The first is from The American President (1995) when President Shepherd (Michael Douglas) delivers a speech about American citizenship, rights and elections.
The second was written for the television show The Newsroom (2021) and is presented by the main character Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) about where America really stands. McAvoy, by the way, is a news anchor who is supposedly an old establishment Republican.
Both couldn't be more pertinent to our country than today. And after listening to Dennis Prager yesterday rail on in one of his didactic videos about how all the Right really wants to do is protect the land they believe to be the greatest country, and Left is only interested in dispelling this greatness and even creating issues that don't exist in our great country, I'm left with mouth hanging agog.
I've seen Dennis Prager debate live. He's a learned man. But he's among the most baffling of Jewish sages, standing shoulder-to-shoulder often with the Christian Right for their morality, pushing for the safety of Israel, all the while standing in the way of any progress in any of those directions. That video I referred to is not only slanted in a such an offensive way to those who are progressive in their thinking, it's so condescending as to be the worst piece of shit I've listened to in a long time.
There's an old saying, as goes the title of this blog, The first step to fixing a problem is admitting one exists. So Prager, a scholar by all definitions of the word, is going to lecture anyone who opposes his capitalistic views as being wrong. He's going to tell you America is the greatest place in the world because we are a merit-based system, have strong values, and that capitalism allows this like no other. He will expound the idea that we have promoted liberty elsewhere like no other country.
And he's right. America is a great country. And our intentions are often in the right place. But the road to hell is littered with good intentions.
To which I say so Mr. Prager, you're going to stand there and lecture me on how awful my left-wing view is of this great value-based America as we sat and watched our first Black President repeatedly get asked for his proof of citizenship over and over the last seven years, while no White President or candidate for that matter was ever asked for his;
while we've witnessed first-hand accounts of police brutality the kinds of which were reported for decades but never seen against non-whites;
while the Supreme Court approved Citizens United, allowing corporations to essentially to buy elections;
while the Banks of Wall Street under the deregulation of GW Bush administration crashed our entire economy and most of the world's as well and their punishment for such actions was not jail time or even a true slap on the wrist but instead was a full bailout, as were the punishments to the auto and airline industries under the same administration;
while we attacked Iraq with such shortsighted planning under the approval of Benjamin Netanyahu who claimed the removal of Saddam would stabilize the region and bring new hope and instead sent the region into chaos with Iran emerging fearful of our aggression enough to pursue a nuclear strategy and gave birth to ISIL;
while the party he claims loves America and opportunity for all has proffered candidates voicing their support for bigotry, lack of marital benefits for homosexuals because it offends the candidates religious beliefs, isolationism and hatred of the poor; and
that same party has stood in the way of anything this President has tried to do, even so much so as to be on record with a plan of obstructionism as their goal for this country.
And don't get me started on American foreign policy under both parties, where we've supported assassinations and coups not because we expected liberty to reign supreme but because we had our interests in oil, money, trade, what have you, served by the incoming a-hole of choice.
The list goes on and on, but because those of us who see America for what it is: a great country that is full of major problems, Prager's point is that WE are really the issue here.
Prager's so full of himself and his own religious beliefs, he's lost all realization of the two realities voiced so succinctly above. First, to be a free nation you need to celebrate more than its symbols. You need to celebrate a person voicing objection to those very symbols; and second, to be the greatest at anything you need to lead, not just with intention, but for the right moral reasons. Not only that, but as Sorkin's speech for Jeff Daniels illustrates above, we used to not be defined by who we voted for but what we stood for.
And what Prager now stands for is the I'm right/you're wrong divisive talk show host party; making him no better or worse than the likes of Limbaugh, who may be far more radical, but the message is the same: You aren't intelligent, or even American, if you don't think like me, and you aren't moral if the Bible isn't your basis for all your behavioral decisions.
While Prager naturally sides with Israel as do I, his cynicism and paranoia would make any chance to protect Israel that doesn't involve the military elimination of what he perceives as threats impossible. He has stood in the way of any and all of the President's attempt to engage in foreign policy with Iran, and has pretty much blamed only the President for the treaty that was signed, somehow forgetting that there were six other countries (allies, as we refer to them) who were in favor of the deal. And he supported the removal of Saddam Hussein through violence, without the least bit of accountability now that that choice empowered the country he now refuses to engage diplomatically (Iran) and imposed the greatest risk to present day Israel it has ever faced. He has used the Holocaust to stoke fear and warn everyone who'll listen that Iran will attack Israel anyway, as we know they are one of the greatest sponsors of terrorism.
Now he wants to tell you if you vote in this election for Sanders or Clinton, you're not only stupid, but you're risking the end of America. That these candidates are for the government controlling your lives, while he supports no gay marriage and overlooks that since the removal of federal regulation corruption has run rampant at all levels. He'll overlook the fact that the Obama administration is scandal-less -the first in decades (though some will cite Benghazi out of the paranoia that they believe our President is a secret Muslim even though it's been discarded as fiction). He won't acknowledge that the President was the guy who made the call on his own to engage in the attack that killed Osama Bin Laden, a huge risk to Israel.
Sadly, Prager's track record continues to look more and more likw he's doing this for one reason and one reason only - to protect his status as it stands in this country. He is in the top 1% of moneymakers, reportedly worth $5 Million. The number seems low considering his syndicated talk show and book sales, but he did have a divorce. Either way, he is among the most influential class in the United States.
To say supports the right solely because the Republicans are more pro-Israel is to dismiss his own rhetoric about being careful how we judge people of religion and who they support, after all he stood behind Ann Coulter when she was accused of being an Anti-Semite. Yet he clearly worries President Obama is, even while the Obama administration's aid package to Israel was not only the largest ever but is substantially if not solely responsible for financing the Iron Dome Defense System protecting Israel from missile attacks. He has defended Netanyahu's decisions time and time again, even though as mentioned above Netanyahu was so incredibly wrong about Iraq. In addition, Netanyahu broke the entire historical precedent of United States foreign policy by choosing to accept an invitation from Congress to speak when the President had not yet invited him. Is anyone surprised then that the people Prager pits his support behind: Netanyahu, Rubio, Trump. Cruz, etc., use tactics of fear and isolationism to try to get elected. In Netanyahu's case, his anti-Palestinian fear rhetoric worked.
Prager stands to pay more taxes and get less breaks should another Democrat win the White House.
More and more it would appear Prager is only interested in the same things Bob Rumsfeld (Richard Dreyfuss) is in the American President: making you afraid of it and telling you who is to blame for it.
And in this case, it's the left, the Muslim, and anyone else who doesn't follow Prager's lofty morality. That for Prager to become so simplified in his rhetoric and so condescendingly arrogant belies the education he so clearly has while begetting fear as his sole motivator.
As a Jew myself, I have to say it is a damn shame.
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