The Telescope - Editor's Letter

Is Hope Gone?

Lech Walesa knows a lot about hope, and he’s an expert on freedom.  Among the most notable and courageous “community organizers” of the last century or so, Walesa stands out.  He labored in the shipyards of Gdansk under the tyrannical boot of Soviet Communism.  Walesa organized the Solidarity movement, and fought against the central government for worker rights, human dignity, and freedom.  When historians discuss the great figures that pushed against the Soviets until they collapsed, and won the Cold War, they talk of Reagan, Thatcher, John Paul II, and Walesa.  He actually had earned his Nobel Peace Prize.

Walesa was in Chicago last month.  In a brief interview recorded by Andrew Marcus for Andrew Breitbart’s BIGGOVERNMENT.com, Walesa issued the sharpest possible indictment that America has drifted off course. "The United States is (the) only one superpower. Today they lead the world. Nobody has doubts about it, militarily.  They also lead economically, but they're getting weak.  But they don't lead morally and politically anymore. The world has no leadership. The United States was always the last resort and hope for all other nations. There was the hope, that whenever something was going wrong, one could count on the United States. Today, we lost that hope."

Criticism of America is nothing new.  In fact, Americans are often the most vocal in pointing out our nation’s short-comings.  The freedom to openly critique our country’s weaknesses and chastise our leaders is at the same time an indication of America’s greatest strength - Freedom.    It’s what much of the world recognizes as the Town Square Test.  “If you can go in the center of the town square and you can express your views and you will not be punished for this …you live in a free society,” according to Natan Sharansky,  the great Soviet dissident and later Israeli Cabinet Minister.  “If you are punished for this, if you are afraid to express your views, you live in a fear society.” The veteran of the Siberian gulag most certainly knows the difference, as does Lech Walesa.

Individual Freedom is enshrined in our founding documents, most notably in the very Free Speech clause of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.  The Rule of Law and protection of the right to speak out freely set America apart from all nations that preceded our founding, and has been the envy of the world throughout our existence.  Maximum individual freedom and minimal government coercion are the foundational principles upon which American independence was established, and they have sustained us for 234 years.  America was the first to proclaim that “all men are created equal,” that every single one of them have the same “unalienable rights” that are granted not by some monarch or aristocracy, but were “endowed by our Creator.”

The wisdom and the commitment of the Founding Fathers demonstrated a Moral Clarity and etched forever a defining moment in the history of mankind.  Men were for the first time trusting in the Goodness bestowed in every man to allow them to establish by their own means a republican form of self-governance that respected  and defended the worth and dignity of each person.  The “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” would forever be supreme in America, recognizing that there is an ultimate right-and-wrong, good-and-evil, and that these men and the government they established would follow a righteous path.

For sure, America has been tested.  Before her 100th birthday, the fabric of the young nation was nearly torn in two by a war to resolve the scourge of slavery – the ultimate transgression of a nation “dedicated to the principle that all men are created equal.” It was a necessary resolution that escaped even the abilities of the great Founding Fathers.  The Civil war as Lincoln would say, was the great test of “whether any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

And we did endure, and slavery was ended, albeit at great cost.  Lincoln saw the war as God’s “woe due to those by whom the offense (slavery) came,” and that the punishment of the war may continue on "until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword."

America’s commitment to individual liberty served the interest of both the nation and her citizens well in the twentieth century as she became the dominant economic, innovative, and philanthropic force in the history of the world.  She also became a great military power, and that might was necessary to rescue much of the world from tyranny in both World War I and World War II.  In less than two centuries, the United States of America had become a world super-power.  More importantly, she was rightfully perceived as the greatest example and defender of liberty in history.  America may not have been the sole source of Moral Clarity on earth, but she clearly had by far the largest franchise.

It was that sense of both prominence and responsibility that caused a newly elected President, John F. Kennedy in 1961 to proclaim to the world, “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

Kennedy said this, yes, for all the world to hear, but he was also sending the message by special delivery to the Kremlin as the United States had already begun what would be a prolonged and often tortuously tense Cold War with the Soviets.  Kennedy’s resolve was tested in 1962 against the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Kennedy stood firm, on principle and with great Moral Clarity.  He knew freedom was being threatened, that he and America were in the right, and he didn’t back down.

Two decades later, another President, Ronald Reagan shocked much of the world and many Americans by labeling the Soviets as he believed them to be, an “evil empire.” In 1987, standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate that divided East and West Berlin, Reagan challenged Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Two years later not only did the wall come down re-uniting Germany, but the Soviet Union collapsed as well, ending the Cold War “without firing a shot” as Margaret Thatcher would later say in acknowledgement of Reagan’s Moral Clarity and courageous leadership.

Since then America has not been “a” super power – she has been the “only” super power.

Reagan was fond of saying that character was “doing the right thing when nobody is looking.”  That is true enough.  But, when the eyes of the world are on you, it is sometimes even more difficult.  America, on balance, has usually gotten it right.  Sometimes it wasn’t pretty, often it took a while, but more often than not America came through.  Our great World War II ally, Winston Churchill observed that “You can always count on America to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.”

