Fifteen years ago today, the President’s Cabinet met to discuss the 9/11 attacks.
The secretary of defense led in prayer: “We pray this day, Heavenly Father, the prayer our nation learned at another time of righteous struggle and noble cause-America's enduring prayer: Not that God will be on our side, but always, O Lord, that America will be on Your side.”
One year later, I had the honor, while serving as Inspector General of the Department of Defense, of escorting Dr. Henry Kissinger through the rebuilt Pentagon.
As retold in my book, “The Inspector General Handbook: Fraud, Waste, Abuse, and Other Constitutional ‘Enemies, Foreign and Domestic’,” I mentioned to Dr. Kissinger that I had recently queried one of his mentors, Dr. Fritz Kraemer, about what Dr. Kraemer thought was the most dangerous “domestic enemy to the United States Constitution.” Dr. Kraemer, who for nearly thirty years had served as a senior Pentagon advisor, unhesitatingly answered with the single word, “Relativism.” Upon hearing this, Dr. Kissinger unhesitatingly replied, “I agree.”
Our culture today is plagued by relativism. Its poisonous effects manifest themselves in everything from harmful policies to threats to our First Amendment. To take it one step further, the moral relativist claims: “there are no absolute truths.” Holding such a belief, however, is simply deceptive, as the holder oxymoronically proclaims, “there is only one absolute truth, and that is that there are none!”
As moral relativism rejects absolute, principle-based values, it is inconsistent with foundational principles and enduring core values of the United States of America.
In the course of impeachment, one congressman referred to Bill Clinton as the “personification of moral relativism.” In this regard, Hillary is at best Bill’s accomplice.
We the people are ultimately responsible for the leaders we choose, and those leaders become an emblem of what we stand for, both at home and abroad.
What if Americans no longer believe in moral standards such as honor, duty, and, in the case of Hillary Clinton, basic honesty? What if Americans were no longer to believe in objective truths, as in, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”?
This is not so far-fetched. We need look no further than the recent example of San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand for the playing of the National Anthem because he decided (based on the flawed yet pervasive drumbeat of the “Black Lives Matter” narrative) that the country for which it stands is “oppressive.”
This is the mantra of the political left, which has ruled pop culture, or at least ruled Hollywood, for decades. We are barraged with the message that holding true to basic values of Western civilization is for the small-minded who “cling to their guns or religion.”
Our universities today train our children to fear making anyone feel uncomfortable. In Orwellian fashion, the few students brave enough to challenge the left’s narrative are labeled as hateful bigots — in Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables.”
In today’s wonderland of the absurd, lawmakers, pundits and scholars arguing in favor of protecting our constitutional right to free speech are censured and ostracized. Their hero, our president, never wastes an opportunity to obfuscate the motivations of foreigners who kill to protect their racist, sexist, and tyrannical beliefs, while apologizing for American greatness.
We are not yet without hope for a cure, but the prospect that any American could even consider Mrs. Clinton for president, given her lying and disrespect for rule of law (even as she lies under oath about lying), shows how infected with relativism we have become.
The Trump agenda of valuing and prioritizing American interests abroad, along with his program to end the importation of immigrant populations who harbor disdain for American values at home, is the much needed antidote. Only a moral relativist could believe that there is no “right” or “wrong” while simultaneously labeling anyone supporting “America first!” as wrong.
In stark contrast to Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump believes in what made America great — exceptional Americans: Americans who are exceptional in their devotion not to government, but to their families, homes, neighbors, faiths, and yes, to their country.
Yes, much damage has been done by Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton, and their left-wing allies channeling Saul Alinsky. But exceptional Americans can make America great again.
In today’s era overrun with moral relativism, it takes courage to draw a line and defend American values. Donald Trump has shown that courage. Do “we the people” still have the courage to stand with him? Or will we take-a-knee with Colin Kaepernick, Hillary Clinton, and those who do not believe this country and our defining principles worth supporting and defending?
Joseph E. Schmitz is a foreign policy and national security adviser to Donald Trump. He served as Inspector General of the Department of Defense from 2002-2005, and is now a partner in the law firm, Schmitz & Socarras LLP. Read more reports from Joseph E. Schmitz — Click Here Now.
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