Posted on 08/08/2007 2:17:49 PM PDT by rollingthunder2006
BC: It’s not hyperbole to say that your latest release, The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, brought about a firestorm of contention. You were criticized by both leftists and conservatives. For what reason did the book outrage so many people?
Dinesh D'Souza: Well, it’s not surprising that the book provoked hysteria from the left. The position I take is not one previously espoused by the right concerning the left’s role in 9/11. The common view that conservatives have is that liberals are naive or simply don’t understand terrorist motivations, but none of my peers have directly pointed their finger at the left and said that it was the liberals who bear direct responsibility for the volcano of hate which brought about 9/11. The book does to the left what they have been doing to the right forever. They argue that our foreign policy produced blowback but I argue that their cultural policies and values are what sewed the seeds of 9/11. The book helps us understand the language of the left. Why are the liberals so reluctant to join in a fight against the most illiberal persons in the world? Regardless of our enemy’s values, the liberals refuse to say that this is also their fight. As the fundamentalists that oppose us are far worse than any Christian fundamentalists in America, it makes no sense that they did not sign up for the struggle. That the left reacted in a frenzied and hysterical way was expected. What was not was the reaction I received from the right.
I'm not sure if you can post a whole article here so I just pasted in the first question. Here's the link: http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/08/08/dinesh-d%e2%80%99souza-heretic/
(Excerpt) Read more at mensnewsdaily.com ...
bump
This is noteworthy:
BC: What can we do to correct the decadent trajectory of this nation? Is the culture war over with conservatives having lost?
Dinesh D'Souza: No, I don’t think it is over. I’ll give you an example. I live in southern California which used to be Nixon and Reagan country, but now it’s liberal country. Schwarzenegger discovered this so he has now moved to the left. It used to be that when people became more affluent they moved to the right, but we now live in a time where such people move to the left. My family resides in the suburbs of San Diego and our neighbors are quite liberal on the social issues but there are two very important distinctions which have to be made in regards to their worldviews. First, they are not liberal in the way in which they live their lives. Second, they are not liberal about their schools and their children. I see this in the reaction parents have to changes made at my daughter’s private school (I don’t want to go into the specific issues). Many of the liberals live by traditional values even though they’ll never go to a pro-life rally or watch Pat Robertson’s television show, but when it comes to non-political situations they’re actually quite conservative. Their opinions are to the left of their actions.
This is maybe more questionable:
The culture war is not lost but we need to make a non-traditional argument for better societal values. We need to approach it in a new way. Most of the attacks on Christianity are on fundamentalists and the Christian right. Conservatives, in turn, defend the fundamentalists but what they really should be doing is pointing out that the left are not attacking fundamentalists—who are but a small part of Christians, and even Evangelicals, for that matter—the truth is that traditional Christianity is what they’re really after. Conservatives should acknowledge this instead of writing why Jerry Falwell wasn’t so bad. My position is that whenever they attack fundamentalists their real target is traditional Christianity so let’s defend that instead. Prayer in schools and intelligent design are not the real issues. Those are but symbolic indicators of a moral slide in our society. In every survey, the vast majority of Americans agree that our portfolios have gone up while our values have gone down. These individuals are the new group we should target. That’s the majority. We can’t do it in the old way. We need to try something new. A new language and a new articulation of our positions is what is needed. We must make these into policy issues. We must impose academic and civil discipline rather than The Ten Commandments. The politician who sees this and runs with it will equal the success that Reagan had.
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The Islamists are going to attack anyone who stands in their way of establishing the caliphate that they desire. OTOH, the garbage that Hollywood spills into the world offends not only my Christian sensibilities, but also those of any other moral people, including Moslems, thus making many of the mainline uncommitted Muslims more sympathetic to the Islamists actions. I think that D’Sousa has a point.
Dennis Prager, conservative talk show host, says that he often tells his liberal friends that they should “preach what they practice” because they often live in a conservative way, with respect to their own kids, but preach liberal values to society. I think that D’Sousa is saying that we may have to adjust our marketing strategy to reach more people who would be sympathetic to “religious” values, but not to “fundamentalist” values, even though they may be the same thing. Speaking as a fundamntalist Christian, I am open to any ideas that will help us win in 2008, while not compromising my values. I think he has some ideas worth considering.
The one on top of his head maybe.
1.)He is talking about not offending people who do pit checks to make sure a man has shaved properly. This type of person can not be reasoned with.
2.) Muslim standards of morality are not western standards. They may beat a unmarried man and woman for holding hands in public but be fine with male child rape.
Thanks for the clarification. I read this — “We must impose academic and civil discipline rather than The Ten Commandments” — and wondered just what he was talking about and what he was going to impose on people. Your reading makes sense and is more reassuring.
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