These days we, as Americans, have become unsure of ourselves. Besides for the fact that we’re unwilling to identify our enemies, we are no longer sure of who we are as Americans. There has been a move away from the basic American concept that no matter your upbringing, religious or political leanings, race, or sex — that you can achieve success. Even more disturbing is the concept that someone else owes you something – not for working, not for services rendered, but instead simply because they have something that you don’t.

What made the Greatest Generation great wasn’t only that they marched off to war to save the world from the Axis Powers, but that they didn’t expect anything handed to them. They earned everything that came their way. These days, to watch the “occupiers” on television, complaining that their college degrees aren’t earning them top dollar, one would imagine that those of the Greatest Generation would tell them to ‘get real’. The men and women of that generation sacrificed for all of us – many of them without a higher education – for us to be able to take our freedoms for granted.

This Pearl Harbor Day let us take a moment to thank those of the Greatest Generation for not only extinguishing a great evil but for also showing us the selflessness they demonstrated when they worked long and hard hours in jobs they may not have found “satisfying” in order for their children to live a better life. Rather than complain about what we are supposedly ‘owed’, let us rediscover what has historically made us great. Alexis de Toqueville, writing in 1831, coined the phrase “American exceptionalism”, defining it as the ideals of liberty, equality, individualism, the common person free from a ruling class, and private business free from over-regulation.

These ideals, dating back to early America, are the keystones to our greatness. We must shake off the nonsense that we are no longer the America that our grandparents fought for abroad and at home by re-educating ourselves in our history and orienting our compasses accordingly.

It’s time to build on the strong foundation that the Greatest Generation left us. It’s time to rediscover American greatness.

In his  book, Prell takes a deft swipe at the progressive movement and democratic socialism as a whole. Michael takes the reader through a process of understanding the mechanism he calls underdogma and then laying out how it can be thwarted by defining the term, describing its implementations and then giving Conservatives the recipe to destroy it.

Underdogma is a principle that people will typically root for the underdog and despise the “overdog” in a head-to-head match. The author defines it as, “the belief that those who have less power are virtuous and noble – because they have less power, and that those who have more power are to be scorned – because they have more power”. Prell applies the David and Goliath-like ideology to Israel, America and capitalism.

One of the most vibrant examples of underdogmatism given in the book is the attacks of 9-11-2001. When those planes hit the towers and more than 3,000 innocent Americans perished, he pointed out, the world – even France – cried out, “We are all Americans Now”. We were the attacked, the underdog, but not for long. The liberal media set out almost immediately to change the message. All too soon America was the real terrorist and had brought the attacks on herself. The images of planes flying into the towers soon disappeared and discussions of America’s brutal and unconstitutional treatment of the prisoners at Guantanimo Bay re-took the lead message – America was once again the overdog and was to be despised.

Through about the first third of the book, I wondered if Prell was going to suggest that maybe America would have to become less of a country to regain international respect – the view of President Obama. The apology tour, bowing to every other head-of-state he could and decrying that America is not exceptional. If this is where Michael was going, I wasn’t along for the ride – it wasn’t.

Prell illustrated beautifully how the U.N., unions, and other socialistic, New World Order forces need America to be brought down to their level and how heaping scorn upon the most powerful nation in the world is a necessary step to achieving their end goals.

Understanding that the open society/NWO elements are using the zero-sum lie to destroy our equal-opportunity culture is key. Why do we have to tear down the rich in order for others to succeed? How does one persons success limit another’s? It does not. The book concisely explains how we all benefit from the Marathon oils, Wal-Marts, and Boeings of America and that if we continue bashing them, they won’t exist and neither will anyone else’s chance to create the next great American enterprise.

In the end, Michael Prell does a fantastic job of re-instilling hope that as Ronald Reagan once said, “America is the shining city on the hill”. We are the beacon of hope for oppressed societies. In America,  anyone can become the next Bill Gates, J.D. Rockefeller, Vanderbilt or Dell. What we have to do is re-instill the notion that America is exceptional and that Americans are an exceptional people. We have to be, think and act exceptional. We have to stop trying to destroy those who have achieved great success and spend more energy becoming successful on our own.

This is a book I feel proud to recommend to every free-market Conservative. It is a reminder that the United States is the greatest nation ever conceived. The publication is available from Barnes and Noble here.