OPINION:
Last month’s release of the Trump video demonstrates our culture’s drift from the Judeo-Christian values on which our nation was based. Jesus’ “Gift of Forgiveness” makes privately uttered, inappropriate statements of 11 years ago, for which regret has been expressed, irrelevant. But our culture is in a tug of war between His values and secularism.
Donald Trump calls for an end to the war on Christianity, but Hillary Clinton on April 15, 2015, at the Women in the World Summit in New York City declared that Christians need to change their beliefs saying, “Deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”
Mrs. Clinton wants to repeal the Hyde Amendment, prohibiting taxpayer-paid abortions. Mr. Trump pledges to repeal the Johnson Amendment, which censors pastors’ political expressions. Mr. Trump’s Internal Revenue Service would not threaten pastoral political speech. Little Sisters of the Poor would not be forced to pass out abortion pills.
WikiLeaks revealed emails among Hillary Clinton’s key aides disparaging Catholics and calling for a “Catholic Spring.” Raymond Arroyo, managing editor of EWTN, the global Catholic network said, “For someone to come and say, ’I have a political organization to change your church to complete my political agenda or advance my agenda,’ I don’t know how anybody could embrace that.” Secularism continues its march.
The media kept hidden President Franklin Roosevelt’s affair with Lucy Mercer Rutherford and Marguerite “Missy” LeHand. But pointing out Bill Clinton’s, Jack Kennedy’s or Franklin Roosevelt’s zipper malfunctions or the alleged crudeness of Lyndon Johnson and Winston Churchill is not to excuse Donald Trump’s comment as just “one of the guys.” There is a difference between excusing or defending and forgiving.
It is instead to point out that when Judeo-Christian values were more dominant over secularism the press was more forgiving.
The “War of Who is More Nasty” failed to assess the competing visions on important issues: confronting the global jihad movement; staving off the takeover by the federal government of our private health care system; preserving our nation’s tradition of religious liberty; preserving the right to protect our lives and the lives of our families by maintaining the ownership of guns; and reinforcing the principle that the people, through Congress, make the laws, not the judicial system.
We should have more carefully considered who is best to navigate our economy in a world where other countries do not play by the rules; to stimulate our economy by realigning our corporate tax rate of 38 to 39 percent (third-highest in the world) to bring it more in line with the rest of the world (China: 25 percent, Russia: 20 percent, eurozone countries: 24.5 percent); to reduce the divisiveness that grew in recent years — black against white, gay against straight, poor against rich, women against men, citizens against police.
Who will appoint one to three or four Supreme Court justices with Founding Father-honoring ideals? Should our military be made stronger or kept on its current shrinking trend? Would our country be better off with an open borders policy or immigration laws more consistent with other countries?
But does racism, sexism or “Santa Clausism” make such comparisons irrelevant? Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, “There is a special place reserved in Hell for those women who don’t help other women.” Sexism is very much alive.
Some low-income blacks are not likely to vote for a rich white guy. Racism is not easily eradicated. Our nation’s best interests are even more vulnerable to “Santa Clausism.” A single mom with two children receives the equivalent in government benefits of $30 an hour while average working women at a $50,000 annual rate make $20 an hour. Lenin gained control of Russian society by disabusing citizens of the notion of God, taking away their guns and giving them health care.
But Santa Clausism seems kinder — public housing, Medicaid, food stamps, a telephone and free bus rides to multiple voting stations. Maybe that’s why no ID is required to vote but is necessary to pick up a welfare check.
Author and columnist Kurt Schlichter wrote, “Donald Trump is a vulgar clown unbound to any principle other than his own appetite for adulation,” but then asks, “Name the Democrat who stood up in the wake of James Comey’s honor flush and said, ’This is wrong!’ “
Mr. Schlichter asserts there will be no one, no entity, to hold Hillary Clinton accountable. The rule of law will continue to be missing. Destroying emails after a congressional subpoena? Sanctuary cities? Ignoring federal law by looking the other way when Colorado and other states legalize marijuana? Mr. Schlichter concludes he detests Donald Trump but will vote for him simply to restore the “Rule of Law.”
Which policies more closely match the Founding Fathers’ Judeo-Christian values — civility, integrity, rule of law, servanthood — on which they designed America?
• Foster Friess’ money management firm, Friess Associates, grew to $15 billion in Assets Under Management. He now focuses on “Return to Civility” efforts.
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