Fight Muslim terror from righteous indignation, not hate

'Destiny of all humanity' hinges on Americans' actions

By Alan Keyes

I'm sure my readers have noticed that I often refer to the logic of America's Declaration of Independence, not just the words. Words are like building materials for a house. Logic provides the rules by which reason governs human understanding, structuring words so that they accurately convey the subject or object they are supposed to reflect. To do so, the words must be arranged in accordance with the perceived nature of the subject or object, which is to say, its way of being, humanly understood. This way of being humanly understood constitutes the meaning of the words. When it comes to human affairs, therefore, the term "human understanding" goes beyond the inward activity of the mind. It encompasses outwardly-appearing human actions and activities consequentially informed by that meaning.

In this sense, both the U.S. Constitution and the actions and activities of government according to its provisions are supposed to enact the meaning of the words of the Declaration of Independence. They are literally supposed to be instances of its logic as applied to the citizen affairs of the people of the United States. That this was the intention of the framers of the Constitution is easily confirmed with reference to the most famous work undertaken by its advocates in support of its ratification. The Federalist Papers began with "observations which were meant to introduce a candid survey of the plan of government reported by the convention." In that survey, the subject first in order is conveyed by the title of the article with which it begins: "The Conformity of the Plan to Republican Principles":

The first question that offers itself is, whether the general form and aspect of the government be strictly republican. It is evident that no other form would be reconcilable with the genius of the people of America; with the fundamental principles of the Revolution; or with that honorable determination which animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.

The "principles of the Revolution" are thus the central preoccupation of the question that had first to be considered by those who advocated for the plan of government enacted in the Constitution ratified by the people of the United States in 1788. The American Declaration of Independence epitomizes the "principles of the Revolution." When patriots risked and gave their lives on the battlefields of the War for Independence, the words and logic of the Declaration conveyed the cause that gave meaning to their sacrifice.

The central importance of the Declaration is clear in the fact that we celebrate the common identity of the people of the United States on the day the words and logic of the Declaration of Independence were formally agreed upon on behalf of the good people of the United States, not on the day the Constitution was finally ratified. The Declaration expresses the soul of the American nation, the substance of our common conscience and hope that is not subject to amendment. This is because it acknowledges the unchangeable premises of justice proclaimed by God, not by any act of merely human will.

As I write these words, events are compelling people in the United States to accept the truth our so-called "leaders" have, with malice aforethought, sought with sundry lies to dissemble. A war that threatens our very existence as a nation is under way, and has been for many years. Terrorists, who define their cause and justify their crimes against humanity with the words and strictures of the Muslim religion, comprise the violent vanguard of the forces arrayed against us. But the war also involves moral, economic, and political offensives aimed at corrupting our moral will, dissipating our material resources, and eviscerating our political institutions, until nothing is left of our common existence except our fear, our enmity, and our grief.

Quisling leaders in both the Democratic and Republican parties have connived at various aspects of the offensives being mounted against us. Others, though not consciously committed to the destruction of our decent liberty, have, through ignorance or weakness of will and conviction, given indispensable support to their treacherous agenda. The latest terrorist assaults, however distorted by the prevarications of the media, mark the transition to the penultimate stage of the general offensive under way against the United States.

People still loyal to the principles of God-endowed right and the Constitution designed to enact these principles need open their eyes to the existential threat posed by the war being waged against our country. For many, this will require a revolution in their thinking, like the one that preceded the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. As John Adams wrote:

What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760-1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington. (Letter to Thomas Jefferson, Aug. 24, 1815).

To achieve this revolution, Americans must see past the "leaders" who refuse to invoke God's justice, but come to us now, their lips dripping with enmity against Muslims, illegal immigrants, and others against whom they invite us to release our anger and our hate. Rather, there is a passion we must call upon to rouse our courage in defense of our nation, the righteous passion that calls upon us to remember the cause that has defined our common hope, our common aim, since the beginning. It is the cause of justice God defined: the cause of equal right, defined by our commitment to do right as God determines it for all humanity, not just demand specious goods, intended for ourselves alone.

During the institutional crisis that eventually led to the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, America's founders frequently remarked that by their judgments and actions, Americans could decide, for good or ill, the destiny of all humanity. They said it before the events of the 20th century proved their words to be prophetic truth. Our so-called "leaders" now, across the board, invite us to pretend that we fight for ourselves alone – our lives, our freedom, the restoration of our wealth and power. Perhaps their willful abandonment of our true cause, for all the years since Ronald Reagan left office, has itself contributed to the losses we have suffered in these years of induced decline.

As a people born in the cause of righteous liberty, God-endowed, for all who bear the title of humanity, how can we preserve, protect, and defend the nation that results unless we refresh our dedication to that cause? Time and again, when we remembered our cause, we were able to pass the trials, however stern, of the conflicts brought against us on account of it. With malice toward none, we inflicted woeful damage on our enemies. With charity for all, we nevertheless let it be known that they too would die, as need be, before we let our cause fail.

This matters because, though war may sometimes decide the fate of liberty, peace is still freedom's natural home. Even in the midst of war, we must recall the common hope of humanity for which our nation came to be; we must remember it as the way to peace, which victory alone cannot secure, however thoroughly we vanquish our enemies. The key to peace has nothing to do with enmity, and everything to do with the love that binds us to the benevolent will of God, and so to one another along the common and mutual way He has marked out in us to fulfill.

© Alan Keyes