Earlier this year, Phillip C. McGraw published a 400-page book with a terrific title: We’ve Got Issues: How You can Stand Strong for America’s Soul and Sanity. Probably because Dr. Phil—as he is widely known—is a controversial figure and also because many are reluctant to promote a work whose introduction begins with the sentence “I love this country,” there has not been a wave of print reviews in the mainstream media. That said, McGraw did make feisty appearances on shows across the sociopolitical spectrum, from The View to The Rubin Report, via Real Time with Bill Maher and The Joe Rogan Experience. And the book was on the New York Times Best Sellers list for six weeks in the category “Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous.” So at least some people are paying attention.
It happens that I came to the book largely ignorant of McGraw, having never watched an episode of his eponymous show, Dr. Phil. Aside from clicking on the links in the first paragraph for the purpose of writing these words, the only time I’ve heard him talk is when, two years ago, he recorded an episode of the podcast Phil in the Blanks with my wife.
McGraw treated my wife well, so, yes, I’m biased in his favor. But I wouldn’t have paid attention to We’ve Got Issues had a publicist at Simon & Schuster not sent me a copy gratis. I’m glad she did.
There’s no shortage of screeds on the culture wars, but with his (historically apolitical) celebrity and amiable style, McGraw brings something new to the table—and a new and wider audience. Ideally, his fans will be inspired to pick up this book and then decide to pick up (metaphorical) arms in an effort to bring us back, paradoxically, to peaceability: to foster a citizenry that eschews extremes and whose members find ways to live together despite their differences. As McGraw puts it, “we are in a full-blown culture war, and nobody has the luxury of being a non-combatant.”
Like McGraw, I’m at heart a centrist, someone interested in and, I hope, generally able to see multiple sides of contested issues. Still, everyone has opinions, and mine on many domestic issues that are riling Americans—the value (or lack thereof) of merit, of free speech, and of recognizing unbridgeable differences between men and women—appear to be similar to McGraw’s. These opinions, which are now often regarded as dangerous by so many denizens of our elite cultural institutions and a great many politicians, were just a few years back considered wholly unremarkable. I am pleased that, in talking about how we should think about transgenderism, McGraw devotes a few pages to my AEI colleague Carole Hooven’s rigorous, ideologically unclouded work on testosterone.
The book is organized around such questions as “How concerned are you that ‘fringe groups’ are trying to hijack and displace core values, scientific findings, and an unbiased view of history in America?” The exact nature of the “you” is unclear. At one point, McGraw writes that he “surveyed nearly 1,200 Dr. Phil viewers;” 20-odd pages later, however, he speaks of “a national survey comprised of people, many of whom are Dr. Phil viewers, but not all.” In any case, at the end of each chapter, he presents the results. When it comes to fringe groups, 60 percent say they are “very” and 28 “somewhat” concerned; only eight percent say “not very” and four “not at all.” McGraw emphasizes that “there’s not a right or wrong answer.” He makes clear, though, that he himself is concerned, maybe very concerned. As am I. It’s not his fault, but there is likely more than a little preaching to the choir here.
McGraw is especially compelling on family issues. In his book Family First, published in 2004, he was “concerned that the dysfunction of unsocialized children can contaminate the family.” Now he offers an “update”: “Today I would argue that the decline of the family can contaminate society.” Those polled overwhelmingly agree with this sobering assessment—and believe that there has been a real shift in the last generation.
Nonetheless, McGraw calls himself an optimist, and in the final section of We’ve Got Issues, he expounds on “the ten working principles for a healthy society.” Here are three: “Do not stay silent just so others can remain comfortable,” “Consciously choose which voices in your life deserve the most attention,” and “Work hard to understand the way others see things.” Most of us need help with all of these, perhaps especially the last.
This evening, McGraw’s one-on-one interview with Donald Trump will be airing on Dr. Phil Primetime. It will be very interesting indeed to see the extent to which each man does and does not understand the way the other sees the world.
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