Timeless Wisdom - America: The Chosen Nation (Given to the Republican Congressional Delegation)

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Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Hear thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs. And to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com.

All right, this is Dennis Prager, and the following talk I gave on January 30th, 2004, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Let me give you the context here because this is a truly significant audience, to say the least. Apparently, every year the Congressional Institute organizes a number of forums, one of which is for the Republican members of the House of Representatives and the Republican members of the U.S. Senate. So the senators and congressmen of the Republican Party get together once a year And this year apparently was the largest turnout of all, 33, which is a remarkable number. 33 senators showed up, and I don't know the number of representatives, but I'm sure it was well over 100. And they had two speakers. On Saturday, President Bush spoke, and on Friday I did. And I obviously am very proud of that fact because I have worked a whole life to try to get these ideas to as many people as possible, and to have the leaders of the U.S. hear them was just a dream come true. I want as many people to hear this, of course, as possible, and so we're making this CD tape available and publicizing it. It's only a 22-minute talk, but it's 22 minutes that, if you will, have been worked on for, for decades. And it is, uh, about America and why it is different, why it is special. Indeed, uh, as the title, the given title, is why it was— why I believe it can even be said that it is a chosen nation. Afterwards, I'll have a few words to say as well, but here goes the talk that I gave. Present were the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, the House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, the Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, and so many others who lead this government at this perilous time in American history. So here goes the talk that I gave. Please forgive the squeaking noises. Those are the audience members moving their chairs. It's more in the beginning, of course, than later. They were actually having their dessert when I spoke. So here goes, and I'll be back with you right after the talk. I hope you enjoy.

Thank you, Senator Santorum. And my friends, I just need to tell you, this comes from the heart. There's a Hebrew phrase that words that go from the heart enter the heart. I feel that having the honor to address you, which in my mind is the joint session of Congress—

is this—

you're the party that I think is going to defend our country. And having this honor is like a culmination of my life's work. I have spent so much of my life Explaining America to Americans. You see, it's very easy to forget what we're about. It makes sense. You grow up here, you take it for granted, and I realize that what is needed today on every level is to make Americans aware of what the American unique idea is. The title of the talk is America the Chosen. Allow me, before I get into this, and I know I have limited time, but I have to tell you, I was listening to Senator Santorum introduce me, and I gotta tell you, I listen to all introductions because they don't always go well. I just gotta tell you the one I got at the University of Colorado at Boulder. A young woman got up to introduce me and announced that she had never before spoken in public, which became very apparent in a moment when she was reading it. There was no need to even extemporize. And it says in the introduction that Dennis Prager is preoccupied with good and evil. And this is how she introduced me: "My pleasure to introduce Mr. Dennis Prager, who is preoccupied with doing evil." How do you speak after that? What do you say? "Well, I'm really not preoccupied with doing evil." Anyway, it was a very tough speech, so I really want you to know there is an art to giving introductions, and he has it. My friends, this is what I want to tell you about: the uniqueness of this country.

Chosen?

Yes, I believe it is chosen, and I come from a very good place to speak about chosenness. I am a religious believing Jew. I believe that God, for utterly mysterious reasons, thousands of years ago chose this nothing people called Hebrews, ultimately Jews, and for a task in the world, ultimately to make the world aware of what we call ethical monotheism. One God and one moral code that emanates from this God. Why did God choose the Jews? We do not know. We do not know. Probably because they were the least worthy people to be chosen. And if they'll have an impact, it shows that something divine must be involved, because it can't be any greatness on those people's part. That is my absolute theory on why the Jews were chosen. If you read the Bible, you see they're not terribly impressive. They spend their time complaining. Very much, if I may say, like Democrats. It is a, uh— I think there are a lot of parallels, actually, between the Hebrews in the Bible and the Democrats in America, but that's another speech for the next time. My friends, I mean this sincerely. I use the word chosenness with the most deep sense of awe. I believe that the next chosen group is, in fact, this American people. I believe it with all my heart and soul. There is something special about this country. But we can easily lose that sense of specialness if we don't understand why we're different. And I'd like to present to you a simple— but it's not, it didn't come simply. It's a lifetime of thinking, of struggling with the issue, why is America different? And I'd like to offer you 3 bases of this unique difference of this country. We are, number 1, the only Judeo-Christian country in the world. Number 2, we prefer liberty over any other value. And number 3, we believe in the free market. So if you will, Judeo-Christian values, capitalism, free market, and liberty. Let me show you how different that is from all other modes of thought. First of all, Judeo-Christian. Even if you are an atheist, and many of my listeners don't believe in God or in any organized religion, But they recognize that this Judeo-Christian value system is what has made America different, and let me explain it for a moment. You may say, "Well, why is it different? Weren't there many Christian countries in Europe?" Yes, there were, but none were Judeo-Christian. This country manufactured a new idea: Judeo-Christian. There are secular countries, there are Christian countries, of course there are Muslim countries, but there is only one country that from its outset spoke of itself as Judeo-Christian. And folks, it wasn't for Jewish votes. It was because the Christians who founded this nation understood that their origins are Hebrew. Even Jefferson, who was not particularly religious, even Jefferson wanted the seal of the United States. It was his proposal that the Great Seal of America be the Hebrews leaving Egypt. And here is a brilliant parallel: the Jews left Egypt and the Americans left Europe. And never has it been more apparent, the gap between us and Europe, as it has been since 9/11. Thank God we are now realizing how big the gap is. I have talked the Torah, from the Hebrew, for my entire adult life, a basic central theme is reject Egypt. Egypt was a religion of the dead. This new Torah represented the religion of life. We Americans represent an entirely different outlook on life than do the Europeans. I just had William Shawcross on my show last year, known for his scathing attacks on Henry Kissinger. His scathing attacks on American Vietnam, but he just wrote a book defending us on Iraq, a powerful defense. And he said, "I love America." And I said, "Why do you love America?" He's English. "Because you are the only optimistic people, and you invaded Iraq because of your optimism. We are cynical in Europe. We don't believe that Arabs could be democrats. You do." You're alone in believing that. And I mean that by small "d," obviously. That's optimism. That is a sense that we are propelled by a mission. France has no mission. Germany has no mission. We have a mission. And it comes from the sense of a Judeo-Christian unique difference. And I'll spell it out another way. Those who adhere to this notion that we have a Judeo-Christian value system at our core say something that is uniquely Judeo-Christian. There is a God from whom emanates right and wrong. Please understand, Europe, which is secular— it is not Judeo-Christian, it is not even Christian anymore— doesn't believe in that. Where do values come for the European idea? And half of America is Europeanized now. There is a— I believe, I say this very frequently— a second civil war we are living right now. And I believe that this is between American Americans and European Americans.

