Customer Reviews

The Things That Matter Most

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One would imagine a heavy dose of rightward-leaning reasoning from Cal Thomas; and this definitely meets or exceeds expectations! Thomas' writing style is engaging, sensible, combative and logical all at once. This book as a whole is best described as an intelligent pep rally for conservative readers. Thomas tends to brandish common sense as a big, blunt hammer, as he covers topics ranging from divorce to free speech to promiscuity to abortion. I found this style refreshing; but its occasionally polemic tone is sure to anger the left-leaning reader. His humor is also much more prevalent in his columns than in this book. Some of the authors' views (e.g., on evolution and flag burning) are too far to the right even for me; and I am a card-carrying Republican National Committee member. Still, liberals can appreciate this book, as evident in the back cover quote from left-wing icon Edward Kennedy: "Cal Thomas usually says the far right thing instead of the right thing, but I like reading him anyway."

The book could have benefited greatly from more logical organization. Its chapter subjects appear randomly scattered, giving the reader good break-off points but little or no transition from one to another. However, almost every chapter topic can be used to illustrate one of these two themes:

===== 1) The left's tendency to try to solve problems by throwing money at them, and

===== 2) A massive ethical tranformation in popular society from individual responsibility to self-indulgence -- the true core of almost every problem we face.

Though the book is several years old and out of print by now, its opinions and laments still ring familiar, for so many of his ideological targets remain disturbingly prominent.

Cal Thomas has mixed heartfelt personal faith with conservative political beliefs to move from NBC copyboy to CNBC talk show host, from lieutenant in Dr. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority to nationally syndicated columnist. 1994's "The Things That Matter Most," named for a influential sermon and now out of print, was his heartfelt but unsuccessful attempt to galvanize a audience turning books by conservative celebrities William Bennett (who endorsed this book) and Rush Limbaugh (who wrote its forward) into national best-sellers.

Thomas writes sincerely over 219 pages but expresses little of the wit making his columns a must-read. He aims at too many targets with too many words, all familiar. He attacks education (a multicultural, nonsexist agenda emphasizing fairness over excellence), the arts (sacriligious paintings, films, TV, and music which Thomas sees promoting "an increasingly nihilistic world view"), high taxes funding activist government (villains include President and Mrs. Clinton in their first, most liberal years in office).

Above all, Thomas berates and builds his book around a 60s generation promising Eden rebuilt as flexible, materialistic, permissive paradise but delivering crime, drugs, divorce, despair, and death. Thomas condemns author/publishers Hugh Hefner, "female Hefner" Helen Gurley Brown, Carl Sagan, and Dr. Jack Kevorkian as gods of this false paradise. Woodstock-era song titles and lyrics ironically crop up throughout Thomas' chapters, broken into 2-4 page, easy-to-read segments.

Thomas' researched "Matter Most" for more than a year but failed to put his extensive quotes in context. His section, "The Founding Fathers And Taxes" glues historical anti-tax, anti-big government quotes with pithy comments; Thomas would have better juxtaposed those opinions against Johnson's "Great Society" and Bill Clinton's attempted revival in his 1993 budget. Entertainment was another missed opportunity; Thomas attacked the lyrics of Pink Floyd and "band from Hell" Guns N' Roses when he could have dissected their cries for shelter and order ("Oh, won't you please take me home?" "We don't need no thought control," "Where do we go, where do we go now?") making their pleas plead his case.

Thomas writes best on moral issues, consistent with his belief in lasting change stemming from within. Chapter 7 eloquently condemns worldwide death culture: abortion, euthanasia, attitudes toward the mentally challenged which concievably could include Thomas' handicapped brother Marshall. Chapter 5, "The Promise of God's Death," discusses how God as concept, not even as active life force, has been removed from public discourse as source for morality within law, as ultimate example of love, compassion, and sacrifice, and as judge of life's value. Thomas gladly enlists disparate celebrities like Norman Lear and Shirley McLaine in the drive to return spirituality to America's forefront.

