In the analyses of presidential primaries this year, one very important point has often been missed, and it’s essential to understanding what’s happening on the political stage in America.
It doesn’t have to do with who has the best policy proposals, is the most electable, is the smartest, has the finest debating skills, or can punch the mainstream media the hardest. It has to do with a broader drama that has been unfolding since the dawn of time. It isn’t anything new, but it is oftentimes forgotten.
It’s the story of good versus evil, the epic journey of humanity between heaven and hell. It’s a tale full of sound and fury, but it signifies everything.
In his important new book, “The Devil’s Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West,” Michael Walsh writes, when you’re looking at political analysis:
[r]ather than getting down in the weeds with the increasingly specialized schools of government (whose mission effectively is to churn out more policy wonks), perhaps it is better to pull back and look at our political history for what it really is: a narrative, with a beginning, a middle and an end that is yet to come. It may at times be a tale told by an idiot; as passions sweep away reason, bad laws are enacted and dire consequences ensue. At other times, it may be a story told by a master craftsman, with twists and turns and reversals and plot points that surprise, delight, enthrall, and appall. Most of all, it is a story with heroes and villains.
This election season is part of that narrative—a drama about human progression, but not in the dualist, leftist sense that leads to a delusional utopia. It’s a story, as C.S. Lewis said, of becoming either heavenly creatures or hellish ones: “Each of us at each moment is progressing toward one state or the other.”
In politics, as in all of life, it’s imperative to see our choices in that context. Distinguishing between heroes and villains is integral to us deciding what kind of society we want to be.
The True Nature of Our Crisis
This is how many voters are looking at the candidates running for president, even if they’re doing it unconsciously. They’re asking, who are the tricksters, the deceivers? Who are the support characters? Who are the healers? Most importantly, who will be the hero, the leader, who will stave off America’s enemies both from without and within? Who will defend her no matter the cost to himself? Who will love her and protect her? Who will heal her from the sickness that has spread throughout her body politic?
They can’t always define the sickness. Is it immigration, federal overreach, the education system, the debt, high taxes, political corruption, activist courts, all of the above? Whatever the issue, the conclusion is the same: America is in trouble. America is in crisis.
But what is the true nature of that crisis? Is it a fiscal crisis? A security crisis? A constitutional crisis? It’s all of these, but so much more. “The crisis in which the United States of America currently finds itself enmeshed is a moral crisis, which has engendered a crisis of cultural confidence, which in turn has begotten a fiscal crisis that threatens—no, guarantees—the destruction of the nation should we fail to address it,” Walsh writes.
This is an important point, because if you don’t see the crisis as a battle between good and evil—a moral crisis, as Walsh explains, that has been created by Leftist German philosophies (Hegel, Marx, Frankfurt School), subverting our culture by luring us into thinking there is no battle between good and evil (only a synthesis of both).
Bipartisanship Is Impossible
You will also fail to grasp what America needs politically and what voters are looking for. They want someone who will stand for objective values, for truth. America doesn’t need a leader who will “reach across the aisle” to compromise. America doesn’t need someone who says one thing but does another. America needs a leader who will fight the good fight, who will stand for what he believes is true and right without apology or shame.
“We frequently hear terms such as ‘bipartisanship’ and ‘compromise’ in the halls of Congress, especially coming from the Unholy Left whenever it finds itself on the short end of an electoral decision,” Walsh writes. “But according to the dictates of narrative, such ‘compromise’ cannot hold, except in the short term—and not even then. I would argue, since compromise, even the smallest things, leads to synthesis, and there can be no synthesis between Good and Evil. As crude as the metaphor goes, one part ice cream mixed with one part dog poop is dog poop, not ice cream.”
Some might argue that this is simplistic, an argument made by a purist, but we don’t have the luxury to sit back and contemplate political shades of gray while our nation is falling apart around us. “A hero given to inaction while he studies the subtleties and nuances of a critical situation is not much of a hero,” Walsh writes.