And I don't mean that racially or ethnically, I mean thinking-wise.

Europeanized thinking is different, and it doesn't believe in the Judeo-Christian value system. Therefore, we talk about good and evil and right and wrong, and they don't. I had advisers to Gerhard Schröder on my show, advisers to Jacques Chirac. I interviewed them from Berlin and Paris. And they were very, very erudite, and their English was perfect. And both of them, on different shows, never heard each other, said, "You know, you Americans talk about good and evil. We Europeans don't." And I said, "Yes! You're right!" And that is what we need to preserve here. But the Europeanized American represented by the Democratic Party— and I don't say this just 'cause you're Republicans, I say this to anybody. I would say it to my Democratic, mother-in-law.

That's another story I got to tell you about what happened there.

Really, you have to— I have to tell you that story later.

It's very funny.

She got stuck.

She—

I'll tell you right now, okay? I'll tell you right now. Imagine my mother— my mother-in-law's terrible luck. Here she is, she is a Kansas Christian, and, uh, and she is, uh, her daughter— and she's a Democrat and a liberal— and she finds out her daughter is marrying A Jew in the media from New York. Ah, what a relief. And I turn out to be a Republican conservative. Do you understand? I mean, one in a million, my poor mother-in-law gets stuck with me. Anyway, what are you going to do? So I would say this, I would say this to— I say this to Democrats or Republicans, the Democratic Party represents Europeanized thinking. That's why they say— please bear with me how deep this issue is— You can't go it alone, America, they tell us in Europe, and they tell us in the Europeanized party of the Democrats. We can't go it alone. We have to listen to the UN. Now, do you understand how powerful that statement is? Good and evil are now to be determined by a vote of the Security Council of the United Nations. And the other, the American American, The Judeo-Christian-influenced American says, "No, good and evil are not determined by the United Nations. They are determined by a transcendent source of morality." So either it is right or it is wrong to invade Iraq, but it can't be determined by a UN vote. That's the simple fact. And there is no answer. They have no answer because they realize that this is the case. By God, that's true. We think that Syria should vote on what is right and what is wrong. A body that has Libya as the head of its human rights commission should tell us what is good and what is evil? Do you understand the difference? There is a gulf between the left and the right that is awesome, but often those on the right don't know why and those on the left don't know why. But it's based on these three principles that distinguish America. Judeo-Christian values, which believes in a transcendent right and wrong. We are prepared to go it alone. When the president is called a cowboy by his critics, I go, "Yes!" In fact, I play the Lone Ranger theme every time. My 11-year-old son is with us, and we had him— we bought every Lone Ranger tape. Show it to your kids and your grandkids. We are the Lone Ranger. And it is almost divine, it seems to me, that we have the former owner of the Texas Rangers as the Lone Ranger in the world today. It is eerie. It is absolutely eerie. But it is true. It is not glib. It is true. We are prepared to go it alone because we think we're right. Yes, we do think we're right. Not because we're arrogant, but because how else do you determine right? By UN vote? There is a right and there is a wrong. There's a picture of Rosa Parks out there sitting on a bus. Did she take a vote before she decided to break the law and sit on a bus that was reserved for the white section? No! She knew there is a transcendent right and a transcendent wrong. There would have been no civil rights battle in this country if we decided consensus makes right and wrong. Right and wrong aren't determined by consensus. So that's number one. We are the one Judeo-Christian country in the world. Number two, we believe in liberty. Europe believes in equality. They are very different. And what do the Democrats talk about? Equality, equality. Do you know that there is a book just published? I talked about this on my show this week. A book was just published by a man speaking about how much more cheating there is in American life. And I'm thinking as I'm reading the review, "Yeah, God, it's true and it's so sad." And then it continues, the review. The author ascribes this to changes in the 1960s and '70s. And I'm thinking, "Yahoo! He realizes we dumped the Judeo-Christian value system in the '60s and '70s. No wonder there's more cheating." And then the next sentence: "Because in the '60s and '70s, there was a much greater gap between the rich and the poor in America." That is, I studied— my graduate work was in Marxism, and I tell my listeners all the time, Marx isn't dead. His name is dead because you can't call yourself Marxist since the fall of the Berlin Wall, but his beliefs are very powerfully alive. It's not values that shape conduct, it's economics that shapes conduct. And so that's what is believed. Oh, if there is a problem, why do people do bad things now in America? Because of the gap between rich and poor. This is the line of all the Democratic candidates. There are two Americas, says the senator from North Carolina. There are two— is he North Carolina? Yes. There are two Americas, says the senator from Massachusetts. I know he's from Massachusetts. And that is what you hear all the time. Two Americas, the gap between rich and poor. Inequality is the source of our problems. And then I said to a listener, who said he was a Republican. A lot of Republicans believe this. He said, Dennis Prager, it's important in Latin America because there's no middle class, because the rich are rich because they're corrupt and they suppress the peasantry. Of course! But that's not the case here. Why do I care if there is inequality? Of course there is. Do you know— you don't know how deep this is, though. Inequality is the dirtiest word in the Western world because of the power of the European idea. We don't believe that because we believe liberty, and liberty always produces inequality. But you have to understand it's not just in money. Massachusetts bans— and of course, but that's not the case here. Why do I care if there is inequality? Of course there is. Do you know? You don't know how deep this is, though. Inequality is the dirtiest word in the Western world because of the power of the European idea. We don't believe that because we believe liberty, and liberty always produces inequality. But you have to understand it's not just in money. Massachusetts bans, in elementary schools, goals in soccer games from counting so that no kid feels that he lost in soccer. In Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, the schools, the public high schools, have just banned the honor roll. Because kids who are not on it feel bad. It is banned, do you understand? This is a big deal, this banning in Nashville.

It's big.

But it represents this type of thinking. There's inequality in grades! That's not fair! He got an A and I got a C? That's not fair. On the assumption that they actually give any Cs these days. But it is, it is, it is, that is another example. I resent the kid who got an A I resent the person who makes $5 million. It's a resentment of inequality. And so you get Europe. The European idea versus the American idea, but we don't know how to articulate our idea. And the third one is capitalism versus socialism. This isn't just a question of economics. Well, you want— you figure that free economies are better and we figure controlled economies are better. No! It makes a different human being. Socialism makes— I truly believe this— it makes worse people. When you get things for free, you lose gratitude. You were told I wrote a book on happiness, and I did, and I'm very proud of that book. And now I will save you $10.95. The secret to happiness is gratitude. You can't be happy if you're not grateful. Socialism produces ingratitude. I'll tell you a little tiny anecdote how I learned this. How when you get things for free, you don't appreciate them. When I first published my first book, when I was in my mid-20s, I was so excited and so idealistic about it. It was a book on Judaism which I'm proud to say has become the most widespread introduction to Judaism in English and still in print 30 years later. And I brought a whole box of it. A whole box of hardcover books. I paid for them. Authors get 6 copies for free. People don't know that. They always ask authors for free books like you have a warehouse behind you of books. I bought a box to give to the young people in my audience. And as I handed them out, I saw how they didn't give a hoot. If I would have charged 50 cents, it would have mattered. But I gave it to them for free. Socialism produces worse people. That's why they don't care about Saddam Hussein's evil. That's why they think we're silly to talk about good and evil. Socialism helps produce that type of mentality. It's not grateful, it's hedonistic. I mean, what is Europe giving us these days? Nude beaches. I mean, think about it. What cultural greatness comes from there? They have great museums, I acknowledge that. And by the way, that is a difference. They are more cultured. I fully acknowledge the average German audience knows who Matisse is. The average American audience does not. The average American audience knows who the quarterbacks are in the Super Bowl.

I know that.

