OPINION:
GRAPEVINE, Texas — Mike Pompeo, former secretary of state under President Donald Trump, sat on stage at the National Religious Broadcasters conference outside Dallas and openly declared that without God, without faith, without his Christian upbringing and continued adherence to biblical teachings — his high-ranking West Point, congressional, CIA, White House achievements, appointments and services, and most all his other successes, would not have been possible.
If only more in politics believed and said similarly, then America wouldn’t be facing a problem with socialism. Communism Cultural Marxism. Collectivism, really.
American parents around the country wouldn’t be standing before their school boards and decrying critical race theory and blasting the teachers’ unions for pushing the curriculum.
America’s citizens wouldn’t be fighting oh-so-hard against the political powers-who-be to stay true to the Constitution, to stand fast on limited government principles, to stay firm on the side of the people, not the parties — because the political powers-who-be would know their place. They would know their humble servant place.
Pompeo said that was key to his four-year stay in a White House that saw many come and go.
“I knew my place,” he said.
Meaning: He didn’t try and use — abuse — his role in the White House for personal gain, for personal ambitions. He simply served. He simply served both president and people.
There’s an oddity in politics today.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer could learn a thing or two about humble service to the people. Yes? So, too, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Dr. Anthony Fauci and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and — and pretty much all the Democrats who’ve pridefully jumped on the coronavirus crisis to press forward unconstitutional clampdowns on individual freedoms, and to continue these clampdowns even as all the truthful science calls them unnecessary. Toss some Republicans into that list, as well. Greed, lust for power, the quest for control — these things know no political bounds.
Pompeo, in his faith — because of his faith — stands apart. After all, it’s hard to be arrogant and set self above others when a belief in God, an afterlife and accountability are the moral compass.
That’s how the Founding Fathers saw it, too, when they called for a limited government while warning such a system would only work so long as the people were virtuous and principled, capable of self-restraint and therefore, self-rule.
More Pompeos.
Fewer Anthony Faucis.
That’s the recipe for America’s long-term success.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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