‘A civilization to be proud of …’
“Here’s why the original neocon thinkers — people such as Irving Kristol, James Q. Wilson, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan — can be so helpful right now: They focused their attention on the bloody crossroads where morality and politics intersect. They saw politics through the lens of not only polling and social-science data, but also literature, philosophy, psychology and theology.
They asked the big questions — not just How can we win the next election? but How can we create a civilization to be proud of? The moral and spiritual tenor of their political writings could be a tonic for a society in moral and spiritual crisis.”
In bed, reading magazine articles and nearing sleep, I snapped awake when I read this paragraph by David Brooks in the January issue of The Atlantic. Brooks, in his own words, has “a moderate conservative political philosophy informed by thinkers like Edmund Burke and Alexander Hamilton.” He’s worked for newspapers most consider conservative (The Wall Street Journal) and most consider liberal (The New York Times). By my estimation, those are pretty good bona fides to qualify him as not tied to any party but rather a deep thinker.
But it was that one line in the article’s opening paragraph that jolted me out of my sleep: “How can we create a civilization to be proud of?”
Donald Trump hasn’t led us to this place where 70% of American youths don’t believe in the American dream — a vision that life will be more prosperous and more fulfilling than previous generations, and that anyone can rise to the top through hard work and education no matter their background or ethnicity. No, Trump’s win is a result of the nation we have become.
Over the last 50 years, America has lost a shared sense of humanity and culture and a vision of what this country stands for. Knowledge of religion, history, literature and the arts has been devalued. The moral threads of our civilization that held us together have frayed.
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We have always been a rambunctious and impetuous country. Since our founding, that has been a part of our calling card, but those attributes were always tempered by our a sense of honor, ethics, integrity and the value placed on education, science and knowledge.
No more. Trump embodies the basest attributes of American capitalism and modern culture, untethered to religion or honor, a brute wrecking ball swinging wildly on the world stage with no concern about how his actions will play out in the long run. He complains about not getting respect but can’t understand why his whiny, self-indulgent tirades prevent anyone from genuinely respecting him.
But I am hopeful that he represents the tipping point, that post-Trump we will never again elect someone who believes that the rapacious use of power coupled with shameless greed are the necessary tools of leadership.
Our country is in a strange and uncertain place that is about so much more than politics or who wins the next election. It’s about how the United States regains its footing, how we come out of this current divide with a vision for what we should stand for as a nation. Do we really want to embrace the masculine Machiavellian tone of this administration’s attitude toward the Western Hemisphere, the ridiculously-called “Donroe Doctrine,” with its overtones of colonialism powered by CIA-led late-night raids?
Do we really want to completely wreck our post-WWII relationships that said to the world that the U.S. and its allies stand for the rule of law, individual liberties and democratically elected governments, and will fight to the death for these values when challenged?
The next several years will say a lot about who we are as a people, as a nation. Will we stand for humanity, morality, honor and truth and strive to be a “civilization to be proud of?” Or, as we stand on the precipice, will we fall to the wrong side? Only time will tell.
(Scott McLeod can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