And you know what? I don't care. And I want to tell you something. That's another difference between us and them. They are preoccupied with art. We are not. But you know what? Let me tell you from a lifetime of study of the Holocaust, it doesn't add up to a moral hill of beans to be great and profound artistically. The most artistically advanced country in Europe produced Auschwitz. You know how many people ask, "Gee, how could the country that gave us Bach and Schiller give us— and Beethoven— give us Auschwitz?" As if there's a contradiction. They played Bach in Auschwitz. As Jews were herded into gas chambers, there would be a symphony orchestra, a chamber orchestra, playing the works of Mozart. That's what Clockwork Orange did. It had Beethoven in the background during a rape scene. It is a profound film for that reason. Art doesn't produce better people. And I am a conductor part-time. I conduct symphony orchestras in Southern California. I love the arts. But I gotta tell you folks, I am not a kinder person for being able to tell you all the keys of Mahler's symphonies, and I can.

It doesn't make me kinder, it just makes me more proficient artistically.

I like the American. I wish we were more cultured, because it's a beautiful addition to one's life. But it doesn't morally mean a thing. We are very different from Europe. We must remain very different from Europe. Different from Europe because we are a different country. It's tough to be different. It is.

It is.

So this is my brief message to you because you have a full program, but I just need to tell you because every so often I can only imagine your line of work. Really, I can only imagine it. And you are so So deeply involved in the details of the construction of this engine that it's easy to forget sometimes where the train is going. This is a special train, and it's tough to think you're special because it gives you obligations. It's much easier to say, "Oh, we're not different. Oh, we'll work with our partners and our friends," and as if, by the way, Poland is not a friend? What does Poland do, chopped liver? As my producer puts it. They're with us. Spain is with us. England's with us. But please understand it is a battle and it emanates from our differences. We are Judeo-Christian. We do believe in a transcendent source for morality, not the Security Council. We do believe in liberty over equality, and we should be proud of that fact. And we do believe in free enterprise over the socialist cradle-to-grave welfare state.

Welfare system.

I explained to my listeners, if you want to understand America, just look at any coin. On one side is 'In God We Trust,' and on the other is 'Liberty.' And I want to tell you something, and I tell you, you— most of you are Christians, and I'm a Jew, so I have no ax to grind here in saying this. I want to tell you, my friends, the Christians of America did something unique in the history of the world. They created a deeply religious society which is free. There is no parallel to that in the history of Earth. Overwhelmingly, sad to say, deeply religious societies have not been free, and free societies have not been deeply religious. This is unique. I beg you to know that you are doing holy work, even if you're an atheist. I mean that, and that's why I say, "Words that leave the heart enter the heart." Thank you for this wonderful opportunity to talk.

