THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 243, November 16, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THREE CHEERS FOR DECENCY!
THE ELECTION OF 2004 AS A VICTORY FOR DECENCY
By Alan Caruba
THE ELECTION OF 2004 & AMERICA'S COMMONLY HELD VALUES OF DECENCY -- THE 2004 ELECTION AS A RENEWAL OF
AMERICA'S COMMITMENT TO MORAL VALUES, TO LIBERTY, & TO THE NATION'S MISSION OF SPREADING CONSTITUTIONSL
DEMOCRACY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
FULL STORY:
“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
American colonies’ subordination to England and its king.
What Leftist 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 2004 election was a victory for decency.
I’m not talking about the puritanical definition of decency that would close strip joints or that finds pornography offensive. I’m
talking about the kind of decency that knows Hollywood does not represent the America in which Americans 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” -- the revolt against schools where the mere mention
of God sends chills of fear through school administrators, and against 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 understand in ways that Liberal Leftists cannot 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 understand 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 constitutional democracy throughout the world.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Morality, Decency, & Traditional American Family Values
Marriage, Family, & Society
Religion, Secularism, & America
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center,
and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly
column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center
(www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past columns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition
to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States,
both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 28 West Third Street, Apartment 1321, South Orange, New Jersey, 07079.
Copyright 2004 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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