"The Things That Matter Most" surrounds its timeless truths with old headlines, with too much under the bridge (Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America," Clinton's re-election, the rise of George W. Bush) to justify its reprint. Thus Thomas, a needed voice in American political conversation with another book due this summer, is more effective commenting amid the daily headline trenches rather than in longer, more derivative attempts like this.

I'm shocked that this book is OOP! It can't be very old, considering that Thomas talks quite a bit about the Clinton administration.

The audio book version is very good. Cal Thomas reads it himself; he has a nice, steady, expressive voice which makes listening very easy. The book covers many intertwining social and political issues, from the abandonment of original Constitutional issues (no prayer in public schools because of "freedom of religion") to the effects of the 1960's culture on current politics (namely, Clinton)! Cal Thomas is very conservative, very opininated, but never "mean-spirited" - read at your own risk!

At first I was not that enthralled with this book, okay but not excellent, it seemed that every problem that the liberals have caused could be traced back to the 1960's according to Cal. This just didn't ring true to me I honestly didn't think that today's modern liberals felt and thought the way that the hippie generation did. They have to had changed some of their thinking, after all it was so patently obvious that some of their ideas were downright deleterious to us as Humans and also to the country. I never fault anybody for trying, but once we see what we are doing is not working we need to move on, but liberals are amazing people. Let me explain, I have just read three left wing books in a row, Lying Liars, Dude where is my country and Big lies.

And WOW it hit me; the liberal arguments have been the same over and over again. Their solutions are the same over and over again. But this is exactly what Cal Thomas was saying during the whole book. He kept hammering away that this liberal quagmire that has brought drugs, death, poverty, poor education and crime has been going one since the 60's and the same arguments. The answers are still the same but to think that the liberals of 2003 are using the same old arguments and answers that didn't work in the 90's or the 80's or the 70's or the 60's is mind boggling.

I never used to think that liberals were stupid, but if you keep putting you hand into the fire and don't learn that fire is hot something is wrong with you.

A good book that is useful to combat arrantly illogical liberal arguments. Cogent for today.

Despite the fact that this book is over ten years old, it still hits hard. I found myself in tears many times over the fact that Cal is speaking the truth. This is an excellent read for those of you who have had it with our government trying to be all things to so many people.

As a veteran High School teacher for many years, our schools are headed for catastrophe unless things are changed. The parents, or should I say lack of parenting is unbelievable. The baby boomer generation has failed miserably in the area of raising its young.

As Cal points out, Bill Clinton was a perfect example of a sixties generation Icon. Popular, yes, but immoral and without godly character.

Cal's big point is that we have no absolutes anymore. Our kids don't know right and wrong, and I as a teacher can't tell them! We live in such a society, where God is an entity that doesn't matter much for most people.

Until we fear a knowable God, we don't have much hope. Thank you Cal, for having the courage to write about the truth, knowing that so many people are going to be against you.

The issues are about the same as they were from 1990 to 2010. I don't buy the anti-gay bukwash I hear that is tiresome by now, however what he says about 90's is seemingly the same about 2010 with Obama. It is a shame that a 20 year old book can still hit the nail on the head from so long ago. Ashame.

Cal Thomas traces the history of liberal politics and gives a brilliant defense of conservative values. Though the book is now 15 years old, it deals with many moral, political, and religious issues that are still very contemporary. My only wish is that he would have expanded some of the op ed columns into full-length chapters.

Cal Thomas is one of the most important conservative columnists in America, and this collection from the first half of the 1990s contains some of his most hard-hitting columns ever. Rush Limbaugh wrote the foreword for this volume, in which Thomas speaks out for faith, family, and traditional morals, and in which he argues against big government and liberal indoctrination in the schools. If there could ever be such a thing as a manifesto for social conservatism, this book might be it.

If you like Cal Thomas and his rightwing spew, then you'll love his lying propaganda in this book. Not recommended for liberals, moderates, and good conservatives.