All right, I hope that that was meaningful to you. I have developed the case for America more in at a greater length in another talk titled The Case for America. And I hope that you will get that, 800-225-8584, or through my website, DennisPrager.com, because this to me is the single greatest need in America today, is to understand what we stand for. We won't survive if we don't. I know this from my Jewish history. Jews who stopped understanding what the Jewish mission was stopped being Jews. Christians who stop understanding what the purpose of Christianity is stop being Christians. I mean, this, this is the way it works. Every generation must be taught what is it that makes our survival significant. I don't think Europeans, for example, by and large have an answer to that because I don't think there is that sense of mission there. Belgium wasn't founded on an idea. This is no insult to Belgians, it's just the way it is. But America was founded on an idea, and if we lose the idea, then there's no reason to have America. And that's why I speak of the difference between the Europeanized Americans and the Americanized Americans. And that's why I want these ideas to be taught to kids. And I hope you get these ideas over to your kids, your nephews, your nieces, your grandchildren, your brother-in-law, or anybody else. That's what I am working to do. And if you think this is significant, help me do it. Help me get these ideas to other people through these, through my writings and through my tapes. And obviously I'm not the only one doing this, but I know that I have been working on it really long, and I hope I have attained a clarity that is particularly helpful to you. I would love your comments, be very happy to receive them. Through DennisPrager.com. Thanks so much for getting this, and please take a look at the other talks that I give on my website. Take a look at those talks because they're very helpful. The differences between Republicans and Democrats, the case for America, and then of course all the other subjects— differences between men and women and the case for the existence of God. That's why I make these tapes. Thanks so much. And so until another tape, this is Dennis Prager. Bye-bye. Hey, my friends, this is Dennis Prager, and you are about to hear a very personal hour here. I have just returned— well, actually not fully returned because I'm in Seattle. Where I spoke last night on children and God. And I, by the way, that will be made available shortly to those who get my, uh, get my tapes. It was a really good talk, if I'm allowed to say that myself. But I was in Philadelphia for the weekend, and, uh, I, it was, uh, I was with my wife and our youngest child who's 11. And I will tell you, it was, uh, it was one of the most powerful weekends of my life. I mean, there are very few that, that come close. And I, I— well, first let me tell you why I was there, because that, that too was very powerful to me. I want to tell you about the minute or minute and a half that we had with the president. Because it's, it's a very, very touching personal story, if I'm allowed to say that myself. Anyway, I was invited, and this I will tell you. I want you to know this because I have found that it is very important that I tell you as much as I can about my life and my thoughts, because the more real I am to you, the— I think the more effective anything I say is. Uh, I have always had an abnormal, an abnormally low interest in meeting famous people, celebrities, stars, great athletes. I, I, even as a kid, I never went— when I, whenever I went to ball games, I never lined up to get autographs. And, and I want you to understand, I see nothing wrong in that, nothing whatsoever. It's not that I thought it was wrong, I just— it just, it didn't mean anything to me. And I've— I, I live in, in Los Angeles for 28 years, and I have access to, I would say, almost anybody if I really wanted. I have been invited to many Hollywood parties. I have never attended a Hollywood party. Not in 28 years. And I don't desire to. There's no— I'd rather go bowling with my son than meet an Academy Award winner. I do not say this to brag because I don't think it is necessarily brag-worthy. It's not good or bad. It's just a fact. Those things don't matter to me. And I only tell you this so you will understand how powerful, uh, this weekend was on, on two accounts: on why I was brought there and what the there was, and the fact that I, I would stand in line just to shake hands with President Bush, just to shake his hand. If I could only say 'God bless you,' or 'Thank you,' or 'Hi,' or nothing. So I will tell you about meeting the president in a moment. I, I was there. The 'there' is every year, once a year, the— a group called the Congressional Institute sponsors an event whereby the Republican members of the House and the Republican members of the Senate, the U.S. Senators and congressmen of the Republican Party get together and just have meetings. Most of the meetings are separate. There were House meetings and there were Senate meetings, but twice they get together, the senators, and I think there were 33 Republican senators there, and I'm sure well over 100 congressmen. Plus all the heads, the majority whip, the majority leader, the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, the majority leader and the majority whip in the House, Tom DeLay was there, Bill Frist was there. I mean, it was a who's who of the Republican government. They were all there for the weekend. There were two joint sessions, the dinner on Friday and the lunch on Saturday. I was the speaker at the dinner and the president was the speaker at the lunch. And if it sounds like I'm boasting, by golly, I am. I am very proud of that fact because it is my life's work that I felt had this moment of recognition that I could give my ideas that I talk to you about every day, that I could have the most powerful audience in the country present. It, it, it meant something to me on a very deep level that I could make the case for America's uniqueness to the people on the front lines, be except like our troops. These are to me our troops. Our, our Republican senators and congressmen. Obviously, for Democrats, their front troops are their Democratic senators and their Democratic congressmen. But this is the party that I believe is doing more good for America. And I spoke on America, the Chosen Nation, wherein I made the case for America's uniqueness. And it was tremendously received. The senators and congressmen who are bored out of their minds in speeches were, I have to say, very quiet, very attentive, gave me a prolonged standing ovation. And I don't go in for standing ovations. This is never— I've never reported that to you. I