We don’t need a president who is more concerned about finding some morally relative Hegelian-Marxist synthesis, which is really evil in disguise, than standing for the principles of liberty and justice on which our nation was founded. We’ve had enough of that. We need a president who will boldly distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and falsehood, friend and foe, not someone who hangs in the illusory middle, feigning wisdom, fairness, and strength.
It’s a Battle Between Good and Evil
If you think this year’s election is unusually emotional, it has been—and that’s not a bad thing. Republicans in particular are turning away from the Washington insiders and looking outward. They are looking for someone who won’t compromise, not with enemies within who seek to undermine our liberty by tearing down the Constitution, and not with foreign enemies who want to establish a caliphate either through cunning political schemes in our nation’s capitol or violent jihad here and abroad.
Many voters today instinctively know that our country is locked in a battle between good and evil, and they don’t want to compromise between the two. Our nation’s beginning, while imperfect, was founded on principles of liberty and justice for all. America grew in greatness out of the rich soil of objective morality, not the poison of leftist duality.
The individual was valued over the collective, the family over the state. The church was considered essential to civil society, not derided or dismissed. We have lost our way as evil has infiltrated our nation like a disease. Now communitarian notions are exalted over the rights of the individual, Christianity is attacked instead of protected, and the family is threatened by the state.
This is a battle between good and evil, and there is no place for compromise. It’s why Ben Carson, who now leads in national polls, continues to confound and confuse political junkies who demand data proofs instead of reading the storybook that’s open before them. Like David with his sling before Goliath, Carson refuses to abandon his principles, using the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. Critics laugh at him, saying, “He thinks his ‘good guy’ shtick will work,” failing to grasp it is exactly his goodness that people find compelling. After all, what is more powerful in the battle between heaven and hell than virtue itself?
It’s because of this narrative—this titanic clash between good and evil—that Donald Trump remains one of the frontrunners. He stands like a warrior hero, defying the political gods who have turned deaf ears to the cries of the people. It’s why Marco Rubio is on the rise. He’s the American son who values the American story and wants to save it from destruction by those who cherish neither freedom nor faith.
It’s why Ted Cruz, an insider who’s really an outsider, inspires when he defends our nation’s heritage and Constitution with boldness. He is the freedom fighter, the man who won’t compromise, the dauntless hero who stands alone on the battlefield, doubted even by those in his own ranks. It’s why Carly Fiorina incites applause and support as she faces the Hillary Clinton hydra with Herculean skill.
Stuff Shades of Grey
It’s only when these and others who are running for office compromise, when they sit back and contemplate the so-called complexities of the political landscape and falter in their duty to the American principles of liberty, justice, and truth, that their support wavers. Sorting out the players on the stage, distinguishing heroes from villains, are the ebbs and flows of the election cycle as voters look for a champion who will deliver them from our nation’s moral crisis.
The battle between good and evil is real. We have a political party that chooses to kill millions of babies in the womb and calls it good; violates our Constitution through executive action; makes unholy deals with our enemies and puts our allies at risk; takes money from corporate cronies to increase its power; lies about the deaths of Americans on foreign soil; spends our children’s future with impunity; opens our borders to our enemies; inserts the federal government into our schools, our healthcare, our property, and our homes; mocks our values and traditions; treats everyday Americans (the Tea Party) as if they’re terrorists while treating terrorists (the Muslim Brotherhood) as if they’re everyday Americans; sacrifices religious liberty on the altar of marriage equality; perpetuates the lie that climate change is the greatest threat to our society, robbing our nation of its sovereignty; and cares more about feeding the monster administrative state than nourishing individual liberty.
These—and much more—are the evils that must be defeated. No compromise. No bargains. No deals. The candidate for president who understands this will be the hero we need to pull our country back from the precipice that leads to hell. This is a moral crisis, and one that can’t be ignored by those running for office, the voters, and the pundit class that is so desperately trying to figure out what’s going on. If it is ignored or mischaracterized, we are doomed.
Margaret Thatcher once said, “I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.” This is the clarion call every candidate must heed. If they don’t, they’re not right for America. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.
