The strongest and most insightful discussion, in my view, is on Leftism. Writing about the left must be like trying to hold a giant squid in your hands while describing it to an audience. Prager says as much in his opening pages. He argues that leftism is a kind of religion, albeit one without Scripture and verse, making it difficult to document its core beliefs and tenets the way you might be able to define (say) Judaism or Buddhism. In addition, Dennis points out that people on the left don't even refer to themselves as "leftists," nor do they consider their beliefs as an alternate worldview in comparison to other worldviews. Instead, they seem to consider their beliefs de facto, incontrovertible, unarguable, while all other viewpoints are not only dubious but evil. For Dennis to attempt to identify the tenets of Leftism must have required an arduous amount of research, and indeed, he provides endnotes for most (not all) of the points he makes.
His discussion on Islam (Part II) took a lot of guts. He admirably and consistently makes a distinction between practicing, peace-loving Muslims around the world and those who advocate Sharia law and forced conversion. He is not afraid to expose the ugly side of Islam with its history of violence, oppression, and especially the anti-Semitism which fuels its hatred toward Israel and America. He is hopeful and optimistic that Islam can and will be reclaimed by thoughtful, honorable, good Muslims who believe in the American trinity (see third section). Me, I'm not so confident. I hope he's right.
My only real criticism of the book has to do with his third section.
As noted, the section is rushed and condensed. Was this because Dennis felt pressured to see the book released before the 2012 election? Was he on either a self-imposed or publisher-imposed page limit? Whatever the reason, the lack of depth and exposition in this third section is disappointing. I love the discussion of what Prager refers to as the "American Trinity" (Liberty, In God We Trust, and E Pluribus Unum). Dennis' thesis seems to be that this trinity is all that's needed for other countries to flourish, though he doesn't say how to go about accomplishing such a prospect. He mentions as a hypothetical case in point the Honduras, but the example seems sort of simplistic to me. Perhaps anticipating that he could be accused of wanting to proselytize the world with the "gospel of America" in much the way early Christian missionaries were criticized for imposing western values on "native" cultures, he takes pains to point out that a country's adopting these core American values does not mean relinquishing that country's cultural identity. But, practically speaking, how would this transformation take place apart from a type of proselytism? How do these American values become imparted to countries whose governments are the antithesis of American values? Dennis doesn't seem interested in addressing the pragmatic questions his thesis raises, and this oversight made me feel a bit short-changed.
Other than that....! I loved the book and will recommend it to anyone who cares about preserving American values. Perhaps we can regard Still the Best Hope as the first book of many in what will hopefully become a vibrant conversation, particularly about what leftism is. To me, this was the most important section of the book. I'd be interested to hear either a rebuttal or a counter-argument from a thoughtful intellectual on the left. However, such is the disdain the left has for conservatives that I suspect they won't even bother to read, let alone review, Still the Best Hope.
Update: I also posted this book review on Amazon and noticed that it was included on Dennis Prager's website in the Dennis Prager Store (link below).
Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph
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