never speak to get one. I only want you to know because these are the ideas that I give to you each day, or every other day, or whenever I give them. And now I had this chance. And by the way, I had this chance in large measure thanks to you. And I, I said this to you before my talk. What I work out with you, my, my, my listeners on the air and in email You help sharpen my thinking just as I help sharpen your thinking. And over the course of all these years, to be able to work out these ideas, I have had a unique forum having a radio show like this. And they got the benefits of a lifetime of thought on what it means to be American. And it was a powerful experience for me, and they say it was for them. And I hope that this is the first of many such times that I can go to them and bring these ideas like an ammunition feeder, if you will. Because it is very easy, and I said this to them, it is very easy in the daily work of being a congressman or a senator where it's, it's almost like being in the engine room. And I told them, I used this metaphor, you're in the engine room of, of a great train and you are working so hard to make sure that the train doesn't get derailed and keeps going and is safe and, and, and, and is, is burning whatever it has to burn to be, to be effectively locomotived, if you will, that you, you almost forget where the tracks lead to. And my task, not being in Washington, is to look from afar and say, look, this is where the train is going. These tracks are special. Now, that talk, by the way, will be available on my website as of late tonight, my talk to the joint session of the Republican Congress. I will tell you about my meetings with— some very moving ones— with Katherine Harris, with Orrin Hatch, with Bill Frist and others, and I will tell you about them and also about the wives. It was very interesting. My wife got a chance to meet, and as I did, by the way, I was very interested in meeting the wives. They have a special burden, the wife of a politician, as indeed a husband of a politician, but especially a wife for reasons that I I can explain later. I will talk to you about that, but I want to talk to you as soon as we come back about the meeting at lunch the next day with the president and the effect that it had on me and how I reacted to it and what my wife and I unrehearsed said to the president. Because I, I, I assumed— I, first of all, I didn't assume I'd have even any chance to, to do anything. Even I wasn't even sure we could shake his hand, but we got a chance to actually talk for a minute. And I want to tell you what we said, and it was— it, it— because it had— I believe it touched him, and I will tell you why that's what I chose to say to him as soon as we return. So I'm still, I'm still on a sort of high. I will tell you this: we have— I do believe— I have believed this before I met him, as you know— I believe that we have greatness in the White House. I never used that term. We will be back in a moment. 1-800-PRAGER-776. This is The Dennis Prager Show. You're listening to The Dennis Prager Show. Today coming to you from Seattle and my wonderful station KKOL. Uh, here in Seattle last night I spoke at the banquet of a Jewish day school on the subject of God and children. That will be available to you. By the way, Alan tells me that you can in fact right now already order the speech that I gave On America, the Chosen Nation to the 33 Republican senators and over 100 congressmen, to the leaders of the Republican Congress this past weekend at the event with the president. The president was not at my speech. He came the next day. I never expected him to be there, obviously. Well, let me now tell you about meeting the president. Needless to say, the hotel was cordoned off by security. There were dogs around. Every car that came in, including my rent-a-car, was searched. Perched with mirrors underneath. And we live in that sort of, of time. In fact, my, uh, my wife, uh, stayed a day extra through Sunday. I flew to Seattle here, and she stayed with our 11-year-old son. They wanted to see things like the Liberty Bell. The line because of security to see the Liberty Bell was so long, she actually didn't get it. She didn't get to see it. So, uh, in, in some ways, obviously terror has, uh, obviously changed our way of life. Anybody, anyone who's flown is certainly aware of that. We do live in a new world of a new, a new form of evil where it is the innocent that are targeted. They are not byproducts of other operations. They are targeted. This is relatively new in history anyway. Back to the president. So it is every— you know, again, the Speaker of the House is there, the Senate and the House majority leaders, the Senate and the House whips, everybody, almost everybody who's anybody. In fact, I don't know who wasn't there that is a household name Republican in Congress, in the Senate and in the House. President comes and he greets people for about 45 minutes prior to speaking for about an hour, including I would say about a half hour of it was questions and answers. It was closed to the press, so I won't report many of the things that he said because people were there with the understanding that these things would not go out to the press, and I obviously would not compromise that request. But I have conclusions from what the President said that I want to share with you in a moment. Well, we're standing in line, that is my wife, our son, and I, and hoping to get a handshake, frankly. Now you have to understand, I remember I said to you earlier, I have an abnormally low interest in meeting the famous. They don't have any effect on me because I never confuse fame and significance. I mean, if I were to meet Paul Johnson who is not that famous except among those who read serious books, I would be a little nervous, frankly. I mean, that— but not if I met the Prime Minister of Belgium. It would mean nothing to me. I mean, I would be respectful of his office, but— or for that matter, you know, Jacques Chirac. But President Bush, I have grown to adore And believe is touched by God, and believe is great. Now I go out on a limb when I say those things, obviously, because those of you who think the opposite can't think well of me. You think this man, this moron, is great? What's wrong with you, Prager? I mean, hey, you know, a serious part of this country would believe that if I say this, and I will at campuses after my cruise, which is coming up, with listeners. I will be going to a number of campuses to give the talks about America. And if— I'm sure it'll be regarded as bizarre that somebody would say such things about this president. But you see, let me explain before I say why I think he is great, a great man. And I use that very rarely.

