An odd thing occurred a week ago...the leader of the Free World defended the Free World.
President Trump delivered a profound speech last week in Poland. Speaking to a nation that lost over one-fifth of its population during WWII (and then endured decades of subjugation under Soviet tyranny) he reminded the world that Western Civilization ended slavery, created modern-day democracy, introduced equality to the world, produced nearly every meaningful innovation during the past 300 years, defeated communism, defeated the tyranny’s of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, empowered women throughout the planet, inspired great works of art and brought about an unprecedented 70-year period of peace and prosperity in which none of the major powers in the world were at war with each other. He talked about how God and family were instrumental to Liberty, he praised the work of Pope John Paul II who started the demise of Soviet oppression by hosting a million-person church service in the heart of communist Warsaw, he honored the prayers of those Poles who yearned for freedom and religion and a better life. But more than that, he reaffirmed America's commitment to Europe and our allies to defend the free peoples of the earth against the reckless adventures of radical Islamic terrorists, North Korea and Russia.
Ronald Reagan would have been proud to give such a speech. JFK had an almost identical message in Berlin. Yet many in the press call the speech nationalistic and a "dog whistle" for racism, even though the President never mentioned race and talked about Poland and Europe more than he did America.
Why? Because it is sad truth that most of our intelligencia and university professors and mainstream media openly despise the foundations their freedoms rest upon. They criticize in the most heinous terms Western Civilization – even though it is only because of Western Civilization that they have the right to criticize at all. They forget that in communist and Islamic revolutions, professors and the media and people with different life styles are always systematically murdered. But most of all, they scorn God and family values and nearly every norm that mankind throughout history has ever cherished. In short, they reject everything that makes us who we are.
"The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive," said the President. "Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?"
The President is right: history is replete with a litany of wealthy, peaceful nations that were destroyed by ruthless tyrants. The decline of each of those civilizations started with a loss of confidence in itself - the will to succeed and defend its values - followed by a softening of the conservative virtues that made it a civilization in the first place. Every great civilization had a meaningful religion: every civilization that fell rejected that faith just before it fell. It is high time the West defends the unprecedented peace and prosperity our values and our faith in God and our very freedoms - paid for by the blood of our brave veterans – have provided...not just to America, but to the rest of the planet.
"America will never be destroyed from the outside," said Abraham Lincoln. "If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." The West is under attack from a number of powerful external enemies. But the greatest danger is from within: from the people who think they are smarter than everyone else.
People all over the world flock to America and Europe: no one immigrates in the other direction. To all but the arrogant elite, that obvious fact tells you all you need to know.
