About the Book
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.
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), The New Southern Politics (Lynne Rienner) and The America That Reagan Built (Praeger/Greenwood).
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. It is my hope that we will be able to implement the positive steps they have outlined to return our nation to the place where people of all mindsets and cultures are allowed to speak the truth." --Frank S. Page, President, Southern Baptist Convention
"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, former U.S. Secretary of Education, author of The Book of Virtues
"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
"Our republican form of government depends on a robust exchange of ideas. Liberals and conservatives alike have a stake in keeping that exchange both vigorous and free. 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
"Jim DeMint has proven himself not only an able senator, but a thinking senator. His book, written with David Woodard, exposes the great cultural divide in America today in a winsome way, and offers some very refreshing and constructive suggestions for Christians and right-thinking citizens to restore truth and balance to a culture nearly out of control. Jim DeMint and David Woodard have made an excellent contribution to the debate of today's great issues." --Chuck Colson, founder, Prison Fellowship
"DeMint and Woodard begin "Why We Whisper: Restoring Out Right to Say It's Wrong" by relating their personal experiences of taking unpopular or unfashionable stands on social issues, and then they argue that deteriorating moral standards will lead to a decline in this country's culture. The book serves as a sort of call to arms for conservatives to raise voices that the authors say have been reduced to a whisper. DeMint and Woodard take on issues including same-sex marriage, out-of-wedlock births, premarital and extramarital sex, pornography and gambling, often using the language of the Constitution and the words of the Founding Fathers to demonstrate that strong moral character is essential to the country's well-being....The authors present arguments based on the importance of a solid moral structure as well as a look at the long-term economic problems these issues raise." --7/29/08, Roll Call
