The following excerpt is taken from a speech delivered by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show">Michael Knowles</a> at the Club for Growth on Saturday, April 22.
One of the most persuasive defenses of economic liberty in recent memory came from the pope — not this pope, granted, a prior pope. In his 1991 encyclical &#8220;Centesimus Annus,&#8221; Pope John Paul II declared, “The free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs.” His predecessor pope Leo XIII used even blunter language. He called socialism a “pest,” “a plague,” and a “wicked confederacy” that “seeks to steal the very gospel itself.” Lots of other popes followed suit. Even the relatively liberal pope John XIII warned that a Christian could not “subscribe even to moderate socialism.”
Today, without such clear language from defenders of the traditional moral order, society has taken its cues from the Left, which leaves nothing ambiguous about its desire to destroy that moral order. Is anyone drinking Bud Light this evening? If the stock price of Anheuser-Busch is any indication, probably not. What would possess Bud Light — a drink consumed primarily by frat bros and construction workers — to sponsor Dylan Mulvaney, a transvestite performer so offensive to standards, norms, and women that even many supporters of the LGBT movement can’t stand him? Who on earth thought that was a good idea?
The official explanation is that a rogue vice president of marketing made the call. Though that’s just one of the half dozen or so mutually contradictory explanations that the incompetent crisis communications team at Anheuser-Busch tried to promote last week. First the company stood by the sponsorship, then they didn’t know about it, then they made an ad about horses (or something), then they put the marketing executive on leave. Who’s knows what they’ll come up with next week?
Whatever the explanation, it was a terrible business decision. Anheuser-Busch lost over $6.5 billion in market cap. Bar and customer boycotts of the brand show no signs of ending. Still, Anheuser-Busch won’t apologize. Even stranger, countless companies continue to sponsor Mulvaney despite the unpopularity of transgender ideology and the particular unpopularity of Mulvaney. Aritzia, Crest, Instacart, Kate Spade, KIND Snacks, KitchenAid, Rent the Runway, and several other companies still sponsor the guy. Olay decided to start sponsoring him even after the Bud Light debacle. What gives?
Perhaps the executives of all of those companies just happen to be uncommonly liberal. Or perhaps it has something to do with a nationwide political campaign to bully private enterprise into adopting leftist ideology without ever once having to convince the people or the people’s representatives to sign off on it. Left-wing activist groups, such as the pro-trans “Human Rights Campaign,” rate corporations according to their “Corporate Equality Index,” and one of the key ways a corporation can boost its CEI score is through advertising. Hence, the Dylan Mulvaney beer can.
The Corporate Equality Index is one of the lesser-known parts of the ESG movement of “Environmental, Social, and Governance” policies pushed by the largest asset managers to force companies to adopt a leftist agenda. If companies fall afoul of ESG enforcers then, despite ESG’s unpopularity, they risk being blackballed by the world’s most powerful institutional investors.
Larry Fink of BlackRock outlined how this political campaign works in an infamous 2018 letter to top CEOs. In the letter, which he titled “A Sense of Purpose,” Fink insisted that companies need to serve a “social purpose,” that “To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.” And “if a company doesn&#8217;t engage with the community and have a sense of purpose, it will ultimately lose the license to operate from key stakeholders.” This word choice is significant because it echoes calls by World Economic Forum chairman Klaus Schwab and countless other liberal elites for corporations to serve, not shareholders but “stakeholders” — a slippery term that evades the clear definition and can be said to mean whatever the ideologues who promote it want it to mean.
Ultimately, “stakeholder capitalism” of the kind promoted by Fink and Schwab is nothing more than a ploy to give liberal elites even greater control over the economy and to funnel corporate resources toward the oligarchs’ pet projects. We should fight it tooth and nail — as conservative treasurers and comptrollers have been doing with considerable success over the last couple years. But we should also take note as to why ESG has been so successful.
Conservative officeholders have justified their rejection of ESG on the grounds that they have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profits for their constituents as shareholders in the companies that receive public investment. All well and good in the short term. But in the long term, this kind of amoral bean-counting language is going to fail just as surely as the rest of it has.
ESG is wrong, not only because it can reduce profit margins — not just because some companies “get woke and go broke” — but also because the leftist causes that those ESG extortion policies fund are unpopular and wrong. And they have no place in a self-governing republic that was founded to be, in the Christian phrase invoked by American statesmen from Governor Winthrop to Ronald Reagan, “a shining city on a hill.”
In the private sector, conservatives must offer alternatives to the woke corporations. We need to offer our own, anti-woke products — our own razors and chocolates. Just to name two totally arbitrary examples. We need to build our own institutions, yes. We also need to exercise just political power.
Economic liberty does not mean throwing up our hands and letting liberal corporations team up with Big Government to squeeze us out of the public square. We must create and defend the political conditions in which proper economic liberty can thrive. Corporations and asset managers — particularly crooked corporations in bed with big government — should not get a free pass. 
Barry Goldwater put it well in The Conscience of a Conservative. He wrote, “Let us henceforth make war on all monopolies — whether corporate or union. The enemy of freedom is unrestrained power, and the champions of freedom will fight against the concentration of power wherever they find it.”

Michael Knowles

Why Conservatives Need To Make Economics A Moral Issue

Bud Light

Dylan Mulvaney

Leftists

Morality

Readers Pass

Social Issues

U.S.

