Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About It [Hardcover]

Ben Stein (Author), Phil DeMuth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2004

America is under attack. The threat of bombs and bullets and every other form of terrorism comes mostly from Islamic extremists. But a powerful threat also stems from homegrown anti-Americanism from the left of the political and cultural spectrum. From "comedians" working for leading Democrat candidates who call the American President " . . . a piece of [expletive deleted]," to the candidates themselves who try to whip up feelings of victimization and anger in ethnic minorities, to universities that preach that America is the main villain on Earth and that 9/11 was richly deserved . . . a full-court left-wing propaganda press is on to drag America through the mud and sap America’s resolve to fight and win the war on terrorism.

Why? Where does this anger at America by Americans come from? Certainly not from reality, since all available historical comparisons tell us that America is the most enlightened, open, and forgiving of nations and the one that offers the most opportunity to its citizens.

In Can America Survive? authors Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth examine this anti-American rage, providing plentiful and outrageous examples from campuses to foundations to Democratic candidate debates to liberal "fund-raisers" that openly tout hate as their message. The authors then attempt to plumb the psychological wellsprings that generate this anger: Is it infantile narcissism? Is it a desperately incomplete maturation process? Is it competition with patriarchal figures?

The authors attempt to create a psychological road map that explores what the psychological roots of this national self-loathing might be. This is a unique approach, attempting to explain political beliefs in terms of psychological background, and the authors believe that it’s the only approach that works, since a realistic appraisal of America would not allow as much rage as we see in daily political discourse.

Finally, the authors offer a plan for how to fight back: They recommend educating your children in such a way as to develop pride in their country, suggest specific reading materials, offer ways to raise your voice to talk back to the major newspapers and TV networks, and even discuss how you can work fearlessly in university settings so that the left doesn’t dominate political discourse.

Can America Survive? is a portrait of what is clearly wrong with the national mood, where that malady comes from, and how those who still believe in America can work in their communities and in the nation to preserve the republic.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

America may be waging war against "certain deranged souls in the Moslem world," but the real enemy—lurking alarmingly within—is a Fifth Column of angry, "Anti-American" leftists fomented by Al Gore and John Kerry, contend conservative humorist Stein and journalist-cum-psychologist DeMuth (co-authors of Yes, You Can Time the Market). The authors maintain that these enraged liberals, whom they say characterize the Bush administration as imperialistic, overreaching and racist, have essentially joined Islamist fanatics’ assault on the United States. Worse, the authors argue, the Left’s relentless invective—during wartime, no less—threatens to drag the nation into its most divisive crisis since the Civil War (although they concede that this will not lead to an actual war). Instead, "a more likely and potentially equally bloody sequel to today’s anger from the Left would be a failure to adequately wage the war on terror," they warn. Stein and DeMuth blame the usual suspects—the "liberal news machinery," Marxist academics, befuddled environmentalists and Hollywood radicals—with the unoriginal gusto of apparatchiks. When they aren’t heaping accusations on their straw adversaries, they’re trying to uncover the psychological clues to liberals’ "perceptual disorder" and "irrational" anger with the Bush administration. The Left’s rant is a manifestation of an infantile personality, they say, while environmentalists "have projected their inner sense of guilt on to the world at large, and are seeking their personal redemption by redeeming the planet instead of redeeming themselves." In other words, this volume will be appreciated primarily by those who already sympathize with the authors’ views.
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From the Publisher

Comparison Titles: The Enemy Within by Michael Savage ISBN 0785261028; The Savage Nation by Michael Savage, ISBN: 0785263535; Let Freedom Ring by Shawn Hannity, ISBN: 0060514558; No Spin Zone by Bill O'Reilly ISBN 0767908481; O'Reilly Factor by Bill O'Reilly ISBN: 0767905288

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 207 pages
• Publisher: New Beginnings; First Printing edition (July 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401903339
• ISBN-13: 978-1401903336
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,040,948 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 118 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Our Country Right or Wrong - This book is a Wake-Up Call!, August 3, 2004

By 

Alan Rockman (Upland, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About It (Hardcover)

A group of us recently met for dinner with a well-known radio talk-show host in the Los Angeles area. While the main foci of the dinner-table discussion was about the Civil War, our talk-show guest, who would be considered a Liberal politically, though he hates labels, sadly lamented how polarized this country has become. It came at no surprise to me that he likened the red-hot political divide between those who support the President to the Bush-haters to the atmosphere in this nation just prior to 1860.

