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From Dennis Prager:
The following is a list of beliefs that I hold. Nearly every one of
them was a liberal position until the late 1960s. Not one of them is
now.
Such a list is vitally important in order to clarify exactly
what positions divide left from right, blue from red, liberal from
conservative.
I believe in American exceptionalism, meaning that (a)
America has done more than any international organization or
institution, and more than any other country, to improve this world;
and (b) that American values (specifically, the unique American
blending of Enlightenment and Judeo-Christian values) form the finest
value system any society has ever devised and lived by.
I believe that the bigger government gets and the more
powerful the state becomes, the greater the threat to individual
liberty and the greater the likelihood that evil will ensue. In the
20th century, the powerful state, not religion, was the greatest
purveyor of evil in the world.
I believe that the levels of taxation advocated by liberals
render those taxes a veiled form of theft. "Give me more than half of
your honestly earned money or you will be arrested" is legalized
thievery.
I believe that government funding of those who can help
themselves (e.g., the able-bodied who collect welfare) or who can be
helped by non-governmental institutions (such as private charities,
family, and friends) hurts them and hurts society.
I believe that the United States of America, from its
inception, has been based on the Judeo-Christian value system, not
secular Enlightenment values alone, and therefore the secularization of
American society will lead to the collapse of America as a great
country.
I believe that some murderers should be put death; that
allowing all murderers to live does not elevate the value of human
life, but mocks it, and that keeping all murderers alive trivializes
the evil of murder.
I believe that the American military has done more to preserve
and foster goodness and liberty on Earth than all the artists and
professors in America put together.
I believe that lowering standards to admit minorities mocks the real achievements of members of those minorities.
I believe that when schools give teenagers condoms, it is
understood by most teenagers as tacit approval of their engaging in
sexual intercourse.
I believe that the assertions that manmade carbon emissions
will lead to a global warming that will in turn bring on worldwide
disaster are a function of hysteria, just as was the widespread liberal
belief that heterosexual AIDS will ravage America.
I believe that marriage must remain what has been in every recorded civilization -- between the two sexes.
I believe that, whatever the reasons for entering Iraq, the
American-led removal of Saddam Hussein from power will decrease the sum
total of cruelty on Earth.
I believe that the trial lawyers associations and teachers
unions, the greatest donors to the Democratic Party, have done great
harm to American life -- far more than, let us say, oil companies and
pharmaceutical companies, the targets of liberal opprobrium.
I believe that nuclear power, clean coal, and drilling in a
tiny and remote frozen part of Alaska and offshore -- along with
exploration of other energy alternatives such as wind and solar power
-- are immediately necessary.
I believe that school vouchers are more effective than
increased spending on public schools in enabling many poorer Americans
to give their children better educations.
I believe that while there are racists in America, America is
no longer a racist society, and that blaming disproportionate rates of
black violence and out-of-wedlock births on white racism is a lie and
the greatest single impediment to African-American progress...
RTWT
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