“Everyone has heard the expression: let your conscience be your guide,” Dennis Prager, founder of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/prager-university" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PragerU</a>, noted. But Prager argues that accepting that aphorism does more harm than good.
Prager argued that throughout most of Western history, the consensus view was that the conscience was not a sufficient guide and that God and instruction in a system of religious values were required for people to behave morally. Prager said that the idea that the conscience is all people need to act morally is a peculiarity and product of modern secular society.
Prager compared this notion to the idea that gender is a social construct, as well as the notion that all cultures are of equal value and that equal treatment for all people was a form of racism.
“None of these beliefs is more irrational than that the conscience is all you need, that it can replace God, the Bible, and Judeo-Christian values as a producer of moral behavior.”
Prager noted that people are exceptionally good at rationalizing their own actions and intuitions and have been known to justify everything from murder to torture to genocide on moral grounds.
“Virtually every individual who has committed or supported evil has had a clear conscience,” Prager said. “Peoples’ feelings and behavior produce their conscience — their conscience doesn’t produce their feelings and behavior.”
Prager also argued that appeals to the conscience were insufficient in public debates, even (or especially) on morally loaded topics such as abortion or transgender surgeries, because opponents from all perspectives are acting on their own diametrically opposed moral intuitions. “People on the opposite sides of every conflict are equally convinced they are listening to their conscience.”
“Given the frequent uselessness of the conscience, how is one to be morally guided? … By building a conscience.”
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Prager argued that truth, courage, God and reason are the fundamental elements of conscience — stating that God without reason led to fanaticism and that reason without God leads inevitably to “the death of reason.” A person’s conscience has to be developed and trained before it can be trusted.
WATCH:
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WATCH: Don’t Trust Your Conscience

WATCH: Don't Trust Your Conscience

Judeo-Christian Values

PragerU

Religion

Daily Wire host <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/michael-knowles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Knowles</a> opened an appearance on the Timcast IRL podcast wearing a black face-mask reminiscent of the one worn by Kanye West in his now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/alex-jones-breaks-his-silence-following-viral-anti-semitic-interview-with-ye" target="_blank" rel="noopener">infamous interview</a> with Alex Jones, kicking off a two hour discussion about censorship and the foundational structure of society.
After removing the “$4 Amazon” mask and slamming Balenciaga as “satanic pedos,” discussion shifted over to the controversy surrounding coverage of the alleged assault on Paul Pelosi by David DePape.
Some on the Left argue that extreme right-wing rhetoric radicalized DePape, who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/paul-pelosi-attackers-planned-hit-list-revealed-includes-oscar-winner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> carried a hit list of various politicians and prominent citizens, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, actor Tom Hanks and Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden. Others on the podcast, including co-host Luke Rudkowski, questioned the veracity of DePape’s recent court testimony and the investigation by suggesting discrepancies in some initial reporting pointed to some kind of relationship between the two men and a subsequent media coverup.
Knowles pushed back on this, arguing that the various theories flying around are not necessary to understand the situation. “People are trying to construct really sophisticated narratives about what’s going on, but is it not possible — I humbly put forward — that this guy is kind of crazy?”
Knowles also acknowledged that repeated scandals had badly damaged the credibility of the American media and various other cultural and political institutions and had created a fertile breeding ground for conspiracy theories. “In a world where crazy pedo island exists and in a world where — I know we’re on YouTube so I’ll be really, super careful — where every single thing we’ve been told by people in authority over the past two years is totally fake. … in that world, it is more reasonable to assume that Paul and Nancy Pelosi are whipping and torturing this random guy than to believe the CNN version.”
The show then pivoted to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-bans-the-twitter-accounts-of-multiple-major-left-wing-media-figures" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent Twitter suspensions</a> of some prominent journalists such as Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, and independent journalist Aaron Rupar. Twitter CEO Elon Musk has reportedly cracked down on accounts that broadcast his location and the real time locations of other prominent people after his son was recently allegedly followed by a stalker.
Knowles defended Musk’s decision. “I’m not a free speech absolutist,” he said. “I believe in standards and norms. And you know what I really believe in? Banning these left-wing losers — especially banning that guy who was tracking Elon Musk’s plane.”
Knowles argued when pressed that even the earliest liberal thinkers, such as John Locke, posited some limits to free speech beyond cases of fraud or threat, and argued that every civilization had some kind of taboos. He further argued that the “opening” of society and the relaxation of old norms had not resulted in a society free of norms, but instead created a society where immorality is elevated and virtue penalized.
“We have broad toleration for lots of different things, but there are limits, and they’re pretty severe limits.”
He argued that chivalry was a restrictive speech code of great social value and that issues like child pornography didn’t need to be litigated in the public square as its immorality was firmly established and those who advocate for it need not be entertained.
He also argued that law influences culture in the same way culture influences law, rather than one merely being downstream of the other.
The other hosts, notably Rudkowski, argued against this, pointing out that many of the arguments Knowles was citing were used by the Left to shut down conservatives and conservative ideas as being “dangerous” or “degrading society.”
“Who [gets to] decide who’s degrading society with what ideas?” Rudkowski argued. “Who’s gonna be calling the shots here? Power corrupts. … When it comes to bad ideas, they need to be challenged with good ideas. If there are idiots out there who believe in [child porn], they deserve to be challenged.”
Rudkowski also argued that censorship often creates echo chambers and a sense of victimized vindication. “They double down on that instead of [having] a bunch of people tell them, ‘Hey, this was wrong and not acceptable.’”
Citing the late conservative thought leader William F. Buckley, Knowles said, “I’m an epistemological optimist; I think that certain things are settled and we don’t really need to entertain Nazis or Communists.”
“Your political opponents are doing the same exact thing in Europe,” Rudkowski countered. “They’re using the same arguments you’re using in Europe to arrest people for saying men can’t be lesbians … they’re saying, ‘I know what’s best for society, I know what ideas are good or bad; we have to stop these ideas … if you hurt people with your ideas, we have to stop you, censor you, and throw you in jail.’”
“They’re using the same procedures,” Knowles responded. “The difference is that there’s a difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad.’” Knowles argued that the promotion of the good, the true, and beautiful was just and proper.
“That’s based off your interpretation,” Rudkowski argued, saying that Knowles’ political opponents might find a drag queen to be good and beautiful.
“But they’re wrong,” Knowles shot back.
After a debate over whether morality could be universalized or whether moral standards differed from individual to individual, Timcast host Tim Pool brought the discussion back to its original launching point.
Pool took a middle ground position between Knowles and Rudkowski’s arguments and said that having an established corpus of norms and laws was vital, while saying that law was an “analog” process that would inevitably be filtered through the norms and perspectives of the current times.
“Elon Musk needs to set clearly defined parameters for what he wants, but then we need judges to interpret [that],” Pool said.
The debate then turned to the whether or not the individual or the family should be considered the primary unit of society, with Knowles making the case for the family while Rudkowski argued for the individual.
“The family unit, I think, is one of the most important units, but I think we also have to respect the strongest minority of them all, and that’s the individual,” Rudkowski said.
Knowles argued that individuals emerge from families with both rights and duties, and that those ties and duties were of fundamental importance. He also argued that communism and anarchism or purist libertarianism were fundamentally two sides of the same coin, atomizing the individual — although the former then tried to reconnect them in a collectivized new society. “That’s why I think Karl Marx, if he were alive today, would be in the Tea Party.”
All members of the panel came to the consensus that political power was presently too centralized and that more localized control and subsidiary structure would be preferable, albeit for different reasons.
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Mike Huckabee And Sarah Huckabee Sanders Visits “The Story With Martha MacCallum”