Thankfully this nation is not, God Forbid, on the verge of a violent split. However, it did remind me very much of another Presidential election, the one held 140 years ago between Abraham Lincoln and the Union War Hero George McClellan nominated on an anti-war, pro-peace (with the Confederacy) platform drafted by an equally anti-war, pro-peace and disunion Democratic Party (sound familiar??).

I later mentioned the comparisons to this speaker, and while agreeing that it wasn't quite the same - after all, America in 1864 was in the midst of a Civil War, the comparisons of personalities, a President who was a Republican and hated by many; a war-hero turned Peace Democratic candidate, were pretty much on the mark.

(Read John Waugh's EXCELLENT "Reelecting Lincoln")

Ben Stein's book not only also makes similiar references to the Civil War and why we must stop ourselves from tearing this great country apart, he points his brilliant finger at those who are causing the greatest harm, and takes no prisoners. He equally savages the media, the Howard Deans, George Soros' and Michael Moores who have nothing good to say about America, the Left Fascist college professors who instead of teaching our children are indoctrinating them with "hate America" lies.

Stein shows how stupid and harmful those Left Wing Pundits ala Michael Moore and Janeane Garofalo among others are when they have the gall to call America "Fascist" as Garofalo recently alluded that we are. He points out that in every war that we fought to save Europe, we never conquered any European country, unlike the Germans and the Russians, nor slaughtered anyone. All we wanted in the end, as he said this morning on "Dayside" was to have a little corner in those ungrateful lands like France to bury our boys who died to bring freedom to these lands.

The book also contains a great bibliography of American History and Civil War source material for further reading.

This is a must-book that not only should belong in every thinking American's personal library, but should be given to every student going off to a college campus so that they know - and can refute the Hate America sludge of the Zinns and the Chomskys. Thank you for this book, Ben, and for real humor, real intellectual honesty, and the truth unlike a "Stuart Smalley"

129 of 166 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique and Interesting, July 19, 2004

By 

Lorien W. Trapani (Fairfield, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About It (Hardcover)

Just picked this up over the weekend and have been thinking about its message all day. This is a quick and insightful read. Unlike most of the other books on the market trying to right the liberal wrongs, this one is a call to arms at a personal level. What truly made this book unique is the last chapter where the authors put forth ideas as to what we can due in our homes to help educate our families and friends. I really thought the required reading lists were outstanding, everything from Civil War biographies to the American Spectator and Wall Street Journal. Pick this one up as soon as you can. A truly enjoyable read!

103 of 132 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shows the strength of gratitude, education, and faith, August 17, 2004

By 

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About It (Hardcover)

What a delightful breath of fresh air this book provides. This is not an attack book that claims the flag for its point of view while disparaging those who do not agree. Rather, Stein and DeMuth, in multiple places, praise the patriotism of such pillars of the left as Norman Lear, Bob Kerrey, and Al Franken. The authors urge a generosity of spirit that I find strengthening because it is borne of confidence.

I cannot think of anyone who would not benefit from reading this book. If you violently disagree with the right in this country, Stein and DeMuth present the least vitriolic case for the conservative worldview you will find in current writing. It is always good to try and understand those with whom you disagree and this book should help our national discourse find a more reasonable and less strident tone. If you are a parent you will want to read this book in order to be armed in discussions with your children and their schoolteachers. If you are a teenager you will want to read this book to get an alternative view to what you hear at school, on the TV, and likely from your friends.

The first five chapters discuss the topics that are most in the cultural divide in our country today. Stein and DeMuth demonstrate the falseness of the left worldview on each of them. Chapters six through nine compare and contrast the way the left and the right view the world, their approaches to the very real problems we face, and compares what they do with what they say. Chapters ten through twelve offer what they admit are hypotheses about why the left believes, acts, and sees they way it does. The last two chapters discuss the fundamental nature of the cultural rift in our country and how confidence, gratitude, education, and persistent activism are the required antidotes to what ails us as a country today.

I say thank you and amen to Stein and DeMuth for such a delightful, kind spirited, and enjoyable-to-read field guide to our present culture and the very real crises we face in our education system, our media culture, our political class, and the War on Terror.

The appendix also has a reading list of other books, magazines, newspapers, and web sites to use as resources in strengthening your confidence to stand up and be counted.

This is a book you should not only read for yourself, but send as a gift to associates, friends and family. Its message is important and is written in a way that I think will contribute to healing discussion rather than widen the rifts in our culture.