Do we conservatives really mean it when we say that we need to promote our ideas in the popular culture through books, movies and other media? If so, we need to support people like Dinesh D'Souza and his latest movie and book, "America: Imagine the World Without Her." I saw the movie, and I loved it.
Dinesh is a passionate patriot who "chose this country" and loves it with every fiber of his being. Like many of the rest of us, he recognizes that America is under assault, and he is doing all he can to save it.
In the movie, Dinesh describes how the political left has infiltrated our culture and educational institutions and presented a damning moral indictment of this nation and free market capitalism.
In the eyes of the left, America is intrinsically evil -- a predatory colonial power that acquired its wealth by conquest. Avowed leftist Howard Zinn advanced these noxious themes in "A People's History of the United States," which has been a staple American history book in our universities and high schools.
According to the leftist "shame narrative," which is driven more by ideology than a commitment to historical accuracy, America conquered, exploited, enslaved and stole its way to wealth and power. Our forefathers committed genocide against the Native Americans while stealing their land; we gobbled up the southwestern part of the country from Mexico as warmongering imperialists; we built our businesses and industries on the backs of African-American slaves; and through our system of free market capitalism and foreign policy imperialism, we have stolen the lion's share of the world's wealth. Also, under our system, the "haves" in the United States continue to extort resources from the "have-nots," robbing the common man of his fair share.
Dinesh answers this bill of particulars against the United States, admitting our transgressions, when warranted, and setting the record straight with the other side of history, which has been purposely hidden from us.
Don't assume that you are fully aware of the other side. Dinesh presents evidence that you probably haven't heard or read before -- but it's vitally important evidence that tells an entirely different story from what recent generations of Americans have been led (and brainwashed) to believe. The institution of slavery, for example, has been present in almost every culture in world history; America is the only nation that endured a bloody civil war to eradicate the inhuman practice.
As a political commentator and American patriot, I am troubled constantly by our cultural amnesia about what is so great about America. I find too many people, including on the conservative side, forever apologizing for their beliefs and defensive about traditional values, capitalism and even the American idea. It's as if the leftist "shame narrative" has done a number on us -- as if much of our side is now comfortable with a gargantuan welfare state and doesn't dare promote capitalism from a moral perspective.
What has always attracted me most to Dinesh's approach is his unapologetic championing of America -- its founding principles and its historical record. He takes a back seat to no one in proclaiming America's foundational and historical greatness. America has been a force for good like no other in the history of mankind.
In fact, America didn't steal its wealth; it created it, because its free market system, undergirded by Christian values, gave rise to an explosion of entrepreneurship, growth and unprecedented prosperity. Moreover, but for America, world history would remain a story of wealth by conquest.
Dinesh rightly points out, however, that the leftist narrative continues virtually unabated: America stole its resources, so it must pay for this monumental injustice. It is our duty to return these "stolen goods" to the rest of the world, those it exploited historically and the "have-nots" in our society.
The left has trained generations of Americans, in our schools and in our media, that we need to atone for our alleged sins. Barack Obama is a product of this training -- as is Hillary Clinton. Yesterday's radicals are today's leading government officials, and they are doing their very best to fundamentally change America from the inside. At this point, they're succeeding. "We are witnessing economic redistribution at a level never before imagined," Dinesh says.
Dinesh also points out that Obama did not create the radical left's comprehensive assault on America; it created him, but he has accelerated the pace of our decline to an alarming degree.
You would have to be blind or oblivious not to recognize that America is at a crossroads. A dire challenge confronts us. The clock is ticking, and those hellbent on permanently transforming this nation into a utopian paradise (read: atheist, socialist state) are working overtime and relentlessly.
We may not have a Washington, Lincoln or Reagan right now, cautions Dinesh, but we have ourselves.
Will we stand up to this challenge? Will we rise up to save America and preserve its unique greatness? Or will we abandon its future and that of our children to the designs of those who are presently transforming it into something unrecognizable, a place where robust political freedom is but a distant memory?