by alan Caruba
November 17, 2004
"We have this day restored the Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and…from the rising to the setting sun, may His Kingdom come," wrote Samuel adams, after signing the Declaration of Independence that would sever the colonies’ subordination to England and its king.
What liberals either forgot or just never knew is that america began with groups of people seeking to practice their religion free of the oppression of English and European monarchies. all of its Founding Fathers were men who openly expressed a deep faith in the Creator and, mindful of the nation’s beginnings, insured that all people of faith could enjoy the protection of the law. at the time, it was a radical departure from the past.
Plainly said, the election was a victory for decency.
I’m not talking about the puritanical definition of decency that would close strip joints or finds pornography offensive. I’m talking about the kind of decency that knows Hollywood does not represent the america in which they live and want to raise their children. It’s the kind of decency expressed every day in the support americans give to worthy causes that help other americans and causes that reach out across the world to help complete strangers.
It’s a decency that can be seen in the growing revolt against schools that waste their student’s valuable time teaching them how to put on a condom or which deem homosexuality simply "an alternative lifestyle." Schools where the mere mention of God sends chills of fear through administrators. and schools where "mental health" programs would initiate the coercive use of mind-altering drugs and a lifelong indoctrination and control of what one thinks.
None of us are angels, but lots go to church or synagogues seeking inspiration to live our lives according to moral codes that have served civilization well since its earliest days. Even those who do not regularly attend places of worship subscribe to commonly held values of decency.
Millions of americans understood in ways that liberals could not that this nation is spending its treasure and shedding its blood because we are, as President Bush said, in a battle between "good and evil." They understood that Osama bin Laden and the movement he represents must be defeated, not merely treated as "a nuisance" or problem for the courts. We tried that. It didn’t work.
Just as americans sought to redress the evils of slavery and, in the 1960s, extended real equality to Blacks, they have demonstrated over and over again a remarkable level of tolerance. Homophobia exists, but the lynchpin of the election was a rejection of demands by the Gay community that they had a "right" to marry. Eleven States voted to protect traditional marriage and in two of them voters preferred Kerry.
I am old enough to remember when some thought that rock’n roll would doom my generation to lives of licentiousness. Many parents worry that today’s MTV generation is experiencing a very different and corrosive message than the Beatles chaste request when they sang, "I want to hold your hand."
The election gave americans an opportunity to review our involvement in the Vietnam War during a time when the Cold War pitted us against the expansion of Communism. Many concluded that those who fought that unpopular war (and earlier in the Korean conflict) should justly be called heroes along with the "greatest generation" that preceded them. Many took offense at a candidate who portrayed himself as a hero for a scant four months in a combat zone and the swift, manipulative way he escaped his service, returning to denounce his comrades, parroting the party line of the Viet Cong. They found that profoundly offensive. Immoral. Indecent. and, yes, un-american.
The deep desire that yearned for decency manifested itself by rejecting the profligate 1990s and the Clintons who personified it. They considered the price america paid for the defiling of its highest public office and renewed the contract with a man who was unabashedly and unpretentiously a man of moral values
as abraham Lincoln said in the midst of the Civil War, "My great concern is not whether God is on our side. My great concern is to be on God’s side."
So, three cheers for decency! Three cheers for the Red, White and Blue! Three cheers for an america that once again has renewed its commitment to moral values, to liberty, and to its historic mission of spreading democracy throughout the world.
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