VICTORY AND CERTAINTY

There are no more glorious days in Washington DC than the one we had last Sunday, April 10. Not a cloud in the sky nor hint of haze, the gentlest of breezes, seventy balmy degrees – and the cherry trees encircling the Tidal Basin of the Potomac in peak bloom.

It’s a long-standing family tradition of ours to make an annual pilgrimage to the cherry blossoms and the Jefferson Memorial (but now with a digital camera…). The statue of Jefferson is placed so that it looks across the Tidal Basin and the Ellipse directly into the White House. The eyes of the author of the Declaration of Independence are always upon the President.

On the inside walls of the monument are inscribed Jefferson’s most famous quotations. It was wonderful to see throngs of young children staring up in awe and reading the immortal words that created America:

People come from all over the world to see the cherry blossoms, everyone enjoying them in a mood of peace and serenity. Every problem on earth seemed so far away. Here were folks from dozens of cultures and countries happily together sharing blissful beauty. It felt so good on such a day to be American.

Of course, every day offers an opportunity to be proud to be an American – that’s what it means to be patriotic. The distinction between patriotism and its antithesis is that between people who are proud, as opposed to embarrassed, to be American. By and large today, most of the folks who are the former are Republican conservatives, while the latter are Democrat liberals.

It didn’t used to be that way. A clear demonstration of this lies right across Independence Avenue from the Tidal Basin at the newly-opened World War II Memorial. There, inscribed in stone are these words of FDR:

No matter what else a contemporary conservative may think of FDR, he was not embarrassed to be American. It is inconceivable that a modern liberal, his brain filled with the goo of moral relativism, multicultural diversity, and the compulsion to Blame America First, could demand that America’s “righteous might” achieve “absolute victory” over its enemies.

George Marshall, author of the Marshall Plan, was no conservative either, and would be shocked at the slightest hint that a “patriotic Democrat” could someday be an oxy-moron. Here is his quote inscribed for all the world to witness:

Try to envision the reaction of the New York Times if George W. Bush made that statement about America’s War on Islamofascist Terror.

What characterizes these statements by Marshall and FDR is moral certainty, the sure and certain conviction that America was in the right and the Nazis and Imperialist Japanese were in the wrong with no doubt or equivocation. The “Greatest Generation” of Americans was called such because its members were motivated by this conviction.

Today’s Democrats are incapable of such certainty (with one exception: the sacred right of a mother to murder her unborn children). Not only are they incapable of it, they are terrified of it, believing it to be the path to tyranny. This is why the Democrats of today are incapable of defending America – indeed, of even passionately wanting to defend America.

What Liberals need to understand is that moral relativism was Benito Mussolini’s rationale for fascism:

If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and those who claim to be the bearers of objective immortal truth, then there is nothing more relativistic than Fascist attitudes and activity. From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, we Fascists conclude that we have the right to create our own ideology and to enforce it with all the energy of which we are capable.

Americans will never entrust their security to a president who doesn’t grasp this, who embraces moral relativism and rejects moral certainty – or at least seems to. If a Liberal Democrat arose to embody the undiluted patriotism of FDR, the door to the White House would be open to him – or her – especially if he – or she – could convince most folks such an embodiment was real while slyly winking to the liberal elite that it’s a con.

So don’t be surprised to see Hillary Clinton hold a press conference some day at the World War II Memorial, point to these quotes of FDR’s and Marshall’s, and announce that she is the one to lead America forward to victory and security. We are dealing with someone here who has no moral convictions except a Nietzschean Will to Power. She will campaign on a platform of American victory and a pose of certainty in American virtues. Hollywood will be able to tell she’s acting – but will the rest of voting America?