in the muslim world. >> guest: we talked about leftism the old-time but the book is about islam is a man let me explain islamism, there is is islam--islam is the belief that the sharia should govern a society. that is what i am worried about. i am not worried about the -- it is a nonissue to me and not a secular muslim.

i am worried about the muslim who wants a society like the islamists in egypt, the muslim brotherhood and elsewhere not to mention the taliban governing society. but yes, there was a terrible battle and i back this up, there were 400 footnotes in the book, there was a terrible battle during the early middle ages within islam. do things happen because they happen, or solely because god/ala wills it and the allah wills it team as it were prevailed so that the example given if an aero hits its target is not because of wind velocity ability of the archer, it is solely because all of willed it and so reason and obviously science ultimately became rather rare in on major part of the

islamic world's. >> host: dennis prager. miguel posts on our facebook page for you the left is for the state to play a fair arbiter and equalizer roll. once achieved as marks proposed, the state's fades away. in dennis prager's view corporate religion and social darwinism should be the rule that oppresses the masses and benefits the few. >> guest: the state fading away, if i study marxism at columbia university, russian institute still school of international affairs, i am familiar with that, everything marx predicted did not come true. this is one of them. the state not only does not fade away, yet always gets bigger. i don't know where it is getting smaller on earth or ever got smaller. it gets smaller only if conservatives prevail as with margaret thatcher, the late great british prime minister with the late great president reagan. if willfully it is made small.

that is the american ideal. this person obviously god bless him doesn't agree with the american ideal of small government but i have a model and it is a truism, the bigger the government the smaller the citizen. as the government gets bigger you and i get smaller. as the government gets smaller we get bigger. we take care of our neighbor, we take care of ourselves, we take care of our families. instead as in europe the government is everything, the biggest concern of most europeans is can i work fewer hours and how many trips can i take because now is a human rights in europe to travel. we have had -- why do americans give so much more charity than europeans? are we born better? of course not. we give far more charity than europeans because the european has been tossed you don't have to take care of any one. the state will do it.

why are leftists proud of that? what is beautiful about that? i can be a narcissist because the state will take care of my neighbor. it is like colorado just had a huge demonstration on behalf of legal marijuana. if my child had gone to a let's celebrate legalized marijuana i would have believed i had failed as a parent utterly. the narcissism involved in what preoccupies you, you are now 3 to get high on marijuana, just think about what animates a lot of people. it is people frankly. social darwinism, this is what the left uses to attack the belief -- i don't even know what believe they are attacking. what about social darwinism, that the talented and hard-working get ahead? why is that darwinism? why isn't that merit?

i have in there from a harvard economist, princeton economist, won and nobel prize, doesn't mean anything to me but it does to a lot of mothers, shows how much more television poor people watch than richer people, because richer people don't have to time to watch tv, they worked so hard to get ahead. this doesn't mean poor people don't work hard but on average in america by and large there is a correlation between hours worked and income. by and large. of course there are exceptions that both ends. >> host: booktv on the campus of the university of southern california at the l.a. times festival of books and mathew in portland, ore. you are on with dennis prager. >> good morning, how are you doing, pleasure to talk with you. my original question, you said

so much, the comment in your interview about how the left sees making utopia on earth and religion is more about your utopia -- i would say u.s. history especially revolutionary europe, the founding of this country, the values we have all men created equal, new things, that was the way, obviously of making utopia. hold those lines wasn't just sitting back and just accepting what was. was trying to make it better. >> guest: thank you very much. of course -- my whole point of writing the book is we have the best system for making a better society. the better society is not

utopia. the president of the united states five days before he was elected said to a very large crowd in five days, this was the first election, in five days we will fundamentally transform the united states of america. i don't want to fundamentally transform america, utopians want to fundamentally transform america. i want to improve america, not fundamentally transform it. that is the utopian streak that is at the heart of leftism. we can make a world where there is no suffering, no evil. of course it is a beautiful goal but to have it as a reality, everyone who has tried to make that utopia, my listeners, my viewer, everyone who has tried to make utopia on earth has made hell on earth. those who want to incrementally improve it make a much better place. >> host: from our twitter page,

carol romano asks why are liberals so vested in boston bombers being home grown white terrorists? >> there was in fact an article on one of the liberal websites where the author, a man i actually debated once so i am familiar with him said he hopes that is all white american, a homegrown american. can you imagine had somebody written an article i hope it is a black or i hope this is a middle eastern air. can you imagine the condemnation, the tsunami of contempt that he would have received? that man and others don't want to recognize that there really is a moral problem within islam today. that to say that means you are a hater.