I—

no age recognizes or very often we do not recognize greatness during that period. That's just the way it is. That's the way humans are made. They know of greatness afterwards. Secondly, every great man has enormous numbers of enemies. There, there is no great person without great enemies. So the fact that, that there has been no president as hated by a serious percentage of the country as George Bush is. I mean, the Democrats hate the man, which is remarkable when you think about it. They hate him. He's not obnoxious. He is not demeaning.

He is quite soft-spoken. He is—

it's amazing, but he's hated. He is truly hated. And, and it makes you realize greatness will always have great enemies. That is the way it is. You can't mention a great figure in history that was not massively hated. You cannot. That's why I, I, I worry for him, because the, the— his greatness is such that there are people who want to want to hurt him. There's no question about it. May he be guarded by God and by the Secret Service well. Now, I did not always think this way about the president, as any of you who were careful listeners to my program will recall. And I say this with no, obviously no pride, indeed with embarrassment. I voted for John McCain in the Republican primaries in California in the year 2000. That is how little I knew about George Bush, how I didn't have disdain for him, but I didn't have any— he didn't impress me, and I didn't think he had a chance to win. Well, I was dead wrong, and I will have to analyze how wrong, why I was so wrong, but That's a separate issue too. The issue here is you must understand I didn't start out the admirer and the believer in this man's greatness that I now am. So therefore I stood in line. This is all by way of explaining why I would stand in line to shake his hand. I wouldn't stand in line to shake almost anybody's hand. I don't have contempt for that idea. It's just, again, not my nature. But I would have done any— if they asked me to shine his shoes, I would have been proud to shine President Bush's shoes, on his feet or off his feet. My wife, I, and our son, 11-year-old boy, is, uh, we're standing there. Well, all sons are boys, so that was redundant, but so be it. We're standing there hoping we'll get a handshake. My wife had prepared what words she would say if we got a chance to say anything to the president, and I had prepared mine. And it is very interesting what happened, because we— is interesting in that we both said very similar things and for similar reasons, which I will tell you the moment we come back, and how he reacted. It was a very moving moment for me, and I will frankly, I will never forget it. And we'll post the picture when we get it from Washington up on our— up on the website. Again, though, the talk that I gave to the Republican Congress, senators and congressmen, is now available to be ordered on the DennisPrager.com website. Back in a moment. Alrighty, so here we go. Dennis Prager here. And so now I'm in line to meet the president. This is 2 days ago, and he stops at the family, or at least 3/5 of the family, and shakes our hand. We introduce ourselves, and I don't remember if my wife spoke first or I spoke first, but this is what we said without rehearsing what we would say if we got a chance to say anything to the president. My wife said, I want you to know, Mr. President— and I'm paraphrasing here because I don't, I'm, you know, I can't remember exactly the words, but it's quite, quite accurate— uh, I want you to know that when I light our Sabbath candles every Friday night in our home I, every week, I include a prayer for you. And he was clearly moved. And in fact, I think that I spoke first. I thought, yes, I spoke first, and I said to him, want you to know that at my synagogue each week I include a prayer for you. And then my wife said what she said. And he was, um, you know, he just didn't move on to the next person saying, well, thank you so much. He spoke about how much that meant to him, and he said to us something to the effect that he said, you know, someone once said to me, does that, uh, why does that mean much to you? And he said that he had said to that person if you— only those who understand need no explanation, or something to that effect. That those who understand what prayer means to them, they understand, and those who don't, don't. And it was a— he was so touched, I think, by what we said that he said, well, may I stand with your family for a picture? And he stood for a couple of pictures with my wife, son, and me. And I got to tell you, I remember the feeling that I was beaming like a kid in the proverbial candy store.

I probably had a—

I will have to see the picture. It may be actually a silly grin because I was so excited.

I have to tell you, I told the—

remember, I was the other speaker. I'm, you know, I'm a big guy. In having this opportunity to speak to 33 senators and 100 congressmen. But I was a 7-year-old, and I said it to everybody, right, folks? I was like, you know, I was looking, I looked at Orrin Hatch and others who were around me, you know, but I feel like a 7-year-old meeting Willie Mays and Derek Jeter rolled in one. And I did. That is how excited I was because I believe I was in the presence of greatness, and I wanted to reach out and say something that might mean something to him other than it's an honor to meet you, Mr. President, or, you know, God bless you, which is all lovely, and anything is lovely. But I wanted him to hear, because I know he hears from Christians so often about how he is in their prayers, but I really wanted him to hear from Jews in whose prayers he was. And that is why— that is part of the reason that I know my wife and I independently Dennis Prager chose to say