Inroduction

The most urgent part of the moral crisis besetting America, clearly, arises from the realm of power. Forces more ruthless and unprincipled than have ever had ruled this nation in its more than two centuries of democratic governance now hold sway.

In launching the blog part of this website, I will begin with a presentation of what I believe promises to be the key to an effective strategy to drain power away from these forces, and to help the American people heed again what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.” The essence of this strategy is that we must begin to talk plainly about “the elephant in the room,” that is about the amoral and destructive nature of these forces.

Posted here, below, is a piece I wrote that ran earlier this year (2005)–in New Mexico– as a radio commentary and a newspaper op/ed piece. In this piece, I called upon people who oppose these forces to “take the struggle to the prophetic stage, by which I meant to speak moral truth to –and about– this amoral power.

To do this will be a challenge, at many levels, not only to those of our countrymen who have been seduced by these forces, but also to those who have opposed them. For starters, it requires that we see the true level where the problem is — beyond the political level to the moral and spiritual levels. Most who now oppose these forces see the struggle as one of liberal values against conservative values. But the real struggle that is required now is not that, but rather one between those on both sides of the political divide who genuinely care about values against those who only pretend to.

We on the liberal side of the divide are challenged therefore to get to the place where we can recognize that the idea of “the battle if good against evil” is a profoundly valid idea. And then to speak with the power that comes from that place, a power that comes from the profundity of the realization. To be, in other words, a prophet.

Taking the Struggle to the Prophetic” Stage
by
Andrew Bard Schmookler

There’s good reason why millions of Americans remain deeply upset by this recent presidential election.

It’s not because these ruling forces are so conservative” in their values. Although they have persuaded half of America that they are righteous champions of such values, many of the rest of us can see through their pretense.

We can see that, beneath that sheep’s clothing of false righteousness, they are satisfying the wolf of their unbridled appetite for self-aggrandizement.

We can see it in their persistent effort to undermine any rules that, in the name of a greater good, would restrain their freedom of action—whether in their tearing down the rules of international order, or in their disrespect for constitutional limits on their power, or in their dismantling of environmental restraints on their pursuit of wealth.

We see it, too, in their use of bullying tactics and character assassination in dealing with political opponents. For all their pious talk, there is no sign whatever of the Golden Rule in how they conduct their politics.

We see it in the way they sow enmity—whether between Americans, whom pollsters have found more intensely polarized than ever, or between America and other nations, among whom trust in American power has reached an all-time low.

And we see it in their disdain for the truth—whether in how they spin” virtually everything they say to us, or how they disregard or distort science, or in how they arrange to be told only what they want to hear.

America would be fine in the hands of people devoted to real conservative values. But this is something different, something dangerous. For America is now ruled by forces apparently not guided by any genuine values at all.

And this is not just about this particular presidency, which should be understood as the creature of bigger forces. These forces — an alliance of the greediest part of American capitalism with the most power-hungry and imperialist of American politicians and with the most divisive and hypocritical of America’s religious leaders—have been gathering power for a generation and will doubtless seek to maintain their grip when its current public faces leave office.

Never in American history has so much power been in such ruthless hands.

After an election campaign that failed utterly to speak about this profound moral danger —in itself a sign of an also-dangerous moral flaccidity into which American liberalism has declined— we who do see this frightening reality are called upon not to acquiesce and surrender but to take the struggle for America’s soul to a new stage of speaking moral truth to amoral power. Moral truth is their kryptonite.

Only by selling their false image of righteousness to good, conservative Americans could these forces gain power. But that which depends on moral lies can be defeated with moral truth—for, if these good people can be helped to see that these emperors have no moral clothes, they will withdraw their support.

Most of those who have supported these rulers should be regarded not as our opponents but as our potential allies. For the urgent struggle now is not that of liberal values against conservative values, but of those who really care about goodness against those who only pretend to.

To accomplish these worthy goals, unmasking the false righteousness of our rulers must be framed in terms of Americans’ shared values—of justice and compassion and truth and fair play—and supported by evidence drawn from our common knowledge. Framed in that way, the stories of what we’ve all seen can be told in ways that strip away the political coverings and show the dark moral reality about our current ruling forces that lies beneath.

America is in need of an”Emperor’s New Clothes moment. “This emperor has no moral clothing.”

By skillfully speaking the moral truth, we can help unite the good people of America, and end the polarization that our amoral leaders have worked to foster—helping America’s conservatives to remember how better to tell the difference between good and evil, and helping America’s liberals to remember how absolutely vital—and real—that difference is.

Let us then speak to America out of our faith in a venerable idea deeply embedded in the Western religious tradition: the idea that the material power of the bad ruler can be overcome by the power of moral truth boldly spoken. Let us launch, then, a prophetic” social movement to re-establish the power of real righteousness in America.