So, America developed a well deserved and substantial ego, but she’s also endured a few pretty bad bruises along the way.  The Great Depression took a lot of wind out of our sails.  The tumultuous Vietnam War years, the cultural upheaval of the 1960s, and the Watergate Scandal caused divisions and doubt in America and our institutions that linger still.   The 9/11 attacks were the first large scale acts of war on the mainland and exposed a vulnerability that previously seemed unimaginable to most Americans.  Immediately following the attacks, America united in mourning as well as with a patriotic awakening, but soon fell victim to deep divisions and war weariness as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan against the elements of radical Islam drug on during George W. Bush’s second term. As his term ended, the country again found itself in an economic recession along with much of the world.

Barack Obama was elected on a promise to elevate America’s spirit once again and bring Hope and Change to not only the United States, but as the new leader of the world’s clear super power, Obama invited the world to share in the Hope he promised.

How can you be critical of a leader who offers more reasons to Hope?  But, like many other contradictions now exposed about this new President, his deeds and his words have a serious disconnect.  In the name of Hope and Change, Obama has exploded the federal debt, seized private industry, precipitated unprecedented growth of government power and regulation, is attempting to nationalize the financial and health care industries, has the energy sector in his sights, etc, etc, etc.  And, these are just some of the domestic policies that he has endorsed. It is hardly an agenda of maximum individual freedom and minimum government coercion as the Founders envisioned.

Barack Obama swept to power as, “A man who will restore America’s image in the world” according to an adoring and complicit liberally biased U.S. and international media. The media and some others around the globe have certainly joined together of late in the fashionably favorite pastime among liberal elitists – it is called Blame-America-First.   During the campaign, rather than standing proud and celebrating American greatness, Obama too often joined in the blame-America chorus.  In just his first year in office he has become infamous for his “apology tour” around the globe giving speeches offering litanies of American transgressions and apologizing for our sins.

As I said in the beginning, criticism of the United States is nothing new, and some of it is indeed justifiable.    Historically however, our Presidents have a well established legacy of celebrating American greatness, her courage, her generosity, her commitment to the Rule of Law, her defense of individual freedom and human rights, and evidencing America as the great repository of Moral Clarity in the world, at least as nations and governments are concerned.

American Presidents, until now, have elevated America’s image as the “shining city on a hill.”  This one seems perfectly willing to join with our detractors in criticism of the U.S.  In recent history, only Jimmy Carter who was internationally impotent and chastised Americans as victims of a “malaise” compares to Obama’s predisposition to criticize instead of celebrate the United States.

Noted syndicated columnist, Charles Krauthammer in his brilliant essay “Decline is Choice” explains that the presumption of the fall of America from super power status is not only a principle of “new liberalism,” but it is seen by many liberals as a desirable objective.  It is part of their desire to “redistribute the wealth.” “Why should one nation be so much more wealthy or powerful than others?” is their normal query.  Because, Krauthammer explains, “We are as benign a hegemon as the world has ever seen.”  And, he goes on to say, “So, resistance to decline begins with moral self-confidence and will.”  It would be helpful if that resistance were coming in part from the Oval Office.

Just as with people, leaders of nations need to be able to look in the mirror and like what they see.  This President appears to neither understand nor appreciate the greatness that is the United States of America.

If Walesa’s indictment is correct, and his perception is shared by other seekers of freedom around the globe, then a woeful day has come.  If there is no longer a beacon of moral and political leadership, to whom does the world turn?  Who can the weak, the oppressed, and desperate of the world count on, not to mention our allies, if not America when something goes wrong?  If as Walesa says, “Today, we lost that hope,” is the free world condemned to hopelessness?

I think more of America.  I think of an America that is the hope for her own citizens as well as the countless millions around the world that will never have the blessing of even stepping on American soil or relish American freedom, but understand America is their friend and the dream they hold in their heart.

I think of an America like Natan Sharansky did as he suffered in the Soviet Gulag in 1983.  “One day, my Soviet jailers gave me the privilege of reading the latest copy of Pravda. Splashed across the front page was a condemnation of President Reagan for having the temerity to call the Soviet Union an ‘evil empire.’ Tapping on the walls and talking through toilets, word of Reagan’s “provocation” quickly spread through the prison.  The dissidents were ecstatic.  Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth – a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us.”

Walesa’s indictment that the America has lost our moral and political leadership position in the world should pain every patriot.  We can debate if Walesa is correct, but if a leader of his stature believes that to be true, then the damage is done.

America rose to her position of pre-eminence because of the greatness of her people, and yes, the spirit of her people as represented through some fine leaders.  That spirit is again awakening, I pray, in the citizen uprising across the nation in recent months.  It is a healthy revival, indeed the beginnings of a revolution of patriotism.  You can hear the cry, “Mr. President, you can keep your change.  I want my Country back!”  And, the free people of the world await a recommitment to greatness of the United States of America.