Look at any coin in your pocket, and you will find our core American values printed right there:
1) Liberty;
2) In God We Trust; and
3) E Pluribus Unum.
Liberty is each person’s essential right: the ability to live as they desire; to think and speak their true mind; to pursue their vocations and avocations; and to reap the benefits of their labors as their just reward. Liberty is the right to believe what you want and to worship as you desire.
‘In God We Trust’ is the basis for a just and moral society. God and God’s Commandments are the ultimate standards and the moral compass for humanity. They command us to care for each other and our world. They require us to seek justice. Mankind’s ability to reason is not a moral value–it is merely a tool we employ in our tasks of living. When ‘reasoning’ (in the form of ideology) is substituted for God-inspired morality, it can be used to justify Evil, as we have seen in the massive massacres of the 20th century.
E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One). America is unique in its acceptance of all who wish to become an American, to share in our heritage and in our destiny. This becoming implies a sharing of our values as well. It does not nullify one’s previous national identity and culture, but seeks to encompass them within a new identity and national purpose.
These American values underlie our founding documents–the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. They have served us well for over two centuries.
The Left, however, has a different perspective. A material equality among groups is more important to them than any conception of Liberty. To achieve that equality–one of outcomes rather than of opportunity–they believe that the State, not the People, is the repository of a supreme power to control everything, including the ownership of major industries and the regulation of all kinds of services. In their view, the State can take from us what we have rightfully earned and redistribute it in order to reduce inequality. Sterling examples of how well this doesn’t work can be seen in Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and the former Soviet Union. These cases show that the ‘elites’ and party bureaucrats who run the system always end up as the greatest beneficiaries of the ‘redistribution.’ To achieve such redistribution requires a powerful, totalitarian regime. It demands conformity of speech and politically correct thought. It undertakes to create a revised national historical saga, such as the 1619 Project, to legitimize the theft of individual liberty their agenda entails.
God has no place in the vision of the Left. Its morality is based on the principle that “the ends justify the means.” By contrast, God-fearing people do not burn down their cities. They do not riot and shoot down their fellow citizens. They do not destroy or steal what others have rightfully earned. They see their compatriots as like themselves, created in God’s image and therefore deserving of respect, not of being vilified as “deplorables.”
E Pluribus Unum is anathema to the Left! They thrive on the politics of division. Instead of one from many, they stress our differences and emphasize multiple antagonistic groups, in the interests of ‘diversity.’ Such groups compete to maximize their perceived victimhood, all the while denying the reality of opportunity for all. The Left doesn’t want to see or hear of minority success stories; they see only victims, clients for the Left’s ideology, which never seems to produce the promised benefits. They need all these victims to see the State as their savior and provider, but their real interest is only sustenance for their own political power.
The upcoming election is not about leadership, healthcare, the Supreme Court or other issues of the day, as the media and the politicians would have us believe. More importantly, it’s about these two visions of American Values–that of the Founders and that of the contemporary Left. That is why the stakes are so high, and virtually existential. Our American Values are gravely threatened.