we can't say truths. if you are against affirmative action you are a racist. if you are -- if you thinks the human fetus has any rights more than a dog or as much as a dog you are a sexist. if you think marriage should be defined as a man and woman you are a homophobe. there's one word label for all of us that is thrown out. if i say there's a bigger moral problem in the world today, in the world of islam, in christianity or judaism or hinduism you are islamowphobia so no debate is necessary. that is why they do it because i have on my radio show the greatest, most of the biggest leftist names except new york times columnist, they don't go on conservative shows. i want to declare it. tom freedman will go on in pr but he will not come on any conservative talk shows and i don't blame him. even though we will treat him

perfectly decently, that is why they come on. i have on the great university of chicago professor martha -- one of the leading names on the left and she was delighted to be on and we don't agree on anything. my motto on my show is i prefer clarity to agreement. if i clarify where i differ with the left or whoever, good. back to is this. to merely say there is more of a moral problem today in the islamic world and the christian or jewish or buddhist or in do is to be called names. people are afraid of being called names. i am not and it shuts up a lot of people. >> host: kathy in illinois go ahead with your question or comment for dennis prager. >> caller: i have a question. one of my questions for you is can you name any society you are aware of that doesn't suffer from deep levels of poverty,

that is not crime-ridden? >> guest: can you explain what you mean by that question? >> host: can i name a society that is crime-ridden that does not suffer from deep poverty? >> guest: the point being there is only crime where there is poverty. every society has poverty, and i would turn the question around, the impoverished ancestors of virtually every living american criminals, my grandparents had less money in absolute and relative terms than the average for prison today. the thought that my grandparents would have committed a crime is laughable because they were religious jews who have value system that never said if you are or you can rape.

it is unbelievable to me to ascribe evil to poverty. >> host: elizabeth posts on our facebook page on a personal level what has been the hardest challenge in your life and how did you get through it? >> host: the hardest challenge on a personal level or an ideological? >> host: personal. >> guest: divorce after 17 years was a terribly painful thing, terribly. you build hopes, you have dreams, you have a child, it is all very painful. i am very open on my radio show as i am here, people know about my life but i don't think there's a close second to is that. i have every dream of picket fence, not necessarily dogs, my wife has wanted dogs, i am

currently married to the love of my life and she loved dogs. i like dogs, for the record. don't know. >> host: next call from dennis prager from dennis in st. louis, missouri. >> guest: i you over 50? >> caller: i am over 70. >> guest: there are no young dennises. >> caller: i am also a jewish and interested in your work for a long time not because i agree with you but because i enjoy disagreeing with you. quickly made the of already answered this, from a jewish perspective how do you explain why so many jews support a larger role for the state than you do and why so many jews are more critical of israel than you are and by criticism i don't mean supporting the palestinian

cause, and then a comment, i am also a retired teacher and i thought you inflated the power -- not the power of teacher unions over bread and butter issues, but i thought you inflated the influence of teacher unions over what is actually talked to students. st. louis -- >> host: we would get dennis prager to respond but do you listen to his radio program? >> caller: i read a few of the books and articles and occasionally have gone on c-span to pick up other programs. i use your web site a lot and listen to interviews. >> host: thank you. thanks for calling. >> guest: why are jews on the left is a very complex question and i could devote the hour to it but i won't. here in a nutshell when jews

left judaism they stayed religious but the religion they affirmed tended to be any form of leftism rather than judaism. it is not a condemnation or an insult but a description. jews have been taught by judy isn't to make a better world. that is the message of the process and if they weren't going to do it for monotheism which is how we are supposed to be doing it, teach the world gone is the source of ethics and demands appleby a year, they did it through secular ideologies, rejected traditional religion us eddie and accepted a new religion yasser which is secular. many people describe marxism as secular messianism. here's the second statistic that is in my book and it is not i didn't come up with this, a professor did. the most pro communist press in the 1930s out side of the soviet union or inside the united

states was the yiddish press. jews took a new religion as a substitute for judy is demand that was feminism, environmentalism, marxism, socialism, and for some even communism but jews love -- what italians are 2 operas. they create new movements and everyone will make this great world and instead of using their religion that came with being jewish and is a sad development for me. >> host: "still the best hope: why the world needs american values to triumph" published by harpercollins. nancy, go ahead with your question or comment. >> caller: thanks for being here. this is the first time unfortunately i have ever heard your name although you are very interesting. >> guest: where d live?

