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Character and Principle – The North Star of Our Republic
Diane Alden
Dec. 19, 2000
In his acceptance speech on December 13, George W. Bush said character and principle are paramount to
his future presidency. Unfortunately, the media thought he said that only unity, conciliation and
bipartisanship matter.
The question then becomes is this all moot anyway? All the arguments and partisan infighting, is it all
moot? Do values of character and principle count for anything in United States 2000? Or have we become
a nation of little character and no principle, adrift and caught in the winds of chance, a ship with no
rudder and no direction?
The left, that includes the press, Al Gore, the Clintons and far too many Democrats, think that our basic
principles are "flexible," which means we have become relativists in matters of right and wrong and that
there is no agreement any longer on what those concepts mean. We are only as good and as strong as the
degree to which we can make our opinions the prevailing truth.
Whether we are Republican or Democrat, do we now merely pay lip service to our guiding principles? Do
these principles only mean as much as the last election, the last sound bite by political hacks and
opportunists, the last foolish plan by the control-freak world elite to make the state into the image of a
god?
From the U.N. to various NGOs, Planned Parenthood to Hollywood, among unthinking U.S. politicians of
both parties, American principles are being decided in cold calculation that is destructive to the
intentions of the Founders as seen in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
Because America is no longer sure of herself and her principles, she is open to influences that are not only
destructive to liberty but also downright evil – an evil couched in euphemisms of peace, love,
brotherhood, and the environment. These are nothing but warmed-over collectivist intentions, and those
who believe in them will use police-state methods to accomplish their ends. Anyone who doubts that
should read U.N. Agenda 21 and its list of supporters. That document states that some form of coercion
may be used to get compliance, and there are Americans, especially on the left, who support that
document. This is not American principle, this is new world order totalitarianism.
Since the '60s in particular, America has lost confidence, and as we did, we became vulnerable to every
guilt trip and every folly that came our way. From environmentalism to radical gender and identity
politics, America is lost because it no longer follows its guiding principles.
So it is over the years that Gramscian Marxism, political correctness, new age new world order folly have
marched through our institutions and soured and destroyed our attitudes toward what constitutes liberty.
The politically correct crowd, the progressives and misbegotten idealists, have pushed us, Americans in
favor of the Bill of Rights, into a corner. They did this by telling us our basic beliefs and institutions were
less than perfect and in need of serious fixing, and we believed them.
They accuse conservatives of every vile and cruel aspect of human nature, from being racists and Hitlerian
to being greedy and thoughtless about the poor. The left refuses to recognize the nature of their own
beliefs and attitudes as something less than perfect. They think that they are the idealistic, moral, and
therefore wise and good individuals and movement.
They don't see individuals, they see groups, and that is why they are collectivists and statists. That is why,
in the end, their way will be the only way unless it is brought down. Of all the oddities in the world, the
left, which accuses the right of being totalitarian in its base and core, is more so. It has no clue, nor can it
believe, that it is closer to the fascism of Hitler than it is to the republican and enlightened understanding
of man and governance as laid down in our Bill of Rights and Constitution.
It should come as no surprise, then, that our leftist mainstream media hear President-elect George W.
Bush calling for bipartisanship and unity, but do not hear him mention character and principle.
Bipartisanship and unity is nothing but newspeak informing conservatives and Republicans that they will
have to roll over for a leftist-statist agenda – again.
Half of America voted for Bush and it wants to hear about principle, the Bill of Rights and doing the right
thing by the Constitution and the United States. The other half wants to hear about more stuff from
government and a collectivist agenda. Thus, we are all hearing what we want to hear.
Nonetheless, the problem remains that Bush will have to choose what is most important for this country.
The gray center is unprincipled unity and compliance with whatever the left wants or the media demand –
that same media which will keep harping on GWB's legitimacy as president until he is out of office. They
will demand from him a leftist agenda and demonize him when he performs and acts on conservative
agenda and the people who voted for him.
If George Bush and Dick Cheney pay them any mind at all, what is left of liberty and republican values, or
any notion of this country as a free nation, will be doomed. We will have indeed capitulated to the left's
statist and collectivist ideas and policies and agenda without a fight. This country will have foundered and
lost the last remnants of American principles of freedom for the individual and the blessing of a limited
state.
Now is not the time to talk about bipartisanship. Now is the time to talk about what is right and about
undoing the damage of eight years of someone who has no respect for the Bill of Rights or the
Constitution. Never mind the rule of law, because that is nearly a dead issue. Judges and courts have
trampled the rule of law time and time again, and the Florida Supreme Court is one of thousands of
examples of that fact in our country today.
We have had eight years of corruption and bashing the rule of law by Clinton, Al Gore and Janet Reno, the
Democrats, and many Republicans. We have had eight years of wrangling and stealing and breaking faith
with our basic ideals and institutions. There is no room for bipartisanship on principle at this time. There
is no room for magnanimity in the face of venal corruption and wholesale breaking of the law by the
highest officials in our land.
GWB won with the prayers and support of the great decent people of flyover country. If he forgets that, he
will lose it all in a short time. No one expects perfection from him, but we all want to think that he will
attempt to steer the ship of state back to safe harbor, where the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are the
North Star of our republic.
The rule of the North Star is grounded in its constancy. It is the only star in the heavens that does not
appear to move. Mariners have used it for millennia when there were no other means to set a course. So
you fix your eyes on it and follow it, and if you stay the course, you will find your way home. "For I am as
constant as the North Star, whose true, fixed, and resting quality there is no fellow in the firmament."
(William Shakespeare)
Our North Star represents the republican values of liberty and the rights of the individual over the state,
which include all those values and principles contained in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
Following that star requires steadfastness regardless of those other less constant 'stars' such as security
and selfishness and going along to get along.
It is my fondest hope that GWB will follow and uphold liberty and constitutional republican values,
wherever they may lead us. Only in that way will we find our true selves as Americans and as human
beings.
Follow the North Star of character and principle, GWB. That is what a good captain of any ship lost at sea
would do. Follow that star, and it will lead us home.
(Check out the new interactive zone at www.aldenchronicles.com and additions to the International Beat.
Enter Diane's contest to choose a topic for her upcoming book, write a response to flamer of the week, and
also let her know your opinion about whether Bush should pardon Bill OR Hillary and whether
Republicans should play "let's make a deal.")
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Diane Alden is a research analyst with a background in political science and economics. Her work has
appeared in the Washington Times as well as NewsMax.com, Etherzone, Enterstageright, American Partisan
and many other online publications. She also does occasional radio commentaries for Georgia Radio Inc.
Her e-mail address is wulfric8@bellsouth.net. |
