The Virginia congressman who defeated a House majority leader in 2014 will release his first book this week, one that makes the case that American government should return to its Judeo-Christian roots.
“The real thesis of this book is that the economic history of the United States and even our current moral debates stick precisely to … centuries-old themes,” Republican Rep. Dave Brat states in the book American Underdog, which will be released Tuesday.
Brat, who received a master’s degree from the Princeton Theological Seminary before obtaining a doctorate in economics, attempts to make the case that Western values are linked to American prosperity. He also returns to two themes that helped him to defeat House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the 2014 Republican primary, immigration and the growth of mandatory federal spending.
Brat also questions the viability of the European Union, and will be released just days after Britain seemed to put the EU on even shakier ground by voting to leave it.
“Being conscious of a broader Western civilization of which we are a subset is useful for connecting us to goings-on in the wider world without turning us into an empire. We do not want a restoration of the loveless and vast Roman Empire and probably ought to be skeptical even about the sustainability of the European Union,” Brat wrote.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2588131
The former economics professor adds that Congress should get the federal government’s fiscal house in order for reasons that include national security.
“With mandatory programs such as Medicare already consuming about 70 percent of the federal budget, we have at most 30 percent to spend on defense, but it competes with every other minuscule item in the budget,” Brat wrote. “Meanwhile, China and Russia are modernizing their forces, a skittish North Korea is expending much of its national wealth on its military, and the Arab world as well as Iran is producing an array of terrorist sects.”
“We should love peace, but we cannot deny the existence of those threats,” Brat added, concluding with a call for the nation to return to its founding principles. “When society asks what ethos can guide us through the current crisis, someone needs to provide an answer,” he wrote. “The deeper answer is the three pillars of the West … the Judeo-Christian tradition, the constitutional rule of law, and free markets.”
Brat, who is serving his first term, is seeking re-election against Democrat Eileen Bedell after a federal court redrew the lines of their Virginia district this year. Brat rose to prominence after becoming the first person to defeat a sitting majority leader since the position’s creation in 1899.
