1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:05,760 Race and ethnicity have defined every nation on earth. 2 00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:09,220 Except one: the United States of America. 3 00:00:09,220 --> 00:00:12,460 It is defined by values. 4 00:00:12,460 --> 00:00:17,820 So, to understand America, you have to understand American values. 5 00:00:17,820 --> 00:00:21,440 They are: 1. “E Pluribus Unum” 6 00:00:21,440 --> 00:00:23,560 2. “Liberty” 7 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:26,640 3. “In God We Trust.” 8 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:28,680 I call this “The American Trinity.” 9 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,740 I made up the name, but I didn’t make up the values. 10 00:00:31,740 --> 00:00:34,240 They are on every American coin. 11 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:39,260 The first, E Pluribus Unum, is Latin, meaning, “Out of many, one.” 12 00:00:39,260 --> 00:00:46,720 When first adopted as an American motto shortly after the American founding in 1776, it referred 13 00:00:46,730 --> 00:00:51,010 to the thirteen American colonies becoming one nation. 14 00:00:51,010 --> 00:00:57,600 Over time, however, most Americans understood the motto to mean one people from many backgrounds. 15 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:03,420 To quote The E Pluribus Unum Project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, 16 00:01:03,420 --> 00:01:09,710 “Over the years, E Pluribus Unum has also served as a reminder of America's bold attempt 17 00:01:09,710 --> 00:01:14,630 to make one unified nation of people from many different backgrounds and beliefs.” 18 00:01:14,630 --> 00:01:19,420 In other words, America doesn’t care about your national or ethnic origins. 19 00:01:19,420 --> 00:01:24,740 This explains why people who immigrate to America assimilate faster and more fully than 20 00:01:24,740 --> 00:01:26,980 immigrants to any other country. 21 00:01:26,980 --> 00:01:32,560 Most of those who have immigrated to Europe, from, for example, Turkey – as millions have – 22 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:36,850 are not considered fully German by fellow Germans or fully Swedish by fellow 23 00:01:36,850 --> 00:01:40,540 Swedes or fully Spanish by fellow Spaniards. 24 00:01:40,540 --> 00:01:44,440 This is even true of the children and grandchildren of those immigrants. 25 00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:49,080 And, just as important, few of those immigrants – or their children or grandchildren – 26 00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:52,860 will ever feel fully German, Swedish, or Spanish. 27 00:01:52,860 --> 00:01:57,040 But a Turk who immigrates to the United States will be regarded as fully American 28 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:02,680 – as American as any other American – the moment he or she becomes a citizen. 29 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:08,600 And they – and certainly their children – will feel fully American. 30 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:14,020 Of course, America has not always lived up to this “e pluribus unum” ideal. 31 00:02:14,020 --> 00:02:16,460 But the ideal was always there. 32 00:02:16,460 --> 00:02:21,659 And it was applied to virtually every immigrant to America. 33 00:02:21,660 --> 00:02:25,220 The second component of the American Trinity is liberty. 34 00:02:25,220 --> 00:02:30,100 Now, you might ask, “Didn’t the French Revolution also enshrine liberty as a central 35 00:02:30,109 --> 00:02:31,469 national value? 36 00:02:31,469 --> 00:02:35,160 Wasn’t its motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”? 37 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:36,420 The answer is yes. 38 00:02:36,420 --> 00:02:41,460 America is hardly the only country to enshrine liberty; it is the only country to enshrine 39 00:02:41,460 --> 00:02:45,100 “Liberty,” “E Pluribus Unum,” and “In God We Trust.” 40 00:02:45,100 --> 00:02:46,300 What’s the difference? 41 00:02:46,300 --> 00:02:51,280 The difference is this: The moment you affirm equality, as the French Revolution did, you 42 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:53,060 will lose liberty. 43 00:02:53,060 --> 00:02:58,180 It is a basic American value that all human beings are born equal, and all must be equal 44 00:02:58,180 --> 00:02:59,680 before the law. 45 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:04,780 But ending up equal – that's a French and European value. 46 00:03:04,780 --> 00:03:09,300 And if you want people to end up equal, you must deprive them of liberty. 47 00:03:09,300 --> 00:03:14,459 Which is exactly what happened right after the French Revolution and in every other society 48 00:03:14,460 --> 00:03:17,700 that made equality its national goal. 49 00:03:17,700 --> 00:03:22,919 America gives people the liberty to end up wherever their abilities, work ethic, and 50 00:03:22,920 --> 00:03:26,620 luck take them – meaning unequal. 51 00:03:26,620 --> 00:03:31,300 Therefore, professional athletes will make more money than teachers or doctors. 52 00:03:31,300 --> 00:03:35,140 That may be unfortunate, but that is what liberty allows. 53 00:03:35,140 --> 00:03:39,819 If you want equality, you will tell people how much they can earn – and that means 54 00:03:39,820 --> 00:03:41,940 the end of liberty. 55 00:03:41,940 --> 00:03:44,340 And third, In God We Trust. 56 00:03:44,340 --> 00:03:49,320 Unlike almost every other country, America never had a state religion. 57 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:54,760 But it was founded on the principle that God – specifically, the God of the Bible – 58 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:56,960 is the source of moral values. 59 00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:01,559 As the Declaration of Independence put it, all people “are endowed by their Creator 60 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:07,520 with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 61 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:12,419 In other words, rights come from God, not from men. 62 00:04:12,420 --> 00:04:16,940 If rights are given by men, men can take them away. 63 00:04:16,940 --> 00:04:20,600 The American Trinity is the reason America became the world's freest 64 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:23,140 and most prosperous country. 65 00:04:23,140 --> 00:04:27,300 But many Americans want to, in the words of former President Barack Obama, 66 00:04:27,300 --> 00:04:30,020 "fundamentally transform" it. 67 00:04:30,020 --> 00:04:36,050 They wish to replace American values with European values – equality of result and 68 00:04:36,050 --> 00:04:42,580 an ever-expanding state, which greatly reduce individual freedom; the celebration of ethnic 69 00:04:42,580 --> 00:04:49,270 and racial identity, which is the opposite of E Pluribus Unum; and the removal of God 70 00:04:49,270 --> 00:04:52,400 as the source of morality and rights. 71 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:59,360 Which set of values Americans adopt will determine whether America remains free, prosperous, 72 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:03,020 and the force for good in the world that it has been. 73 00:05:03,020 --> 00:05:08,140 With the exception of the Civil War, this is the greatest internal battle 74 00:05:08,140 --> 00:05:10,080 in American history. 75 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:11,640 I'm Dennis Prager.