‘But They’re Wrong’: Michael Knowles Talks Speech And Censorship On Timcast

'But They’re Wrong': Michael Knowles Talks Speech And Censorship On Timcast

General

Tim Pool

A left-wing activist and minister has told Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) that refusing to abolish the filibuster is a “moral contradiction” to the senator’s Christian faith, claiming that the filibuster “is sinful.”
On Monday, Rev. William J. Barber II led 200 people in a protest dubbed the “Moral March on Manchin” outside the senator’s office in Charleston. There, they <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/letters/letter-to-senator-manchin/">read</a> a “Letter to Senator Manchin from Moral and Religious Leaders,” which said Manchin’s support for the filibuster called into question his religious beliefs.
“As a public servant who professes a faith guided by love, justice, and mercy and who has sworn a public oath to support and defend the Constitution, your public statements about the filibuster are a moral contradiction,” the letter said. “The filibuster as it is currently being used is not just bad policy. It is sinful.”
The letter claims that “[t]he filibuster continues to block the very things our faith traditions proclaim to be just and right,” specifying only the failure to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour (thanks to <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/bernie-sanders-minimum-wage-senate">eight Senate Democrats</a> siding with the chamber’s Republicans). That follows a <a href="https://twitter.com/revdrbarber/status/1382900304295890948">tweet</a> in April that says: “By supporting the filibuster, you are either an advocate or enabler of systemic racism, voter suppression, greed, the denial of health care, and the denial of living wages. We have been working with this political sin far too long!”
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By supporting the filibuster, you are either an advocate or enabler of systemic racism, voter suppression, greed, the denial of health care, and the denial of living wages. We have been working with this political sin far too long! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DontFilibusterDemocracy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DontFilibusterDemocracy</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PoorPeoplesCampaign?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PoorPeoplesCampaign</a> <a href="https://t.co/lS70SYuOvq">pic.twitter.com/lS70SYuOvq</a>
&mdash; Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (@RevDrBarber) <a href="https://twitter.com/RevDrBarber/status/1382900304295890948?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2021</a></blockquote>
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The reverend didn’t specify which verse of the Bible says, “Thou shalt not filibuster,” and he didn’t say whether the filibuster was immoral the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/democrats-used-filibuster-over-300-times-gop-once">327 times</a> Democrats used the filibuster in 2020 — let alone when they employed it to kill protections for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/26/democrats-have-vigorously-used-filibuster-its-pathetic-they-now-wont-pledge-protect-it/">babies born alive</a> during botched abortions.
But then Barber has a long history of twisting theology to fit his ideologically driven religious pronouncements.
<a href="http://influencewatch.org/person/rev-dr-william-j-bar%E2%80%A6">Barber</a>, the head of the Poor People’s Campaign, told his “Moral Monday” followers to march alongside Planned Parenthood to oppose a bill that would require abortion facilities to meet the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/11/abortions-nc/2510783/">same health and safety standards</a> as any other surgical center. He worked with the nation’s largest abortion provider again in Alabama against a bill that would <a href="https://juicyecumenism.com/2019/05/30/william-barber-planned-parenthood/">protect</a> most unborn life.
The moral confusion continued as Barber <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RevDrBarber/posts/3700316376754875">applauded</a> the passage of the “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-equality-act-destroys-religious-liberty-heres-what-you-need-to-know">Equality Act</a>.” The Alliance Defending Freedom <a href="https://adflegal.org/equality-act">calls</a> the act a “deliberate and unprecedented threat to free speech, religious freedom, and the progress that women have made toward true equal treatment under the law.” The bill would replace the religious liberties provided by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (which was signed into law in 1993 by President Bill Clinton and introduced by Chuck Schumer) with an act of secular imperialism, while also denying biological women the right to privacy.
But Barber’s movement isn’t merely against things; the reverend positively endorses socialism. Barber <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dan-crenshaw-responds-dnc-pastor-no-christianity-james-barrett">asserted</a> that people who believe in “the Bible must then promote socialism, because Jesus offered free healthcare, and He never charged the leper a co-pay.”
Of course, Jesus also never worked for the government, nor did the Bible ever <a href="https://www.djameskennedy.org/video-detail/1901ttt-the-bankruptcy-of-socialism">command</a> Christians to outsource their good deeds to impersonal federal bureaucracies. Lawrence Reed literally <a href="https://fee.org/resources/rendering-unto-caesar-was-jesus-a-socialist/#0">wrote the book</a> comprehensively refuting the notion that Jesus was a socialist. This author has also addressed most of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2266&amp;v=N0FSS-xO3PQ&amp;feature=emb_logo">more common arguments</a> that the Bible demands government redistribution of wealth.
Opposing socialism is hardly an innovation; it is the traditional teaching of every major branch of Christianity. Socialist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1905/misc/socialism-churches.htm">complained</a> that Orthodox Christian “believers who go to church on Sundays and festivals are compelled, more and more often, to listen to … a real indictment of Socialism.” The great Baptist preacher C.H. Spurgeon <a href="https://www.spurgeongems.org/vols22-24/chs1420.pdf">warned</a> that “socialism may yet pollute the mass of mankind.” And one of the many papal encyclicals that condemning Marxism <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19310515_quadragesimo-anno.html">states</a>, “No one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist.”
Yet Barber sublimates his faith to his political views to such an extent that he even politicized the terrorist attack against Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) by a radical left-wing assailant. As Scalise lay in a hospital bed hovering between life and death, Barber implied that, if Scalise survived, he needed to repent of his Republicanism. While Barber told “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGQEdDySUVI">AM Joy</a>” that Americans should “be united” in prayer for Scalise, he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bozell-graham-joy-reids-immoral-moment-l-brent-bozell-iii">continued</a>: “All of those that were injured needed healthcare, so now will they go back to work and … preserve the Affordable Care Act, move the universal healthcare, and make sure preexisting conditions are protected? Since they could have died, will they repent of efforts to take money from Medicaid?”
“These are the serious moral questions that have to be answered,” Barber said. On the contrary: The most serious raised by Barber’s cold-blooded politicization of grief is whether the reverend is “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+3%3A1-5&amp;version=KJV">without natural affection</a>.”
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No one who misses as many fundamental, historical, and universal doctrines of the Bible as Barber does has any businesses preaching on the finer points of applied public morality. Perhaps he should heed the words of the Bible, “Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word all over again” (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+5%3A8-14&amp;version=NIV">Hebrews 5:12</a>).
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 14: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II alongsi

