The Things That Matter Most

A trenchant critique of America's cultural divide and a compelling summons to reclaim the timeless values that sustain our communities.

In this controversial and thought-provoking bestseller that has sold more than 125,000 copies, America's fastest-growing syndicated columnist explains how we have lost sight of the things that matter most.

Cal Thomas traces three decades of cultural drift to the failed promises of the sixties, confronting the collapse of traditional families and the unchecked growth of the welfare state.

The volume challenges the prevailing orthodoxies of the media and academia, presenting an urgent case for reviving the foundational standards that have historically anchored American life.

• Political Commentary: Thomas examines the legacy of Great Society programs and trillions in federal spending that created a self-perpetuating poverty bureaucracy rather than lifting citizens into independence.
• Social Issues: An incisive look at the crisis in public education, exposing how declining academic standards, ideological speech codes, and bureaucratic monopolies have displaced core learning.
• Cultural Issues: Thomas investigates the normalization of violence and obscenity in popular entertainment, contrasting Hollywood’s commercial shock value with the enduring need for personal decency.
• Political Philosophy: A compelling defense of the Founders’ view of natural law and limited government, arguing that enduring civic health relies on internal moral restraint rather than administrative edicts.