that to the president. And I, when I was watching him— and folks, let me tell you something, I, I believe that I have a very astute fakery meter. I could tell a fake in a nanosecond. I know when people are real or not real. Believably quickly. There are things I don't immediately figure out about people. I admit it. I don't claim clairvoyance, but I tell you one thing that I can pick up in a second is who's real or who's acting real and who's acting. And, uh, this man is real. This— his reaction to us, his, his, his— the way he talked to people in the line This was real. But I want to tell you another thing that, that moved me watching him go from person to person. He doesn't make himself the center of attention. And yes, I'm sorry, but I, I do need to say that he is very different from our past president. And I didn't— I never shared the hatred of Mr. Clinton that many, many conservatives had. I, he was not my man. I, I was unhappy that he was president, but I, I don't hate him now and I didn't hate him before, but I, but I, I didn't admire him. There's, he's not admirable in my opinion. And this is a part of the reason wherever Mr. Clinton went, those who love him say this, he is the center. You know, he, he creates that, fix your attention attention on me, but the president is different, and I'll explain when we come back. Alrighty everybody, continuing with my story of my minute with the president, and I fully acknowledge how I, I am putting myself on the line here because I, I am, I'm very vulnerable in what I'm telling you, that it meant that much to me, because it could sound silly to a lot of people. He's spending his time telling us about he met the president for a minute. Big deal. Of course it's no big deal. It's not to credit to me that I met the president for a minute. I'm telling it to you to tell you how much he means to me, that it was a big deal for me to do so, because these things don't mean anything to me as a rule. Well, my wife and I told him what we did. He posed for the picture with us, and I told you I watched him with people and how he The, the realness of this man, and in his comments, which I am not at liberty to fully talk about, although I need to tell you how— what I, what I took away from listening to him. It's very important that you hear this, uh, but, uh, uh, I, I took away a, a, I came away with the sense of a real person. He made reference in his talk to the group to his having had— his having been a drinker, and how without having found God and religion, he would not be where he is now. And it was, it was a very, you know, for a president to speak that, a president of the United States So now it'd be hard for the president of, of, you know, your, you know, your local company to say those things to the, to the board of directors of the company. It's very humble of him to have talked that, that honestly about his own self. This man is, in the truest sense, is humble. Now, we don't understand humility because we confuse it with self-effacing modesty. Alan, I want to do an hour on the definition of humility. We're going to do that one day because it is— it, along with hypocrisy, are very profoundly misused and misunderstood words. Humble doesn't mean that you don't know your strengths. In fact, if you don't know your strengths, there's something wrong with you. That's not a credit to you. If you tell Derek Jeter, you know, you're good at shortstop, and he goes, nah, nah, that's not humility. That's false modesty. It's nonsense. No, I'm not good at shortstop. I get paid $10 million a year or whatever I get because he likes the name Derek. It's quite good to know what you're strong at, as it's quite good to know what you're weak at, and you should acknowledge it. By golly, if I didn't think that I had something important to say and said it well, why would I have the chutzpah to have a radio show? I have to walk to this microphone every day in the belief that I am good and worthy at what I do. That's not unhumble. It is a real understanding of what you can or cannot do. This man is real. He is real. He is genuine. And he is— now let me tell you, because time is moving on this hour as faster than I anticipated, as odd as that sounds. I listened to him speak. I told you about my reaction to him personally and how I— I didn't tell you I even broke into a sweat. I was actually that excited. I'm telling you, this is— I'm like a child. I admit it. I was like a child. That's how much I adore this man. I believe he is— I use this word now— I think he is a dyke. He is the proverbial dyke holding back the waters of chaos. Okay, that is how important I believe George W. Bush is. And by the way, let me make something clear. I never felt anything like this toward his father. Never. I was never even an admirer of his father. I was against his getting the nomination. I was unhappy that Ronald Reagan had ever picked him. I found him unimpressive. And he's more impressive as a person than I ever knew. But he truly did not— his son is very different from him, very different. And it is a fascinating story. And I believe that a major part of the difference lies in two arenas. One, that the son is even an evangelical Christian, the father is a mainstream Protestant, and second, that the son has had to battle in his life, uh, uh, things like alcohol. Uh, I don't know if alcoholism is the official title of what he had, but overdrinking. And I don't think the father had that battle to overcome. Overcoming battles is a very character-creating thing for a person. So I, I just need you to know that. But now my reaction to his, uh, to his speech. He spoke for a half hour. Now remember, this was to, to the Republican Congress, senators and House. The press was kicked out. So this—