>> caller: in borja. >> guest: hymen at matt every david three hours. >> caller: i am a christian and those of the words i go by. i am neither left nor right. i find both are cast in stone and tend to be shades of one party which are corporate owned. jesus said we are all one and within that i am often troubled by the talking heads on both sides. i don't mean that as a pejorative where they don't do anything to reach out one to the other. our biggest problem is reaching across laterally and it seems the talking folks on both sides tend -- >> guest: what does that mean? agreeing with the other? dialogue? on my show i have a leading spokesman whenever possible from the left. is that reaching out? if so, i am innocent of your

charge. >> caller: i have never heard you and i will see you on. >> i have heard other folks. what i find is a lot of talk that separates us, talking about the everyday people which is what i am and rather than when we talk laterally i hear a lot of talking points from both sides instead of i am 69 and so i have been around jesus for a long time and i really believe he didn't stutter and i never hear his words put out in terms of coming together and striving to resolve our differences because we are diverse. it is in our differences that are constantly reinforce, create the problem. the other question i have if i

may, i consider myself a question of neither party but many on the right would call me more to the left because we are all one. i am wondering why the christian left is often ignored. my final question is do you really believe -- my father was irish, do you really believe the rest of the world do not have comparable values? thank you very much. >> guest: i don't think the rest of the world has comparable values. that is exactly right. if i fought so not only would i not have written the book, i would have abandoned the belief that there is better and worse in the universe. you believe jesus has better values. who doesn't believe that what they believe in has a better value system? if my value system isn't better than i will adopt the one that

is better. i have one life to live on this earth and i want to live it with the best values i confined. if it is not the american value system my will take a leftist or the islamic or whatever it might be. this system of liberty and in god we trust, eve for the suit and has devised ironically the most egalitarian society, there is such a wooded among the classes and it has given more people, more prosperity, given more people more liberty, more opportunity than any society in the history of the world. you judge and ideology by its fruit. i like the american fruit. it has given people blessings litigate two brothers blessings decided then to murder the people who blessed them. little sick. of course i believe ours is a better value system just as you believe jesus is a better value system. the people who believe in jesus founded this country but they

understood that it wasn't jesus alone that was necessary, you needed small government and you needed e. clore bassoon them, the statement that raise and nationality don't matter. >> host: shea talked-about lateral reaching out. a lot of talk -- >> guest: the -- there is the reaching out between republicans and democrats -- look. that is a tactical question. on the larger question of the society, what does reaching out mean? we conservative talk-show hosts have leftists on routinely such as myself. my colleagues, i am syndicated by salem radio network, my colleagues have leftists on regularly. they never have us on, never. ms nbc is virtually devoid of any of the ideas you just heard.

npr is virtually the void. pbs is virtually devoid of it. not to mention the university's. we are very happy to debate. i have offered -- i would love to see a debate between paul krugman and the head of the cato institute for example. i think we should try to raise $100,000 for cancer research and for a debate of prominent conservative economists so as not to make it ego on the side or three on each side but they don't debate. they call us names. if you believe marriage should be between a man and woman you are called hater so who wants to debate haters? i would not debate the ku klux klan. that is how the left fields. if you are not on the left you are a hater, sexist, as in of coma, racist and bigoted. howard dean, former head of the

democratic party, candidate for u.s. president said the republicans who go to bed at night not caring about the welfare of children. this is typical of how we are perceived and that is what sustains leftism because the right must be so awful i had better be on the left because i have a good heart. >> host: where did you grow up? >> guest: brooklyn, new york. what did my parents do? my father who is still with us, is 94, will be on my radio show on his birthday as he has been every year for years, was until very recently a certified public accountant and i am one of his clients. is raped was great. my mother during her heyday, she ran a 300 bend nursing home. she passed away three years ago.

