Now and again, it is wise to forget the ebb and flow of political inanities, and think hard – about philosophical underpinnings, who we are, why we are what we are, whether we are true to who we think we are. Today is that day. Judgment is easy, reflection hard.
We are at an edgy moment. There have been others. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and their peers faced a big one. Lincoln and his “band of rivals” faced another. Ours is almost as consequential, but quieter. We are in a moment that demands good judgment.
In this moment, for many reasons and when faith is scarce, good judgment is vital. It depends –as our Founders and Lincoln clearly wrote –on faith. Emotionalism and misjudgment are easy.
There is a real difference between evil intent and decisions aimed at advancing goodness that fall short. There is a difference between ideological blindness and those advancing moral ends who occasionally stumble. To do so – in any venue – is human, does not invalidate good intent.
To fail in a good endeavor, finding yourself wishing for a better path, does not make your efforts less good. Put differently, the Left argues for ends undermining society, while the Right may fall short but advances a goal that is sound, solid, and morally compassed.
Let’s go deeper. Only a morally compassed society understands this distinction. The beginning of the end is the failure to see the distinction. Washington, Adams, and Franklin all warned us.
A society that begins to fracture by failure of judgment, imprecise thinking, and no clear moral compass –stepping away from sacred traditions that produced its greatness, biblical truths, and ready conscience – is bound to fracture.
Our Founders all knew this because they saw it in living color, how fractures become fissures, fissures canyons, canyons chasms that are continental, seemingly unbridgeable, become so.
So, how does a society – nation, state, or community – prevent this terrible, potentially irreversible, life-changing outcome? By recognizing early on the truths that bind the society together to this point, the sources of strength – sources of wisdom that preserve respect.
Hating each other, hating a leader who seeks goodness – and instead pushing to undermine him and his liberty-loving philosophy to consolidate power, reduce liberties, is a cancer, early-stage societal dissolution.
Needed is a return to good judgment, mercy, humility, reflection, recognition of a loving God’s work in our lives, without whom there would be no peace, hope, conscience, or respect.
Needed is the understanding that a destined society – and America’s always has been – fights evil with unblinking conviction, as in WWII, but does not misidentify evil, does not impute malice where there is none, never forgets the imperative, biblical, historic, and society-saving truths.
One of the most timeless imperatives is this – to assess with clarity and to critically appreciate that all who strive valiantly may fall short, that political, social, and business leaders make errors, but that a society with a future – a destined society – fights real evil not false evil, and constantly self-educates, seeks self-awareness, finds and holds firm to faith, forgives the errors of our well-intentioned.
Just as good parents, teachers, and employers see and understand this, so must good citizens in a society destined to survive the inevitability of human frailties…We cannot default to misjudgment, rashness, hate, violence, or mindless condemnation of those who lead with good intentions. If we keep that truth close, our future is long. If we forget it, we are in peril.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
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