‘The Filibuster Is Sinful’: Left-Wing Minister Questions Joe Manchin’s Faith

Abortion

Bible

Christianity

Equality Act

Socialism

Given how flawed human nature is, America has been a remarkable moral achievement.
This is the truism that separates the wise man from the fool.
This is the truism that separates the Left from the anti-Left.
Those who acknowledge how flawed human nature is compare America to reality. Those who do not, compare America to some utopian image: a country free of inequality, prejudices, intolerance, sexual misbehavior, greed, etc. This divide helps explain why those who hold a biblical worldview — usually religious Jews and Christians — are more likely to appreciate America than those who do not. It is fundamental to Judaism and Christianity that &#8220;the will of man&#8217;s heart is evil from his youth&#8221; (Genesis 8:21).
I offer a partial list of bad traits inherent to human nature. When perusing it, one can only marvel at how good a country America became.
No. 1: A yearning for power over others.
This yearning is what has animated nearly every political leader in history. There are people who do not have a personal craving for power and seek positions of power solely because of a calling. But these people are rare.
The American Founders understood this. They created a unique political system to minimize power and to maximize checks on power. That is the reason for the division of power among three coequal branches of government and the reason states were given so much power. Thus, America was established to be a republic, not a pure democracy. In addition, the Founders did not trust the majority with great power, which is the reason for two nondemocratic institutions: the Electoral College and the Senate. And that is why the Left, which is rooted in a desire for power — and therefore a desire for evermore powerful government — loathes the Electoral College and the Senate.
No. 2: A yearning for fame and recognition.
This, along with the yearning for power, is what drives and has driven nearly all politicians in world history, but it is hardly isolated to politicians. For example, it is largely what animates Hollywood actors. That is one reason no other profession gives itself as many awards as does Hollywood. Increasingly, however, being a star is also what animates journalists and, to the extent possible, academics and other intellectuals.
No. 3: A yearning to feel and be considered important and morally superior.
This is nearly universal. People — historically men, but increasingly women — ache to believe they are important. There is nothing inherently wrong with this yearning. However, it can lead people to engage in irresponsible, even evil, behavior — solely because it makes them feel important. This explains why the Left fights largely nonexistent evils such as &#8220;systemic racism,&#8221; &#8220;white supremacy,&#8221; &#8220;white privilege&#8221; and &#8220;capitalism.&#8221; Fighting evil, even make-believe evils, makes one feel important and morally superior to those who do not fight these evils.
No. 4: The sex drive.
Consider how many men have lost everything — their money, reputation, livelihood, even their family — in order to gratify their sex drive. The reason there has been so much irresponsible and sometimes evil sexual behavior is not because of &#8220;sexism&#8221; or &#8220;patriarchy,&#8221; but because of this drive. The wonder is not how much sexual impropriety exists in America; the wonder is how little there is compared to the past, compared to virtually every society in history and compared to many societies today.
This has largely been the result of the influence of Judeo-Christian ethics. Prior to the baby boomer generation, most American men were raised to believe that manhood was defined by marriage and by taking care of a family. With the Left’s assault on Judeo-Christian religions, more and more young men feel free to revert to their animal-like sexual nature, which is not monogamous and not naturally inclined to getting married and making a family.
No. 5. Greed.
The desire for more money and material possessions is built into the human condition. There is nothing wrong with wanting to make more money and have a nicer home. In fact, it is usually a good thing; it is what animates people to work hard and invent things. Greed, however, is the word we use to describe a yearning for material wealth so great that it overpowers moral considerations — which it has throughout history. It is the reason for corruption, an evil that constitutes the single greatest reason countries do not develop. Like every other country, America has always had its share of greedy individuals, but there has generally been far less corruption in America than elsewhere — a major reason for America&#8217;s unique prosperity.
This, too, is rapidly changing. Like the other negative impulses of human nature, greed was held at least somewhat in check by religion. Every Bible-based religion taught its followers self-control. With the demise of religion, the only thing left to control people is the state. But when the state becomes a substitute for religion in attempting to control human nature, one ends up with a police state, which may well happen here.
No. 6: Ingratitude.
Gratitude is not built into human nature. That&#8217;s why good parents tell their children thousands of times, &#8220;Say &#8216;thank you.'&#8221; Gratitude needs to be cultivated. And throughout American history, it was. The great majority of Americans and new immigrants to America were profoundly grateful to be American. Of course, many Blacks had legitimate reasons not to be grateful to be American. But, over time, that has changed. However, the Left has told every group other than white males that they should have no gratitude for being American. One could say that most college and graduate school degrees today are degrees in ingratitude. The Left knows it can only win elections when the majority of Americans are ungrateful.
Given human nature, America has been an extraordinary accomplishment. However, given the Left’s largely successful elimination of Judeo-Christian and middle-class values — and the consequent unleashing of human nature — that accomplishment may not survive.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.