he had no—

there was no political aim here. He didn't have to watch his words. My friends, I listened to a man, and folks, I speak for a living and I speak well. This man was fluent. There were no— he did not have a single note in front of him. Spoke full, coherent, powerful, witty, passionate, filled with conviction, rational sentences. Every time. It was a joy to listen to this man who has what his opponents do not have, and that is a grasp of the world. That is why he is prepared to— he believes in his understanding of the world and is prepared for America to go it largely alone, as opposed to wait for, quote, a permission slip from the United Nations, to take a line from his State of the Union address. And he was funny. He was very, very witty. I pray that Democrats continue to think he is stupid. May they all believe that and underestimate this man profoundly. Because let me tell you, folks, I know brains when I meet them. This man is very bright. He's not just not stupid, he's very bright. I'll be back in a moment.

Well, these have been the thoughts.

Hi, Dennis Prager here on meeting the president. My excitement, like a 7-year-old with his sports hero, and watching him in action Dennis Prager, uh, he has grown in these 3, 4 years so remarkably. And I say I believe he is a great man. I don't know who I last said that of. I don't engage in, uh, in the hyperbole of, uh, of that is very common in our time. Everybody's great and everything is awesome. Not much is great, not much is awesome, but I believe he is great. He spoke about everything that would matter to you, my friends. I can summarize some of them, and I will, uh, sometime this week. I have, uh, I have to go to a very important topic next hour with a remarkable guest halfway around the world, uh, unless he is in maybe in the U.S. now. We'll talk about that next hour. But if you have, uh, if, if If this has been meaningful to you, and I hope it has, you can certainly send me an email. And you can get the talk that I gave from my website, DennisPrager.com, or call my office. The talk I gave to the Republican senators and congressmen. I want to tell you, 1-800-225-8584. 800-225-8584. One little anecdote. I spent some time talking to Senator Orrin Hatch, the distinguished senator from Utah, and my wife and I were very touched by him and his gentleness. And he came over to me at one point, he said, Dennis, I'd like to show you something that I wear all the time. And he unbuttoned one button of, uh, the top of his shirt and pulled out a mezuzah. This man, of course, is a practicing Mormon. And, uh, I, uh— a mezuzah is the, uh, that little amulet-like that Jews have been putting on the doorposts of their houses since the Exodus from Egypt. Which has a little part of the Torah scroll inside of it, at— on the house. And he got it in Israel. And, uh, I, I was, uh, quite frankly, I was quite overwhelmed. There was no political reason to do it. I don't vote for him. I, I, I'm sure he didn't think I would even mention it. I, uh I became a Republican about 10 years ago. It was one of the most important conversions of my life. They are a better party making this country a better place. They got problems because they're humans, but I was proud to be American, and yes, proud to be a Republican this weekend when I met this great president of the United States of America. Don't go away. I'm Dennis Prager. This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.