Remember the four freedoms

Photo credit: Vladimir Astapkovich/AFP via Getty Images

We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 6, 1941

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Donald Trump libeled the United States in an all caps post that evidenced his narcissism, madness, arrogance, ignorance and corruption.

There is not a single elected Republican member of the US House or US Senate who has risen to denounce and condemn his slander. There is not a single one that has risen in defense of the United States.

Why? What are they afraid of?

It is appalling. The silence conveys sloth, decay and societal corruption in the eyes of America’s adversaries and enemies. They interpret what they see as weakness, and weakness always invites predation.

Slightly more than 85 years ago, the world’s democracies were evaluated as weak, corrupt, “Jew-infested” and crippled. An alliance of militarism, fascism and dictatorships sought to overturn the world order, and establish a new one in which human misery and slavery were to be the backbone of their triumph. They were blind, and in the end, they were annihilated by a vast coalition of free men and women.

The war that they instigated remains the greatest tragedy in the history of human civilization. The world that emerged from the ashes has not been freed of misery, despotism or oppression, but more people live in freedom and prosperity than at any time in history because of the triumph of the Allied powers who fought to preserve human dignity and freedom.

Thousands of miles from the Washington, DC, reality show, the Russian war criminal Vladimir Putin and Chinese President for Life Xi Jinping have met, and declared their intention to topple the US-led global order.

The world order foreseen by China and Russia is something that will plunge civilization towards the darkness. The abyss they seek to take the world over leads to the destruction of human freedom and dignity  The Russian and Chinese states  
are ruthless and savage. They have embraced barbarism, murder, torture, organ harvesting, child kidnapping, rape, murder and lies as their national values. They are predator states that seek confrontation because they despise the concepts around which the US-led system is organized.

The architect of the global order, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is the greatest American of the 20th century. He articulated America’s values at a time of growing crisis in January 1941 at the State of the Union. His address was filled with none of the banalities and platitudes that are endemic to modern state of the unions. It ranks as one of the great addresses in American history. It is remembered as the Four Freedoms speech. These excerpted words are as relevant in 2023 as they were in 1941:

This great cause should be renewed and reinvigorated. This is America’s mission, and it should be the foundation of our foreign policy.

The Russian/Chinese vision is bleak. Here is an excerpt from the Tom Lantos Foundation detailing the criminality and evil of the Chinese regime:

It is well past time for America’s political leaders to speak directly, clearly and forcefully around the stakes for free people everywhere. The world is dividing into opposing systems again, and they are not equal. One is flawed, while the other is evil. Among the West’s greatest corruptions is the inability of so many to tell the difference.

Today’s news is filled with stories of political extremism, media corruption and business corruption that create an aggregate dismal and depressing snapshot. Yet, the idiocy of America’s politicians, the avarice and irresponsibility of its CEOs and the dishonesty of so much of its media are fundamentally irrelevant towards the true strength of the society. American strength is rooted in freedom, and like always, the destiny of the nation is in the hands of its people — not its plutocrats and politicians.

Franklin Roosevelt was the visionary behind the Atlantic Charter, the United Nations, the Four Freedoms and the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which was his wife Eleanor’s greatest legacy. He was close with the Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King who, like Winston Churchill, would be a frequent guest in the White House during the Second World War. The two leaders were talking late into the night, and FDR was outlining his vision for what would come after victory. He said something chilling from the perspective of 2023. He said that nothing lasts forever, and that included his vision for the future. He told King that he hoped it would endure for as long as everyone who was alive on the day the war was won was still alive. The youngest of those people are 77 years old today. We have arrived at the hinge of history yet again.

The great door is swinging open towards a new and dangerous era. It must be met with the same energy, confidence and optimism with which our ancestors met their challenges and fulfilled their duty.

FDR didn’t live to see final victory and the final destruction of the Axis nations, but he knew the outcome was certain. He also knew the peace was not permanent. It is in our hands now. We had best measure up. If we fail, the darkness will fall, and it will be a long night before the dawn breaks again.

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