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PRAGER: Given How Flawed Human Nature Is, America Has Been A Remarkable Moral Achievement

Leftism

United States

Walter E. Williams died on the morning of Wednesday December 2nd, having taught “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/walter-williams-r-i-p-11606934313">his final class at George Mason University</a>” the night before. In addition to being a Professor of Economics, Williams was also well known and respected as a columnist and author. Daily Wire Editor Emeritus, Ben Shapiro, described Williams as “an amazing person and thinker.”
Williams’ thoughts on subjects such as the economy, socialism, and racism demonstrated a level of insight which should never be underestimated or ignored. Here is a modest collection of his words which, regardless of when they were spoken or written, will remain hugely relevant in the years to come. To remember the great Walter Williams, remember his words.
Government, Theft and Accountability
“How stupid is it of us to ask those who brought us ‘affordable’ housing to now turn their attention to bringing us ‘affordable’ health care?”
“The moral tragedy that has befallen Americans is our belief that it is okay for government to forcibly use one American to serve the purposes of another — that in my book is a working definition of slavery.”
“The recognition of the fact that Congress has no resources of its own forces us to acknowledge that the only way Congress can give one American one dollar is to first, through intimidation, threats, and coercion, confiscate that dollar from some other American. If a private citizen did the same thing that Congress does, we would call it an immoral act — namely theft. Acts such as theft that are immoral when done privately do not become moral when done collectively. The moral tragedy that has befallen Americans is our belief that it is okay for government to forcibly use one American to serve the purposes of another.”
“Democracy and liberty are not the same. Democracy is little more than mob rule, while liberty refers to the sovereignty of the individual.”
“It’s government people, not rich people, who have the power to coerce and make our lives miserable. Coercive power goes a long way toward explaining political corruption.”
“The real problem is that workers are not so much underpaid as they are under-skilled. And the real task is to help those people become skilled. Congress cannot do this simply by declaring that as of such-and-such a date, everybody’s productive output is now worth $7.25 per hour. This makes about as much sense, and does just about as much harm, as doctors ‘curing’ patients simply by declaring that they are cured.”
“You men win your way into office and retain that office essentially by promising some Americans that you will give them the fruits of another man’s labor. You also win office by promising one group of Americans that they will be given a right or privilege that will be denied other Americans.”
“There are many farm handouts; but let’s call them what they really are: a form of legalized theft. Essentially, a congressman tells his farm constituency, ‘Vote for me. I&#8217;ll use my office to take another American’s money and give it to you.’”
“Believing that presidents have taxing and spending powers leaves Congress less politically accountable for our deepening economic quagmire. Of course, if you’re a congressman, not being held accountable is what you want.”
“Three-fifths to two-thirds of the federal budget consists of taking property from one American and giving it to another. Were a private person to do the same thing, we’d call it theft. When government does it, we euphemistically call it income redistribution, but that&#8217;s exactly what thieves do — redistribute income. Income redistribution not only betrays the founders’ vision, it’s a sin in the eyes of God.”
Race and Discrimination
“But I think that the Democrats have been very successful in portraying themselves as the caring people, when if you look at the effects of the Democratic Party on black people I think it’s horrible, it’s horrendous. For example, if you ask the question, ‘In what cities do blacks live under the worst conditions — in terms of crime, rotten education, poor services,’ — these are the very cities that have been run for decades by Democrats. I don’t care whether you are talking about Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Chicago, or Detroit, it’s all been Democrats. And then on top of it, it’s been black Democrats! That is, again, if you look at where blacks live under the most horrible conditions, it’s in cities where a black is the mayor, a black is the chief of police and a black is the superintendent of schools.”
“First, weaken the black family, but don’t blame it on individual choices. You have to preach that today’s weak black family is a legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and racism. The truth is that black female-headed households were just 18% of households in 1950, as opposed to about 68% today. In fact, from 1890 to 1940, the black marriage rate was slightly higher than that of whites&#8230; In New York City, in 1925, 85% of black households were two-parent households&#8230; Disgustingly, black politicians, civil rights leaders, liberals and the president are talking nonsense about ‘having a conversation about race.’ That’s beyond useless. Tell me how a conversation with white people is going to stop black predators from preying on blacks. How is such a conversation going to eliminate the 75% illegitimacy rate? What will such a conversation do about the breakdown of the black family&#8230; Only black people can solve our problems.”
“Discrimination is simply the act of choice. Scarcity requires us to choose; scarcity is the cause of discrimination!”
“Employer substitution of higher-skilled for lower-skilled workers is not the only effect of the minimum wage law. It also gives employers an economic incentive to make other changes: substitute machines for labor; change production techniques; relocate overseas; and eliminate certain jobs altogether. The substitution of automatic dishwashers for hand washing, and automatic tomato-picking machines for manual pickers, are examples of the substitution of machines for labor in response to higher wages.”
“The law-abiding black citizen who is passed up by a taxi, refused pizza delivery, or stopped by the police can rightfully feel a sense of injustice and resentment. But the bulk of those feelings should be directed at those who have made race synonymous with higher rates of criminal activity rather than the taxi driver or pizza deliverer who is trying to earn a living and avoid being a crime victim.”
“How much of a barrier to self-improvement is discrimination? What kinds of tools are in the ready grasp of those subjected to it? Surely one doesn’t want to sit around waiting for the end to discrimination.”
Economics, Socialism and Capitalism
“Some say it’s wrong to profit from the misfortune of others. I ask my students whether they’d support a law against doing so. But I caution them with some examples. An orthopedist profits from your misfortune of having broken your leg skiing. When there’s news of a pending ice storm, I doubt whether it saddens the hearts of those in the collision repair business. I also tell my students that I profit from their misfortune — their ignorance of economic theory.”
“Social Security is unsustainable because it is not meeting the first order condition of a Ponzi scheme, namely expanding the pool of suckers.”
“This is why socialism is evil. It employs evil means, coercion or taking the property of one person, to accomplish good ends, helping one’s fellow man. Helping one’s fellow man in need, by reaching into one’s own pockets, is a laudable and praiseworthy goal. Doing the same through coercion and reaching into another’s pockets has no redeeming features and is worthy of condemnation.”
“Socialism promises a utopia that sounds good, but those promises are never realized. It most often results in massive human suffering. Capitalism fails miserably when compared with a heaven or utopia promised by socialism. But any earthly system is going to come up short in such a comparison. Mankind must make choices among alternative economic systems that actually exist.”
“It turns out that for the common man capitalism, with all of its alleged shortcomings, is superior to any system yet devised to deal with his everyday needs and desires. By most any measure of human well-being, people who live in countries toward the capitalistic end of the economic spectrum are far better off than their fellow men who live in countries toward the socialist end.”
“Capitalism, or what some call free markets, is relatively new in human history. Prior to capitalism, the way individuals amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. With the rise of capitalism, it became possible to amass great wealth by serving and pleasing your fellow man. Capitalists seek to discover what people want and produce and market it as efficiently as possible as a means to profit. … Here’s my question to you: Are the people who, by their actions, created unprecedented convenience, longer life expectancy and a more pleasant life for the ordinary person — and became wealthy in the process — deserving of all the scorn and ridicule heaped upon them by intellectuals and political hustlers today?”
“What our nation needs is a separation of “business and state” as it has a separation of “church and state.” That would mean crony capitalism and crony socialism could not survive.”
Morality and Freedom
“Do-gooders fail to realize that most good is not done in the name of good but done in the name of self-interest.”
“But let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you — and why?”
“How does something immoral, when done privately, become moral when it is done collectively? Furthermore, does legality establish morality? Slavery was legal; apartheid is legal; Stalinist, Nazi, and Maoist purges were legal. Clearly, the fact of legality does not justify these crimes. Legality, alone, cannot be the talisman of moral people.”
“No matter how worthy the cause, it is robbery, theft, and injustice to confiscate the property of one person and give it to another to whom it does not belong”
“Philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe explained that &#8216;no one is as hopelessly enslaved as the person who thinks he’s free.&#8217; That’s becoming an apt description for Americans who are oblivious to — or ignorant of — the liberties we’ve lost.”
Read more of Walter E. Williams’ work <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/author/walter-e-williams">here</a>.
Ian Haworth is host of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkPxdVsNp7k&amp;list=PLhi-aq-5DfuTQRVv1IOVMnA735vEYO0f5">The Ian Haworth Show</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E05t2L69Sks&amp;list=PLhi-aq-5DfuRHu5r0IV5qr4h2rBAV9oBd">The Truth in 60 Seconds</a>. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/ighaworth">@ighaworth</a>.

