Former Sen. Zell Miller, Georgia Democrat, describes the crisis of values facing America in his new book, “A Deficit of Decency” (Stroud & Hall, Macon, Ga.). Also author of the 2003 best-seller “A National Party No More,” Mr. Miller is retired to his family home in Young Harris, Ga.
By Zell Miller
With the election of 2004, America’s faith in freedom was reaffirmed. With the re-election of President Bush, America recommitted itself once again to expanding freedom and promoting liberty.
The campaign forced the American people to confront the ghosts of the war in Vietnam even as we considered the threats in today’s world. And in deciding our role, we decided that while we may not be perfect, this country is still a force for peace, for progress and for freedom.
Republicans supporting wartime Democrats and Democrats supporting wartime Republicans long had been a predominant theme in the American body politic. But Vietnam changed all that.
Thirty years later, the post-Vietnam theorists were still stuck in the quagmire of Cambodia. And their tactics were the same. They hoped to achieve their victory by pulling down the president from within rather than defeating the enemy abroad.
They agreed that “regime change” was needed, but regime change here at home. Their battle cry was “the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
In their eyes, the whole process in Iraq was doomed and somehow illegitimate because it was an American process and not an international process. They smeared our allies, saying they were “a coalition of the coerced and bribed.” And then these same critics attacked the president because he did not have more such allies.
Last gasp
Again and again, they came up with ways to blame America. They claimed our liberation of Iraq after decades of the worst kind of cruelty and torture by Saddam Hussein was just part of a sinister oil grab. America, the critics said, had created a breeding ground for terrorism, and they called the new Iraq government “an American puppet.”
It was the last gasp of the post-Vietnam defeatism playing itself out on the national stage.
The voters wondered: “If America is not a liberator, why are our old enemies today free, prosperous and independent? If America creates puppets, why are countries we liberated now free to resist and object? If America is the problem with the world, what would the world look like today without us?”
The voters’ answer Nov. 2, in as resounding a manner as a free people can deliver, was to say that America is what is right with the world. They said that any nation that has done so much for the freedom of strangers, that has brought prosperity and peace to hundreds of millions, that is based on institutions of free elections, free press and self-rule — that nation, with such characteristics and such a record, deserves the benefit of the doubt.
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this last point. The worst aspect of this post-Vietnam mentality was a paralysis of doubt, ingrained in every aspect of America. But when it came to our enemies, they were afforded the benefit from all doubt.
By saying no to the wrong ideology at the wrong time, America dodged a bullet, and a failed dogma is doomed to wither and die on its poisoned vine. The worst belief of America’s past half century has been neutered.
’Best idea of man’
America now has the opportunity to reinvigorate the best idea of man, which is freedom. And that is the core of the Bush Doctrine.
First, America will not hesitate to use force to stop terrorism. Terrorism no longer will be considered a social problem, a political statement or a criminal infraction, but an act of war, met by the force of the free world.
The second part of the Bush Doctrine, which taps the core of who we are as a nation, is liberty itself. Simply put, liberty works. It is not free. It costs. But liberty saves more than it costs.
George W. Bush has infected the Middle East, a region known for enslavement, with an incurable dose of freedom.
In a 1936 speech, before Nazi Germany struck, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill warned: “We must recognize that we have a great treasure to guard. The inheritance in our possession represents the prolonged achievements of the centuries. There is not one of our simple uncounted rights today for which better men than we have not died on the scaffold or the battlefield. We have not only a great treasure, we have a great cause.”
Civilization deserves protection and has earned the benefit of the doubt. We cannot let barbarians use our civility and freedom to destroy civilization and liberty, nor can we let the barbarian sack civilization simply because he knocks gently.
Holding the course for freedom is hard. But with all I’ve learned from study, age and experience, I believe, with every fiber of my body, that there comes a time when a civilization has to choose between good and evil, between freedom and tyranny.
I retired from the Senate heartened that the America of our forefathers made, once again, the right choice for freedom. And I thank Providence above for the wisdom our founders demonstrated by entrusting the direction of this nation to the common man and woman.
Liberty, not license
But, again, I’m worried. Responsibility is the “pay for it” part of my mother’s “take what you want but pay for it” scripture.
License used irresponsibly is the dark side of liberty. License is what happens when personal autonomy is highlighted, elevated and championed, and responsibility is left unexercised.
America has grown fat with license. Liberty can exist only when I choose to pursue my happiness with a voluntary restraint. This sense of restraint is my own personal constitution that helps me know I shouldn’t pursue something just because I want it, if what I want can lead to the undoing of me or us.
You see, the line between liberty and license is thin and gray. And without some drastic changes in the way we act, serve and govern, it won’t be long before license prevails over liberty.
The framers of our Constitution were, in the eyes of world history, betting the farm that if given the chance, we, who are created in the image of God, would recognize the beauty and strength of liberty and restraint. Without each of us recognizing and reaching for our own responsibility, America won’t work.
Part I
Part II
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