Product Description

Americans today live in the greatest nation the world has ever known. Never before has a country been the producer, and beneficiary, of so much wealth and freedom. But with great success comes even greater responsibility. Part of the American legacy is to pass our values to our posterity, as well as to future generations in other nations. To meet this responsibility, the next generation must understand what made America great, what is working, what is not working, and how to improve all the ideas that contributed to past success. No factor is more important in this task than our freedom of speech. This right is both a means and an end to improving and strengthening the nation.

Why We Whisper is about free speech in America, but not "freedom of speech" as it is often defined today. It is not the freedom to practice destructive behavior or to produce obscene material. This book is about freedom of speech as it was intended by the visionaries who designed the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment empowers Americans to join the public and political debate with their ideas and values, including those traditional ideas and values that have made America great. This fundamental freedom is under attack, and unless principled Americans fight back, our grandchildren and future generations around the world will receive a greatly diminished inheritance.

United States Senator Jim DeMint and Professor David Woodard compellingly demonstrate that through court rulings, bureaucratic pronouncements, and well-intentioned, but ultimately unhelpful laws, secular values have allied with government authority to dismantle the ideals of a moral and decent nation. A country once confident of its values and optimistic about its future is now pessimistic, nervous, and confused. Traditional American institutions like the Boy Scouts, churches, businesses, college campuses, and public schools are routinely targeted for attack and government regulation. As a result, morally responsible, patriotic Americans are forced to withdraw into the shadows of public opinion, where their freedom of speech is reduced to whispers. The positive influences and societal protections of tradition are routinely ignored by the new secular elites who have been ensconced with government power and are now anxious to advance their agenda.

Americans have watched as moral relativism and secularism savaged education, law, religion, business, and traditional notions of proper behavior. If government allows, protects, and even subsidizes destructive behavior, social problems will lead to the decline, and ultimately the fall, of the United States. The authors warn that Americans must no longer allow this cultural decline. We must expect and demand government to promote positive behavior that is aligned with our historical and cultural principles. Those in authority must not only encourage but listen to, embrace, and institutionalize the whispers of the muzzled majority of Americans, and rediscover the values that made the nation exceptional in the first place.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #194232 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The polarization of America continues unabated, according to South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint and Clemson University political science professor J. David Woodard, not (necessarily) between Democrats and Republicans, but between secularists and traditionalists. The authors' categories are broad and their terms stigmatizing, but the distinction is immediately apparent, and their intent is specific: to expose left-leaning bias in the "value-free" rulings supported by morally relativistic secularists in legislation, court cases and the mainstream media. Referencing numerous hot-button issues-gay marriage, divorce, cohabitation, abortion, pornography and gambling among them-the authors review in fine detail a number of arguments (many familiar) about the societal and economical damage suffered by an America rapidly replacing foundational virtues with unstable secularist values. This call to action is full of information, and makes some strong points-particularly in explaining how government, and particularly the legal sector, is inherently engaged with morals-but the defensive tone can grow wearying.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Why We Whisper by Senator DeMint and Dr. Woodard is a hard-hitting, even disturbing, chronicle of the current state of our nation. It is a must read for anyone who has the courage to know the truth. -- Frank S. Page, President, Southern Baptist Convention

As one whose career is rooted in the 1st Amendment, I know how government imposition can strip Americans of our precious freedom of speech. Big government liberalism and a decline in our culture must be stopped. For ammunition in the fight ahead, read Why We Whisper. -- Rush Limbaugh

In this important and timely book, DeMint and Woodard connect much of our cultural decline with attacks on free speech. The good news is they propose many sound solutions. -- William J. Bennett, Fellow, The Claremont Institute

Senator Jim DeMint and J. David Woodard boldly challenge the politically correct tendency to restrict speech just where and when we need it most. Why We Whisper is a clarion call to exercise our First Freedoms in a time of moral confusion. -- Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council

About the Author
Senator Jim DeMint was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. Before winning election to the House of Representatives in 1998, he founded a successful Greenville based market research firm. In 2004, Jim DeMint became South Carolina's 55th U.S. Senator. He was recently elected as Chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, a body of active Republican Senators who work to advance conservative legislation.

J. David Woodard holds the Strom Thurmond Chair of Government at Clemson University, where he has taught political science since 1983. He is the author or co-author of five books, including The Conservative Tradition in America (Rowman & Littlefield).

Customer Reviews

Why We Whisper
If you have a curiosity, an open mind, and a thirst for full and honest debate on the direction of American society, this is a thoughtful book you must read. It provides a quantitative understanding of the pervasive ability of legislatures and courts to negatively impact public behavior through public policy.

This book is a well written explanation of traditionalism and the role of traditionalism in shaping our nation's history. It chronicles how our founding fathers and the founding documents all relied heavily on the strong underpinnings of religous moral authority to shape our free society. This moral underpinning allowed the people to rule government instead of government ruling the people. It reminds us that religion played a major role in societal change. Religion gave the Reverend Martin Luther King the moral authority to lead Americans to demand an end to segregation.

The book clearly documents how secular progressive have systematically eliminated these underpinnings and reshaped society in their secular image. The result has been negative consequences for individuals, groups and society as a whole. It documents how they have stiffled the free speech of those who believe that the moral underpinnings of religion should play a role in public policy debate.

Why not?
The "opinion" by jg "saved" (maryland), as to why we should not buy this book, incorporates all the reasons the Marxists wish to silence us and stop us from even whispering. His Marxist view of God would force us to pay for his wish list of programs (his tithes, in his view), so he can feel like he did something for (he dared to say it) ---egad, be careful now---JESUS.

It seems to be the thing to do for Marxists to sit in their PJs in front of their PCs, bashing books that they have no intention of buying, so they can silence those for whom the Constitution gave the freedom of speech. This is why I am no longer one of them. The freedom of thought, speech, and disagreement is one of our most cherished rights, and they bend over backwards to silence all those with whom they disagree. Just for once, can any of you grow up and not review a book that you haven't read? Uhhhh yep, I thought not...

ENLIGHTENMENT FOR THOSE WHO SEEK TRUTH
"Why We Whisper" is a well researched compilation of ideas and beliefs that led America to stray from the Foundation of American Government. This book will educate and enlighten Republicans, Democrats, and those looking for supported answers to the moral decay of our society. I cannot believe a Jim Demint is a politician - he sounds to honest.