Walter Williams

Remembering The Ever-Relevant Words Of Walter E. Williams

Economics

Amid the mass shootings, the substantial <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-a-thin-line-separates-suicide-from-violence-among-men-today">uptick in suicides</a>, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-addiction-fuels-homelessness-crisis-not-lack-sharif-khan">addiction epidemic</a>, the constant refrain seems to be that America is suffering a mental health crisis. Certainly, the numbers bear out when we consider prescription drug use to treat anxiety and depression alone.
<a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/astounding-increase-in-antidepressant-use-by-americans-201110203624">Harvard University</a> reported that antidepressant use has increased by 400% since the 1990s:
<blockquote>According…to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the rate of antidepressant use in this country among teens and adults (people ages 12 and older) increased by almost 400% between 1988–1994 and 2005–2008.</blockquote>
Those statistics alone should be cause for some serious soul-searching for all of us. Such a staggering increase in antidepressant use certainly adds to the argument that America is quickly becoming a helpless, inoculated society of hopeless souls.
Even a popular <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UoMXF73j0c&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=722">TED Talk</a> diagnosed our current plight with exacting precision:
<blockquote>We are the most addicted, we are the most medicated, obese, and in-debt adult cohort in human history.</blockquote>
Worse, the actual effectiveness of antidepressants is not at all confirmed when factoring in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/npp2012153">placebo</a>. In fact, the claims made by psychiatry and by pharmaceutical companies on antidepressants remain quite dogmatic. In a piece entitled “The Psychiatric Drug Crisis” for <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-psychiatric-drug-crisis">The New Yorker</a>, Gary Greenberg states the following:
<blockquote>Despite their continued failure to understand how psychiatric drugs work, doctors continue to tell patients that their troubles are the result of chemical imbalances in their brains. As Frank Ayd pointed out, this explanation helps reassure patients even as it encourages them to take their medicine, and it fits in perfectly with our expectation that doctors will seek out and destroy the chemical villains responsible for all of our suffering, both physical and mental. The theory may not work as science, but it is a devastatingly effective myth.</blockquote>
Sadly, simple physical exercise has been repeatedly proven to be more effective in treating mild to moderate depression. In 2014, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/for-depression-prescribing-exercise-before-medication/284587/">The Atlantic Monthly</a> reported:
<blockquote>A 2011 study…looked at 127 depressed people who hadn’t experienced relief from SSRIs, a common type of antidepressant, and found that exercise <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21658349">led 30 percent of them into remission</a>—a result that was as good as, or better than, drugs alone.</blockquote>
If simple physical exercise can remedy an exceedingly common mental health issue, the fundamental problem with so many in America is, ultimately, a moral one. Our volition, our sense of courage and forbearance, are all now at a premium. However, so many are now accosted by a very insidious and nihilistic question: “What’s the point?”
Resignation and defeat seem to pervade the American landscape. We can barely even register notions of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-men-must-learn-to-uphold-the-common-good-again">the common good</a>, never mind what is objectively good for ourselves.
The moral and ethical foundation that ought to buttress us in times of hardship and fatigue is cracked and crumbling, if not altogether broken. While the Left has certainly deconstructed our values into oblivion, we cannot disregard our collective <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-anxiety-and-faith-in-these-modern-times">spiritual and moral lassitude</a> in this crisis either.
At best, only frail and brittle platitudes inform our collective moral pedigree these days. There are no longer discernible footholds to guide us out of the various trials and tribulations that assail us. Instead, we are told to inoculate ourselves with all manner of pills and potions. Others simply turn to illicit drugs and alcohol to remedy the existential aches.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-faith-in-a-dark-time">A dull despair</a> seems the order of the day. We must do better. It’s imperative that we dust off and engage our moral compass once again for the betterment of each other, and for ourselves. And we must do so with courage, fortitude, and, most importantly, hope.

Man with pills

KHAN: Is America Suffering A Mental Health Crisis Or A Moral Crisis?

Drugs

Mental Health

Mental Illness

Obesity

Prescription Drugs

&#8220;I&#8217;ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.” – President Ronald Reagan
Today is the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-at-march-for-life-we-are-fighting-for-those-who-have-no-voice-and-we-will-win">47th March for Life</a> in Washington, D.C. For nearly five decades, dating back to the one-year anniversary of the abominable Roe v. Wade decree, Americans from all walks of life have braved the January cold to march together in solidarity with the most vulnerable subset of the human population: The unborn. It is a remarkable display of unity in defiance of a grave injustice that stains our collective national conscience.
