Now
imagine, they continue, "that on college campuses,
the main focal point of student rallies is whether or
not the United States is acting in a racist manner by
fighting back against the Japanese in the Pacific. ...
Consciousness-raising sessions are held to explore the
sensitivities of the Japanese and the Germans -- to examine
what in the American way of life might have been hurtful
to those people, forcing them to turn to Nazism and imperialism
and to fire upon the Americans who have ‘shamed'
them.
"Every
day newspapers bring a flood of articles about the Americans
killed that day in the fighting, and a mass of hand-wringing
about whether or not the men and women who died did so
to promote a hidden agenda of Roosevelt's."
If
modern liberals had been around in 1942, that is precisely
the way things would have been, and it's sobering to reflect
that if the nation had been so disposed during that dangerous
time, the outcome of World War II might have been different.
This book is especially apt at this moment, because the
man aspiring to unseat George W. Bush had such a large
hand in making American liberalism what it is today.
*
* *
Charles
Mitchell writes: In February 2004, I had the pleasure
of hosting Ben Stein on my campus through Young America's
Foundation. He gave a fantastic speech to a packed house;
it was "the speech" of the 2003-2004 academic
year. That speech by Ben was not about his and Phil DeMuth's
new book - it was on the topic "How to Ruin Your
Life" - but having noticed what got him fired up
that night, I had a pretty good idea of what I'd find
in Can America Survive?
One
of the reasons I like Ben so much is that despite his
movie and TV roles (not to mention his Yale law degree,
political jobs, etc.) is that he does not consider himself
a "hero" or a "star." As he said on
that February night, he thinks the real "stars"
are the men and women of the United States Armed Forces
- not to mention their families, who have to cope with
so much while their loved ones are overseas. None of the
freedoms we currently enjoy, Ben correctly points out,
would exist today if not for these people.
That
notion is at the heart of why Ben and his friend DeMuth
decided to write this book. They are aghast that while
America is under vicious assault from without - see September
11, 2001 - it is tearing itself apart. This, they say,
is no way to fight any war, let alone a long one with
our very existence at stake. Their goal, then, is to point
out exactly why Americans should be proud of their country
- why they should disregard the tired Leftist critiques
of America and help defend it from Islamofascism.
Of
course, this is not the first book to be written on the
greatness of America or the wrongness of the radical Left's
assault on it; Dinesh D'Souza's What's So Great About
America and Dan Flynn's Why the Left Hates America come
to mind immediately (perhaps because D'Souza and Flynn
have also been Bucknell Conservatives Club lecturers).
But Can America Survive? is different.
D'Souza's
excellent book primarily took a philosophical and historical
look at America, contrasting it with the major criticisms
of it (particularly of the Islamic variety) and with other
societies, past and present. But as befits his background
in policy and the academy, Ben ensures that hard data
are also incorporated into this book. This is particularly
evident in the chapters on the U.S. economy, so-called
U.S. imperialism, and environmentalism, where he and DeMuth
prove with statistics and figures that the Leftist cries
of widespread poverty and environmental devastation caused
by America - either within the country or abroad due to
U.S.-led globalization - are a fraud. Stein and DeMuth
demostrate that U.S. capitalism is the most progressive
economic system the world has ever known - just as socialism
is the most deadly - and exporting it to the rest of the
world in the form of globalization is making people richer,
not poorer.
The
book is different from ones like Flynn's principally in
how it approaches the other side. In Why the Left Hates
America, Flynn takes great pains not to make his indictment
into a sweeping generalization of a bunch of people who
don't really hate America, but Stein and DeMuth go further.
Unlike Flynn, they work in an environment - Hollywood
- dominated by the people about which they are writing.
They frequently and credibly make clear that they are
not accusing all liberals - or even all Leftists - of
hating America. And it makes sense: they know many of
the Hollywood types (and many of the politicians) they
are criticizing, as well as the ones whose unsung love
for America they point out.
One
of the most notable additions this book makes to the debate
is the section on "Phariseeism," which the authors
define as the self-righteous belief that less consumption
of material goods signifies moral superiority. This mindset,
Stein and DeMuth argue, is behind the sort of people who
think they are saints for driving Volvos or riding bikes
and who curse every SUV that goes by. But Stein and DeMuth
are not concerned about this phenomenon simply because
they may like big cars. Rather, they want Americans to
be proud of the progress their country has made, materially
and otherwise, and treating relative deprivation as a
badge of honor goes against that. Earlier in the book
the authors take pains to catalog how much better off
America is than the rest of the world, not to mention
any society that has ever existed, and they see no reason
to be ashamed of that.
In
Can America Survive? Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth provide
a stirring call to arms for Americans. With more data,
more nuance, and more independence from the "party
line" - Stein, for example, is in favor of gay marriage
and job training for U.S. workers hurt by globalization
- they ably refute the Left's "blame America first"
mentality. And as they correctly point out, never has
it been more crucial for all Americans to unite in defense
of our way of life. It deserves defending, because it
is indeed great, and it needs defending, because it is
under brutal attack.