>> host: where they conservative? >> guest: that is a very interesting conservative i was raised brooklyn to university. you are going to be a democrat. it comes with your birth certificate. nationality says democrat. of course i was a democrat. the first republican i voted for was ronald reagan and the voted for jimmy carter first term. in values i think ultimately the values i got were more conservative. we were democrats. that was a given but what got me, this was what got me because fighting evil is the single biggest passion of my life and i knew that communism was as genocidal as nazism. i didn't understand how the left could condemn anti communism and they did.

they didn't defend communism. some did but most didn't, but they did condemn anti communism. that is what turned me away. if you can't say that communism is the greatest evil of our post nazi era, then your moral compass is broken and indeed the leftist moral compass is broken. >> host: your parents make a cameo in "still the best hope" when you're talking about why the left succeeds, talking about secondhand smoke. >> guest: you really read carefully. that is correct. i have a list of 12 hysterias of the left, hysteria is left-wing methodology from heterosexual aids in america which was a fraud, there was no epidemic of heterosexual aids in america. in africa but not in america. the number of girls dying of anorexia was exaggerated by feminists by factor of a

thousand, the number of homeless in america was of phony numbers, mitch snyder who made it up admitted it on abc-tv and later committed suicide, and the number of hysterias and secondhand smoke is an example. >> host: next call from bob in california. >> caller: how are you doing? where do i start here? it is hard for me to know where to pick up on any of your statements. for instance, cured generalizations are all encompassing, look at the statement the jews adapted communism as the new religion. >> guest: i said leftism and the

yiddish press was the most pro communist press of the 1930s. i am careful with my language. jews were not communists or pro communists and i never said they were. >> guest: does a two separate statements that you made at different times, you definitely said the jews, communism is the new religion. >> guest: i don't know what the routine is here. i let people who differ with me have all the time they want on my show and this is not my show but you can't say what is not true and then pass over it. i said when jews abandoned judaism they stayed religious in their desire to make a better world and picked a whole host of others, environmentalism, feminism, socialism, marxism and i said a few communism. that is what i said. it is all on tape. >> host: finish your statement.

>> guest: i was going to say there is no question about the fact he said communism. instead of saying some jews it was jews. the statement that you made about the reporter saying gentleman threw stones and he was no gentleman. you eventually pretty much nitpicking. i was a journalist in chicago and back in the 50s when we covered race riots when blacks were living in the neighborhood and people who were rioting were not -- most of the people i talked to were right wingers. most of the statements you make are so general in their makeup. >> host: let's get a response. >> guest: nothing to respond to.

he didn't say anything i said was wrong. thank you for calling. >> host: joe post's how problematic is the modern culture that cynicism, profanity and consumerism to the project of american renewal? >> guest: the other thing was profanity, they all have different origins. and i don't believe there is consumerism that people say every year i defend people who buy christmas gift for example. it is one of the most beautiful traditions in america that people spend time thinking about what will make a relative or friend happy on christmas. if people think that is a disgusting part of the culture we have a different value system. is christmas made too consumerist? i just ask people who say every

good thing can be taken to an extreme. of course you could have too much vitamin c, too much water, but in general it is a credit to christianity that there is a holiday where millions of people, the bulk of society thinks about buying people things that will bring them july. i don't buy thejuly . i don't buy the consumer -- consumerism keeps people employed. cynicism, we are raising a jaded, i would use the word jaded more than cynical. there's a lot of jaded this is among young people because they are sexualize so early. this is a real tragedy. it is a discussion for a whole other time why that has happened. kids who have early sex tend to

be jaded and that is a problem. and the third was cynicism. >> host: profanity. >> guest: i have a chapter on profanity. with the death of the judeo-christian value system the concept of the holy and the division between holy and profane is obliterated and a lot of folks on the secular left curse publicly. i document it where cursing -- everybody, most people including myself will use a curse word in private. i don't do a lot but i do it. but public, that is a different thing. public nudity, san francisco hata 7-6 vote outlawing public nudity but a lot of sentences and don't see anything wrong with it. secularism as defects. the notion that we are created in god's image, should tell our genitals exposed like an animal is a religious idea. with the death of religion nobody sees wrong with people

walking around naked. >> host: your book has been sitting on this table and you see a crowd here. people have been walking by saying is dennis prager going to be on, yes, good, is dennis prager going to be on, yes, real 50/50. everybody has an opinion. >> host: >> guest: if it is 50/50 i am doing very well. very happy to hear it if it really was 50/50. for i care about everything war nearly everything that focus on the left say they care about. compassion, goodness, concern for others but i think leftism hurts those causes. i am a bigger problem to them than the guy who just shout at them. i come from within that world.

i understand it and i think intellectually and morally and sound and because i am not a yeller or screamer or hater or any of that, that is why people on the left to do come on feel so comfortable coming on. i gave you one example recently. howard zinn, the biggest of all the leftist historians came on my show and i asked him point blank, it is in the book, i said with the world have been better had there never been a united states of america and he said he is agnostic on the issue. i wonder how many people who assign his book, it is the most widely assigned single most lively assigned history book in the united states by teachers, and i wonder how many would agree with that? may be the world would have been better had there never been a u.s.?