Roe, of course, is just as morally abhorrent as it is constitutionally fabricated. As I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-hammer-on-tipping-point-with-liz-wheeler-the-legal-argument-to-overturn-roe">explained</a> earlier this week on Liz Wheeler&#8217;s One America News program, there is nothing whatsoever in the original public meaning or plain text of the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause — which states, &#8220;nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law&#8221; — that transmogrifies the inherently elitist U.S. Supreme Court into an institution that can unilaterally impose abortion policy upon a nation as diverse as ours. As U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit Judge William Pryor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-judge-william-pryor-is-yet-again-a-victim-of-the-lefts-war-on-truth">said</a> at his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Roe is &#8220;unsupported by the text and structure of the Constitution, [and] it has [also] led to a morally wrong result. It has led to the slaughter of millions of innocent unborn children.&#8221;
But don&#8217;t take it from just avowed pro-lifers; iconic leftist Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has even <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/the-forgotten-history-of-justice-ginsburgs-criticism-of-roe-v-wade/2016/03/01/9ba0ea2e-dfe8-11e5-9c36-e1902f6b6571_story.html">opined</a> that Roe was incorrect, as a matter of law. Ditto famously liberal longtime Harvard Law School professor John Hart Ely, who <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122704335139038479">once said</a> that Roe &#8220;is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be.&#8221;
The fight for the unborn is the human rights struggle of our time. The <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1220797862017191943">comparisons</a> to antebellum chattel slavery are <a href="https://www.redstate.com/erick/2015/10/26/yes-the-arguments-for-abortion-do-parallel-the-arguments-defending-slavery/">remarkable</a>: Both involve treating fellow human beings as property to be harmed at will, both were upheld by the Supreme Court on constitutional grounds via the Fifth/Fourteenth Amendment <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/five-lessons-abraham-lincoln-would-have-todays-josh-hammer">doctrinal ruse</a> known as &#8220;substantive due process,&#8221; both are deemed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-it-past-time-trump-openly-defy-court-order-josh-hammer">beyond reproach</a> by <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1260996">judicial supremacists</a>, and the opposition to each is led by the Republican Party. As iconic conservative Princeton University professor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-iconic-conservative-leader-requests-ag-barr-address-pornography">Robert P. George</a> co-wrote in 2004 <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2004/08/republicans-and-relics-barbarism-robert-p-george-william-l-saunders/">at National Review</a>: &#8220;For the Republicans&#8221; of the Civil War era, &#8220;the idea that human beings could be reduced to the status of mere &#8216;objects&#8217; to be bought and sold and exploited for the benefit of others was a profound violation of the intrinsic dignity of creatures made in the image and likeness of God.&#8221; Abortion is similarly a &#8220;profound violation of the intrinsic dignity of creatures made in the image and likeness of God.&#8221; &#8221;
The reality is that the conservative movement, and the Republican Party with which it is intertwined, simply must come to view Roe and its murderous progeny as indistinguishable from the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857 that directly precipitated the Civil War. &#8220;As with Roe, the Dred Scott decision lacked any warrant in the text, logic, structure, or original understanding of the Constitution,&#8221; Dr. George wrote four years ago at <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2016/01/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it">First Things</a>. &#8220;It was, as Abraham Lincoln rightly insisted, an act of judicial will, not law, and as such an assault on the very Constitution in whose name the justices purported to act. Dred Scott, like Roe v. Wade, was a case of judicial usurpation in the cause of mass dehumanization.&#8221;
It is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-president-trump-will-be-the-first-president-to-attend-the-march-for-life-heres-why-that-matters">wonderful</a> that President Donald Trump spoke today to the March for Life. But to oppose abortion yet support judicial supremacy — the notion that the Supreme Court does not merely render judgments for discrete litigants in a given <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleiii">Article III</a> &#8220;case&#8221; or &#8220;controversy,&#8221; but is the exclusive and final arbiter of broader legal/political principle for the nation — is not to oppose abortion at all. It is self-contradictory and nonsensical. President Trump would do well to<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-it-past-time-trump-openly-defy-court-order-josh-hammer"> follow the lead</a> of his predecessor Abraham Lincoln, who issued the following famous remarks as part of his magisterial <a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lincoln1.asp">First Inaugural Address</a> (emphasis my own):
<blockquote>I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the Government. And while it is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.</blockquote>
Roe is not merely a human rights tragedy of unfathomable scale. It is also a bastardization of our entire system of self-governance. It is a bastardization of the republicanism upon which the nation was founded. And it deserves to be treated with no more dignity than the righteous irreverence with which Lincoln treated Dred Scott.

