President Trump has been assailed by the left for acclaiming “Western values.” Good for him.

Western values do not include racism, anti-Semitism, imperialism, conquest of weaker peoples, exploitation of natural resources, or religious oppression.

These are aberrations of the sources from which Western civilization has arisen.

Yes, the above things have been perpetrated by Western peoples and governments over time. In doing so, however, they have betrayed their own heritage.

First, what is the Western tradition?

Judaism and Christianity, classical culture, confidence in human reason (far too much, at times), and the celebration of scientific investigation have flowed together. They compose a mighty stream of human dignity, ordered liberty, scientific advancement, and general prosperity.

The Bible’s emphasis on equal human value before God joins with the “law written on the heart,” common reason and universal experience. What do they show us? That there is a Creator. That He has endowed with us with certain rights. That these rights include life, liberty, ownership of property. And the pursuit of both virtue in character and fulfillment in vocation.

Differences in How the Left and Right See the West

Now for the qualifier: The West has done many evil things, as noted earlier. Our assertion of our moral honor has been diminished by those evils.

This is where the left’s critique comes in. The left looks at the West and sees a history of abuse, a long trajectory of power wedded with violence. Accusations of hypocrisy fly with bitter contempt. 

The left looks at the past and much of the present and feels anger and grief, not unmixed with optimism. The Right looks at the past and much of the present and feels gratitude and wonder, not unmixed with shame.

Why? Because the left sees man as perfectible. In this view, human failure need not be. 

The Right sees man as noble, bearing within him the image of God. But conservatives also see man as a fallen and finite being, occupied with self-interest, prone to moral error and poor judgment.

The left reviews the West’s misdeeds and sees the bankruptcy of our tradition. Sorrow gives way to self-loathing and a rejection of the foundations of our culture.

The right looks at the West’s misdeeds and stands amazed that so much has been overcome. Slavery, hunger, ignorance, child labor, class-based oppression, imperialism, and more are now memories. Do their effects still haunt us, plaguing Western societies like slow-healing wounds? 

Yes. But our capacity for self-correction is unique in history. And it is grounded in the moral and political foundation the left seems increasingly eager to jettison.

By shattering our own moral foundations, the West risks all. If we reject the idea that our rights come from God, from whom, or what, do they come?  The state? The whim of the people? Think of where this leads — a dead end of dictatorship and coercion.

Britain, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, and the other “Old Country” nations have often failed horribly but have come far. Why? Because of their adherence to a core of common values and beliefs. Now they appear uncomfortable with that core. The question is, with what will they replace it?

Repentant Sorrow, Not Self-Hatred

Constantly beating ourselves over real and imagined failures does nothing but weaken us. Sorrow that produces repentance is productive. Self-hatred is not evidence of regret but sickness. And the West seems steadily more sick.

Recent historians estimate that as many as 750,000 Americans died fighting to end slavery and ensure that representative self-government would not perish from the earth. For 100 more years, we struggled to provide the fullness of dignity and opportunity to persons of color.

We prevented the triumph of fascism twice in the last century at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. We did so not for property or power, but for decency and freedom. 

Did we seize the Philippines, Cuba, and other territory from Spain in 1898? Yes, and our initial military actions in the Philippines was brutal. But we then granted these places their freedom or instituted, as in Puerto Rico, self-government and liberty.

The list could go on. It’s fitting here to quote Colin Powell on America’s being an “evil” power:

Far from being the Great Satan, I would say that we are the Great Protector. We have sent men and women from the armed forces of the United States to other parts of the world throughout the past century to put down oppression. … And did we ask for any land? No, the only land we ever asked for was enough land to bury our dead. And that is the kind of nation we are.

The West Matters

In his speech in Warsaw, President Trump affirmed that the West matters. Here are two short excerpts of what he said:

Americans, Poles, and the nations of Europe value individual freedom and sovereignty. We must work together to confront forces, whether they come from inside or out, from the South or the East, that threaten over time to undermine these values and to erase the bonds of culture, faith and tradition that make us who we are … Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?

As a side-note: The President had the courage to speak of national sovereignty. To internationalists who regard borders as offensive, this alone was enough to cause coronary arrest.

We need borders. Without them, the simple vastness of the area governed will mean oppression in the name of order. “One world” does not mean the end of war or national interest but of freedom and abundance. 

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln asserted that the “central idea in our political system at the beginning was, and until recently continued to be, the equality of men. And although it was always submitted patiently to, whatever inequality there seemed to be, as a matter of actual necessity, its constant working has been a steady progress toward the practical equality of all men.”

The equality of men, not fully attained but prized and sought and even fought for. Why? Because we have been made equal by a loving and personal Creator.

This is the foundation of Western values. Is it not something worth upholding and, if need be, fighting and dying for? Previous generations thought so. Do we?