>> host: the internet tweets in this guy wants big government to outlaw marijuana. >> guest: that is right. i am not an anarchist. that is correct. this notion that if you are for small government you are for no government i have never bought. there are things that i would like to continue to be, i don't want any new bands, but had marijuana been legal for the last 50 years i would have said nothing but to introduce it as a new innovation, it will only have a deleterious effect on society. a woman wrote to me from wyoming, i try to read my mail, she wrote a thoughtful letter, she was extremely laudatory but she said she has marijuana every night, she smokes marijuana every night and she has two

kids, a husband, and i believe her. i said i smoke a cigar in a pipe, i have since high school and i have smoked in front of my children from birth and they are very healthy incidentally. they don't appear to be dying of secondhand smoke anymore than i am for my parents's secondhand smoke and i said i am curious, would you smoke your marijuana in front of your children like i smoked my cigar? i didn't get a response. i am not saying she doesn't have one but i can't give you her response. everyone knows there's a difference between marijuana and tobacco. my father had his scotch on the rocks every night but i would have been dead different person at my father had a joint every night. >> host: gillian asks do you regret not running for office?

>> guest: yes. >> host: will you ever run for office? >> guest: no. i live in california but it renders running for office as a republican, form of kamikaze activity. there are two things i want to say on this. i want to touch people's hearts and minds. politicians have power. talk-show host with millions of listeners and a writer of books that people read influences people's thinking. i would rather do that than have power. the others i don't have the money to run. thanks to campaign finance reform only the very wealthy can run. that is one of the ironies of campaign finance reform. i debate whether i should have often.

>> host: dennis prager's most recent book, best seller "still the best hope: why the world needs american values to triumph". this is booktv on c-span2. >> you are watching booktv on c-span2. here's our prime-time lineup for tonight. starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern, nancy rubin stewart describes the lives of benedict arnold and general henry knox. at 8:00, changes to u.s. foreign policy. at 9:00, marcia pull oil gives a synopsis of the supreme court under the direction of chief justice john roberts. at 10:00 eastern, olympia snowe joins us to talk about her book fighting for common ground:how we can fix the stalemate in congress. we conclude the prime-time programming at 11:00 eastern with donald rumsfeld providing the lessons he learned over the course of his career. visit booktv.org for more on this weekend's television schedule.

>> representative greg walden, what is on your summer reading list? >> i just finished a victory lap. i do a little bit on the side. that tells a lot about digital data and how the world of campaigns has changed. i am hoping to get to the biography on jefferson which i have on my ipod and a new one on teddy roosevelt. i am a big fan of the roosevelt and the reform music and his energy and styling and deals mainly with his time in south america so it should be interesting. >> let us know what you are reading this summer, tweet us at booktv, posted on our facebook page or send us an e-mail at booktv@c-span.org. >> there tends to be a denigration of the u.s. military

by some historians. whenever one battalion fought an american battalion or an american regiment fought an american regiment, that the germans tended to be tactically superior, that they were the better military. this is just nonsense because it is pointless. global war is a class system. it is which system can produce the wherewithal to project power in the atlantic, the pacific, the indian ocean, southeast asia, which system can produce the civilian leadership to create the transportation systems, the civilian leadership was able to produce 96,000 airplanes in 1944. >> sunday, june 2nd, author and journalist rick atkinson will take your calls, e-mails, facebook,s and tweets, in depth,

hours live, sunday, june 2nd at noon eastern on booktv. here's a look it the upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around nation. book expo america is the largest gathering of booksellers, retailers and industry professionals in the u.s. and features 500 doctors attempted booktv will be live at the printers festival would cover the body panels, check our web site at booktv.org for updates on our coverage. in mid july is the fifteenth annual harlem unfair in new york city. the festival highlights its award show, qb our readers' choice awards and presentations from office like john carlos and henry louis gates jr.. in edgar town, mass. the martha's vineyard book festival in august, the two day event will feature several lawyers

including dick layer, linda greenlaw, please let us know about book fairs and festivals in your area and we will be happy to add them to our list. post them to eyewall at facebook.com/booktv or e-mail us at booktv@c-span.org. what are you reading this summer? booktv wants to know. ♪ ♪

♪ .. >> he recounts his tenure and reports on the reforms made during his three years as president obama's regulatory czar from improved labels on food products and calories listed on national restaurant menus to streamlined student lo