A Burkean conservative who strongly believes in America as the beacon-light of liberty and defense for the Free World, I have been in the trenches on this matter ever since the early days of the Cold War…as an aide to the ranking Republican on House Foreign Affairs in the `50s…a supporter of Vietnam with the proviso damnit why don’t we forget what Walter Cronkite says and win it?...a Foreign Service Officer in the late `6os under Nixon…a passionate supporter of the Reagan international policies….and after that a pretty general down-the-line supporter of the Heritage Foundation’s foreign policy…a cheer leader for John Bolton—you get the picture.
In doing so I’ve registered pretty nearly 100% with The Weekly Standard and its lustrous essayists—Billy Kristol…Stephen Hayes…Charles Krauthammer… I read and pretty generally agree with the editorial pronouncements of The Wall Street Journal. In doing so I thought the drill was this: that to get our ideas passed in the Congress, there should be a coalition of forces—people who like me have believed in the aforementioned foreign policy…plus social conservatives like me who passionately share Judeo Christian values.
At least I thought so until some time ago when Dr. Krauthammer, in his sepulchral pronouncements ringing like the voice of God from Mount Sinai, announced that the time has come to relax restrictions against homosexuals serving in the military. To which his younger collaborator Stephen Hayes (a Catholic but who readily supports Krauthammer agreed. Then yesterday on the eve of the Senate vote that would have included ban of “don’t ask don’t tell” another key member of the Save Israel cabal, Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal said the same thing. The vote went against the Democrats but it will come up again…so before it does, I want to say this to Messrs. Krauthammer, Kristol, Hayes and Stephens:
If those of you who are Jewish want to cut loose from what heretofore has been an article of Judeo-Christian values, go ahead. But understand you’re taking my social conservative wing of the coalition we’ve shared, much too cavalierly. Lose us and you’ll just be another group of excitable, lamenting Jews who can’t even command a majority with your own people.
By our creed, support of active homosexuality is morally indefensible. Get that? Morally indefensible. It used to be regarded as exactly that in Jewish Law which you guys have abandoned. Not so with us. If you start courting the gays in the aura of Torah II which is the evasive adoption of liberal secular tenets, by all means call on them to support Israel when you need an ally.
If I know the consciousness of the vocal activist gay community, I think you’ll get turned down. They’re pretty much Left Wing and by their very nature shrink from challenges that you have expected us to muster up for.
If Bret Stephens wants to stir all of us up on the necessity of bombing Iran, he should think of what he’s doing to that coalition. Same with Krauthammer to whom social issues are largely irrelevant.
When Moses came down from the Sinai with the tablets in his hand and found the Jews cavorting in licentiousness around the Golden Calf he was dismayed. And God said: What a stiff-necked people.
For most of you guys, the Golden Calf is arrant, secular hedonistic liberalism. That’s your Torah II. Get over it, my avowedly socially liberal, secular friends or you’ll be very lonely dancing around the Calf when the enemy comes and you have frittered away your allies.
That’s it. Regards.
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*: Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. We named our second son Michael because I was taken with the gallant commander who led God’s armies to victory in the Book of Revelation. Gabriel appears first in Daniel’s vision announcing Michael’s role in God’s plan…then in an appearance to a young Jewish maiden named Mary who consents to carry the Messiah. Raphael has been confined to the Book of Tobit where he guides Tobit’s son Tobiah through a series of adventures culminating in Tobiah’s marriage to Sarah, the healing of Tobit’s blindness and the restoration of the family fortune. Each of them have different missions: Michael protects; Gabriel announces; and Raphael guides.
Tom,
ReplyDeleteYou're a week early. The Feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael (or St. Michael and All Angels as the English refer to it) is on September 29th.