The American Spectator

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Streetcar Line

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Such language is not "Bible thumping." It should not be seen as an affront to anybody. It is part of our culture and our everyday tongue, part of the warp and woof of our lives. It is unifying. And there was a time when even those who do not believe in God understood that it did no harm for others to ask for God's blessing upon us all.

There are all sorts of explanations, but no good reasons, for our culture today to seem fractured, Balkanized. If done correctly, and with sincerity, appeals to our commonality should be able to work as well as they always have before. When and if we are reminded of it, Americans still will recognize that we are uniquely united by a set of ideas -- that our nationality is a matter of conscious choice, conscious subscription to the notion that governments "derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." And that the governed enjoy God-given and unalienable rights.

Any leaders who appeal to these overarching themes of our heritage in an unforced, humble, duty-filled conversation with the American people will be leaders to whom Americans respond well. Gerald Ford, not commonly remembered as the most eloquent of men, provided eloquent testimony to those truths.

We all should strive to find ways in our own lives to do the same.

topics:
Constitution, Law