“Dark and divisive” it was not.
President Donald Trump made what might have been the best speech of his political career on July 3rd.
“Our Founders launched not only a revolution in government, but a revolution in the pursuit of justice, equality, liberty, and prosperity. No nation has done more to advance the human condition than the United States of America. And no people have done more to promote human progress than the citizens of our great nation.
It was all made possible by the courage of 56 patriots who gathered in Philadelphia 244 years ago and signed the Declaration of Independence. They enshrined a divine truth that changed the world forever when they said: ‘… all men are created equal.’”
Some conservative pundits have declared it so, without reservation. (Although, they’re probably forgetting President Trump’s “Second Gettysburg Address,” back in 2016—a magnificent oration that clearly established the political principles and objectives of a Trump presidency, mere weeks after he had won that mandate.)
Trump’s supporters needed to hear why they have stayed loyal to a President who has been bruised and battered by Democrats over the last four years.
This time around, he was enunciating the reasons for a second term, and the timing could not have been better. Trump’s supporters needed to hear why they have stayed loyal to a President who has been bruised and battered by Democrats over the last four years. They need affirmation for their continued support of a President who has had to endure baseless attacks from the Department of Justice and FBI (even though his party controlled both Houses of Congress for the first two years of this presidency), and who is somehow looking like a man fated for defeat (despite fulfilling virtually all of his 2016 campaign promises and overseeing a roaring economy, one that not even the coronavirus can extinguish). Many of the President’s supporters have wondered lately why their President has not been more emphatic in crushing anarchy in America’s streets, and worried he’s lost his capacity to lead. They needed assurance.
President Trump may have had just that need in his mind when he spoke before a group of supporters in front of the majestic Mount Rushmore—a shrine, not to white supremacy (however the opposition may construe that), but to freedom and the American spirit.
The speech was a tour de force of Americanism; an explanation of why people in this country continue to celebrate July 4th not as a day of infamy (as Joe Biden does), but as a celebration of freedom.
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President Donald Trump.[/caption]
THE UNSTOPPABLE MARCH OF FREEDOM
The President had other words on this mind that night:
“These immortal words set in motion the unstoppable march of freedom. Our Founders boldly declared that we are all endowed with the same divine rights—given [to] us by our Creator in Heaven. And that which God has given us, we will allow no one, ever, to take away—ever. Seventeen seventy-six represented the culmination of thousands of years of western civilization and the triumph not only of spirit, but of wisdom, philosophy, and reason.”
Trump’s speech was not just a carefully contrived collection of talking points designed to appease supporters. Which is more than one can say about the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, the newly woke Democrat Joe Biden—who proclaimed himself the “most progressive” candidate in a field of left-wing wing-nuts (apparently forgetting he was once a firm supporter of segregation).
President Trump continued:
“Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children. Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our Founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities. Many of these people have no idea why they are doing this, but some know exactly what they are doing. They think the American people are weak and soft and submissive. But no, the American people are strong and proud, and they will not allow our country, and all of its values, history, and culture, to be taken from them.”
The speech was a beautiful tribute to America’s past—and future. And yet, the reaction from the usual critics, such as the New York Times, were pitifully predictable. The speech was “dark and divisive,” wrote Annie Karni. Meanwhile, Vice Presidential hopeful Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) must have watched an entirely different event, because she suggested Trump’s speech was dedicated to the Confederacy and “dead traitors.” To whom was she addressing: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, or Theodore Roosevelt? (President Trump did not mention the Confederacy or any Confederate icon, so if you’re going to review a speech, please at least listen to what was said.)
What he did talk about, however, was the “far-left fascism” that threatens to envelop the world—the kind that Duckworth embodies.
“In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished. It’s not going to happen to us.”
Some of the so-called moderates on Fox News (like the tiresome Chris Stirewalt) have even suggested that Trump made a woeful error in explaining why America is great in the speech: calling that a “wedge issue.” Of course, the corpulent pundit has been predicting Trump’s demise for quite some time, even suggesting Trump had a great deal to fear from Biden. But after four months of lawlessness and insanity in America; of goons tearing down historical statues and calling America racist and white supremacist; of police forces being degraded, vilified and defunded, isn’t it high time that our President revisited what really constitutes America?
“We will state the truth in full, without apology: we declare that the United States of America is the most just and exceptional nation ever to exist on Earth. We are proud of the fact that our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and we understand — that these values have dramatically advanced the cause of peace and justice throughout the world.”
And it is high time that Americans heard it. Because that is what is going to get President Trump re-elected. He’s already demonstrated that he has a profound grasp of the economy and foreign affairs. He will win the election because he understands what America is all about.
Joe Biden, of course, does not. Or at least, the Joe Biden that the Democratic Left is running in 2020 does not understand. Here is a man who spent most of his political career running as a southern Democrat—opposed to integration and the very embodiment of the white privilege that his party now endorses. Biden is pretending to be a progressive while he hides in the home of his Delaware basement because he cannot endure a minute of political reality without sounding like a senile old man—or a 70s Democrat who can’t remember where he came from.
And while Biden hides, our culture is erased. Or, as President Trump put it:
“One of their political weapons is “Cancel Culture” — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America. (Applause.) This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty, must be stopped, and it will be stopped very quickly. We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation’s children, end this radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life.”
He continued:
“Make no mistake: this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so doing, they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress.”
“No movement that seeks to dismantle these treasured American legacies can possibly have a love of America at its heart … The radical ideology attacking our country advances under the banner of social justice. But in truth, it would demolish both justice and society. It would transform justice into an instrument of division and vengeance, and it would turn our free and inclusive society into a place of repression, domination, and exclusion.”
The men accused of killing George Floyd were similar to the man who assassinated the Archduke Frank Ferdinand in 1914. Serbian terrorist Gavrilo Princip did not begin the First World War all by himself, of course, but he was a precipitating device that unleashed the forces of hell upon the world. And those who participated in that great hurtle off of civilization’s cliff had no idea that they were equally responsible for the death of the society they loved so much.
This is where we are in America today: we cannot be complicit in our silence and allow Black Lives Matter, Joe Biden, the New York Times, or the idiot pundits who populate CNN and MSNBC to define our future.
