Note: Dennis Prager is a radio talk show host, a political commentator, and the creator of the YouTube channel Prager U. Mr. Prager is one of the more prominent voices on the right and is well respected within his communities. Speeches and radio excerpts can be found on YouTube, especially here at Prager University on YouTube.
Dear Mr. Prager,
I have never met you and I probably never will. You do not know who I am and, to be honest, I do not know who you are either. I want you to know that I am a liberal and support progressive movements. I also want you to know that I am open to new information and that I can change. I have watched many of your videos and have listened to you speak on a plethora of issues. Nearly every time, however, I leave depressed, angry, and questioning my own belief system. This cognitive dissonance is deeply disturbing and uncomfortable. It makes me question things I know to be true. For instance, when you deny climate change I know you are incorrect. I know, generally, how climate change works and how it is caused by man. I know that deglaciation and deforestation lead to positive feedback loops in which climate change is further expedited. Your arguments, however, cast doubt over once solid foundations. Your arguments are so vague as to be nearly irrelevant and false, yet so thought out as to be nearly impossible (at least for me) to formulate arguments against. Again, this is uncomfortable and this is disturbing and I have yet to reconcile my views with yours. Around this time last year, a boy in my high school published an opinion piece inspired by one of your videos on political correctness. I sent a respectful and thoughtful response against his arguments. He sent me back one and I returned the favor. Since then I have not heard from him since. I like to think he got too busy with school and forgot. Maybe, however, he never expected to have to debate his beliefs with someone so radically different from himself.
Either way this has stuck with me to this day. If my latter explanation is correct, then this proves a much deeper divide than simple political will (or lack thereof). This proves that we truly are divided into two parties. That divisiveness is alive and well. This proves that people are not actively trying to see the proverbial grass from the other side of that proverbial fence. Honestly, Mr. Prager, I do not think you are trying to fix this division and are instead feeding it.
Divisiveness, while on both sides of the aisle, has been made public in the last few years by the right. The right has battled the left on everything, even the little things. President Obama fought tooth and nail for everything he accomplished these last eight years. Politics should work this way, but not to the extent it has been taken. If the Democrats stood in the way of a Supreme Court nomination I would be enraged. If, like the current Republicans, Democrats tried to destroy a president’s legacy while they were still in office I would be equally enraged. There is give and take in politics, and I have seen very little generosity from the opposite party.
What I see from you, Mr. Prager, and all your supporters is that this is what you push. Divisiveness is what you want. When you call liberalism a cancer and a disease it does literally nothing to bring this country together. I have heard you treat President Obama without any hint of respect. You still rally for Hillary Clinton to serve jail time. You fight the left at every opportunity. You then have the gall to complain that the left is propagating its own messages through the youth, yet you try to do the same. Conservative propaganda is no better than liberal propaganda. When does this stop? Why is this necessary? What do you accomplish with these tactics?
What I see from you and your supporters is unhelpful propaganda that furthers a divide this country desperately needs to heal. When insults such as ignorant, stupid, insolent, cancerous are strung in the same sentence as liberalism, progressivism, or democrat it shows very little political will while also showing everything I need to know about your character. This is not a ‘feel good’ problem. My feelings are not hurt and no amount of political correctness could solve this. This is about a very real and serious threat to the function of our government. It is easy to attack a group in power and place blame on them. What is more difficult is criticizing those of your own party in power. I hope you are inevitably able to do this.
I understand that President Obama was not perfect. Even I had my problems and disagreements with him. Indeed, I have numerous problems and disagreements with the Democratic Party itself. I understand that the left is not your ideal picture of the country. However, I want you to know that I am not a cancer, I am an American just like you. I want was is best for this country, just as you do.
Mr. Prager, your attacks do not help, they only further radicalize you and your followers. I want to try to understand your side, but you do not make that conducive to do when you, with a level head, say how stupid and cancerous a political movement is. I am under no pretenses that the conservative movement is a cancer slowly choking off the very lifeblood of our democracy. Yes, I vehemently disagree with everything the right and what the far right (especially) stand for. But, in the end, conservatives want was is best (in their views) for this country, just like I do. What is true regardless of political affiliation is that if we uphold the Constitution and what this democracy was built upon, then we can move along and fight real battles, instead of meaningless competitions on how much dirt one can rub into another.
