'Leap' is relevant in U.S. today

Like athletes and divas, books rarely enjoy their best years decades after they first arrive on the public scene. But now along comes one of the rare exceptions: "The 5,000-Year Leap," by Cleon Skousen.

The book, first published in 1981, continues to be rediscovered as it ages. Now in its 16th printing, it reportedly has sold more than 250,000 copies this year, easily outstripping its sales of the previous 28 years.

Brett Favre could only wish for such a comeback.

The book has climbed onto several best-seller lists. I tried to order the book from the library via the Internet and was placed about 300th on the waiting list.

Too bad Skousen isn't around to enjoy the book's resurgence. He died in 2006 at the age of 92. He was probably worn out.

Skousen was a constitutional scholar, Salt Lake police chief, an FBI agent (and special assistant to J. Edgar Hoover himself), a BYU professor, a prolific author (his most famous work was probably the national best-seller "The Naked Communist"), a Utah gubernatorial candidate and a public speaker who made frequent speaking tours to discuss his passion — the Constitution and the Founding Fathers.

That is also the subject of "The 5,000-Year Leap."

The book owes some of its resurgence to the current political climate and some to radio host Glenn Beck, who has endorsed the book on his popular, nationally syndicated radio show as a must-read for Americans.

This book does not exactly provide affirmation for President Barack Obama and Washington's rush toward socialism.

Skousen believed the founders were inspired by God and that the resulting Constitution was not only brilliant but caused America to make a 5,000-year leap in prosperity during its 200 years of existence. Its free-market economic system (RIP) and its three-headed, checks-and-balances government fostered the most prosperous country in world history.

As Skousen notes, the U.S. represents about 5 percent of the world's population but has created more new wealth than all the rest of the world combined while also providing a fertile breeding ground for most of the world's inventions — TV, radio, telephone, computer, automobile, airplane, tractor, typewriter, microwave, motion pictures, camera, cereal, jeans, refrigerator, etc.

But the America that was outlined by the Founding Fathers and produced all that prosperity is a different place now, which makes the reading of "Leap" so relevant now. Long before you finish the book, you'll be convinced that America not only has wandered off the path that the Founding Fathers blazed, it has fallen into a ditch.