The United States Navy Blue Angels perform a flyover as President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump participate in a Fourth of July celebration Friday, July 3, 2020, at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in Keystone, S.D. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)
In what sounded like a familiar Fourth of July ode to liberty and U.S. achievement, President Donald Trump delivered a speech that could be labeled “Cancel Culture”, or what Roger Kimball refers to as the politically correct culture of intolerance.
The Intolerance of Cancel Culture
Roger Kimball writes in American Greatness, cancel culture is “the malignant inversion of liberalism’s defining virtues, openness and tolerance. It is born of historical ignorance and a stunning lack of empathy—an ironic fact, since one of the chief premises of cancel culture is its own supposed superior sensitivity.”
Cancel Culture – the Very Definition of Intolerance
In South Dakota, President Trump referred to “cancel culture” as “the very definition of totalitarianism” saying it is “completely alien to our culture and our values.” It’s a weapon, he said, to drive people from their jobs, to shame dissenters, and to demand total submission from anyone who disagrees:
It should have “absolutely no place in the United States of America,” said the President.
And here’s where Trump’s speech, Mr. Kimball notes, took on a steely seriousness.
“This attack on our liberty must be stopped, and it will be stopped.”
End Cancel Culture
In short, the President has promised to cancel cancel culture. Is that a contradiction, a violation of the spirit of tolerance he has promised to uphold?
No, offers Kimball.
The enemies of civilization routinely use and abuse its freedoms in order to destroy it. Candid men understand this and act to prevent it.
President Trump’s 3 July Speech:
- The Left is “determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage.”
- I am deploying federal law enforcement to protect our monuments, arrest the rioters, and prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law.”
- I am pleased to report that yesterday, federal agents arrested the suspected ringleader of the attack on the statue of Andrew Jackson in Washington, D.C.—and hundreds more have been arrested.”
- We want free and open debate, not speech codes or cancel culture.
Social Justice Is Moral Blackmail
Mr. Kimball reminds readers that Trump’s referencing “social justice” as the equivalent of “moral blackmail” is as good as anything Friedrich Hayek said about that portmanteau instrument of intimidation and meritless virtue signaling.
“The radical ideology attacking our country advances under the banner of Social Justice.
But in truth, it would demolish both justice and society. It would transform justice into an instrument of division and vengeance, and it would turn our free and inclusive society into a place of repression, domination, and exclusion.”
1st Obligation – Take Care of Citizens
Trump said Government’s first obligation is “to care for its own citizens first.”
The Ruination of the Black Family
It has often been pointed out that black lives do not matter to the Black Lives Matter movement, which is really just a gigantic machine for hoovering up money from left-wing donors.
It is a sad irony indeed that Black Lives Matter is explicitly dedicated to the destruction of the nuclear family—it’s part of their mission statement—since the ruination of the black family, actively abetted by the Democrats’ welfare policies, is largely responsible for the continuing plight of black Americans.
“The gospel of the radicals assailing our society today is a gospel of self-abasement,” Mr. Kimball notes.
The president preaches a different message:
“We stand tall, we stand proud—and we only kneel to Almighty God.”