Demonstrators Participate In The March For Life Pro-Life Rally

HAMMER: Abortion Is A Grave Injustice. We Must Treat Roe Just Like Dred Scott.

Constitution

Fourteenth Amendment

March For Life

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Supreme Court

Last week, U.S. Attorney General William Barr told a University of Notre Dame Law School audience that attacks on religious liberty have contributed to a moral decline that&#8217;s in part manifested by increases in suicides, mental illness and drug addiction. Barr said that our moral decline is not random but &#8220;organized destruction.&#8221; Namely that &#8220;Secularists and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values.&#8221;
The attorney general is absolutely correct. Whether we have the stomach to own up to it or not, we have become an immoral people left with little more than the pretense of morality. The left&#8217;s attack on religion is just the tiny tip of the iceberg in our nation&#8217;s moral decline. You say: &#8220;That&#8217;s a pretty heavy charge, Williams. You&#8217;d better be prepared to back it up with evidence!&#8221; I&#8217;ll try with a few questions for you to answer.
Do you believe that it is moral and just for one person to be forcibly used to serve the purposes of another? And, if that person does not peaceably submit to such use, do you believe that there should be the initiation of force against him? Neither question is complex and can be answered by either a yes or no. For me the answer is no to both questions. I bet that nearly every college professor, politician or even minister could not give a simple yes or no response.
A no answer, translated to public policy, would slash the federal budget by no less than two-thirds to three-quarters. After all most federal spending consist of taking the earnings of one American to give to another American in the form of farm subsidies, business bailouts, aid to higher education, welfare and food stamps. Keep in mind that Congress has no resources of its own. Plus there&#8217;s no Santa Claus or tooth fairy that gives Congress resources. Thus, the only way that Congress can give one American a dollar is to first, through intimidation and coercion, confiscate that dollar from some other American.
Such actions by the U.S. Congress should offend any sense of moral decency. If you&#8217;re a Christian or a Jew, you should be against the notion of one American living at the expense of some other American. When God gave Moses the Eighth Commandment — &#8220;Thou shalt not steal&#8221; — I am sure that He did not mean thou shalt not steal unless there is a majority vote in the U.S. Congress. By the way, I do not take this position because I don&#8217;t believe in helping our fellow man. I believe that helping those in need by reaching into one&#8217;s own pocket to do is praiseworthy and laudable. But helping one&#8217;s fellow man in need by reaching into somebody else&#8217;s pockets to do so is worthy of condemnation.
We must own up to the fact that laws and regulations alone cannot produce a civilized society. Morality is society&#8217;s first line of defense against uncivilized behavior. Religious teachings, one way of inculcating morality, have been under siege in our country for well over a half a century. In the name of not being judgmental and the vision that one lifestyle or set of values is just as good as another, traditional moral absolutes have been abandoned as guiding principles. We no longer hold people accountable for their behavior and we accept excuses. The moral problems Attorney General William Barr mentioned in his speech, plus murder, mayhem and other forms of anti-social behavior, will continue until we regain our moral footing.
In 1798, John Adams, a leading Founding Father and our second president said: &#8220;Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.&#8221; I am all too afraid that a historian, writing a few hundred years from now, will note that the liberty American enjoyed was simply a historical curiosity. Then it all returned to mankind&#8217;s normal state of affairs — arbitrary abuse and control by the powerful elite.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

American flag, U.S. Capitol.

WILLIAMS: U.S. In Moral Decline

Charity

William Barr

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