A couple of weeks ago I argued that the Obama presidency was a failure. On both the domestic and foreign fronts, it did not live up to expectations. Even so, millions of Americans continue to defend this flawed record. They actually credit it with moving us forward.
Last week I continued by stressing the current threats to interpersonal trust. I explained that no large nation can maintain its integrity when strangers are routinely suspicious of one another. As long as people habitually question the moral reliability of unknown others, they have difficulty collaborating on joint efforts.
Today I wish to emphasize how destructive the perversion of American values has become. When our shared moral commitments are in danger of collapsing, so is our ability to unite. And make no mistake—thanks to liberalism, this collapse is well advanced.
Once capitalism was considered morally superior to socialism. But no more. Once freedom was held in higher regard than complete equality. Yet this too has changed. Religion was likewise once honored, but has recently fallen into disrepute. None of this is good.
On the other hand, men were previously deemed superior to women, whites superior to blacks and straights superior to gays. This was unfair and called out for reform. Nevertheless turning moral ranking on its head created a travesty. It arbitrarily reversed the partiality. As my mother used to say: two wrongs do not make a right.
Utterly perverse, however, has been regarding criminals as superior to the police, illegal immigrants as better than American citizens, unwed parents as morally advanced, and Palestinian rioters as fairer than Israelis. These caricatures recklessly identified pseudo-victims as moral arbiters.
Liberalism, in an effort to protect the oppressed, misguidedly converted them into the moral oppressors. It thereby endorsed the retaliation of historical sufferers against their once-upon-a-time persecutors. Paradoxically, instead of reversing previous injustices, this introduced new ones.
Sadly, the transformation of morality into an Alice through the Looking Glassfarce undermined our most crucial principles. Honesty, personal responsibility, fairness, liberty, and family values were all placed in jeopardy by scurrilous efforts to undo past wrongs.
Consider honesty. The media have gone to great lengths to deny irrefutable facts. In the process, they became cover-up artists extraordinare. To illustrate, lately they accused president Trump of calling all immigrants “animals,” when he was plainly referring to MS-13 thugs. Then they refused to retract this slur.
As for personal responsibility, liberals want this transferred in toto to the federal government. They thus lobby for unelected bureaucrats to oversee individual incomes, gender roles, and medical care. If nearly everyone were on welfare, food stamps, or social security, the leftists would jump for joy.
Meanwhile, these progressives redefined fairness to imply that favored constituencies deserve special rules. Double standards have become the norm. One only has to observe the contrasting manner in which the FBI handled the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump matters.
Each of these moral transgressions was facilitated by an assault on our liberties. Every time we turn around, liberals champion rules to subvert our ability to make free choices. Truth-telling about race and gender, personal responsibility regarding health issues, and even-handed legal administration have all been compromised by politically correct attacks on free speech.
Finally, family values have been thoroughly trashed. Liberals did not invent the decline in marital standards. This can be laid at the feet of modernity. But they did little to reverse the trend. Indeed, by celebrating what they depicted as diversity, they threw the welfare of our children into the gutter.
This is nothing less than a tragedy. What is more, it is a tragedy that has been compounded by the disinclination of a moral majority to fight back. Capitalism is not morally inferior to socialism. Nor ought old-fashioned American virtues be subordinated to non-judgmental claptrap.
Once Richard Nixon appealed to a silent majority to defend our traditions. The Tea Party similarly mobilized voters to support fiscal responsibility. Where have these impulses gone? Where are the strident voices crying out for a return to moral good sense?
If ordinary Americans do not rise to the defense of our moral heritage, our nation is doomed. Morality that is not lived is morality that dies. Virtue when disrespected is virtue no more.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University
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