President Trump delivered a staunch defense of Western values during a rousing speech Thursday to thousands of Poles in Warsaw’s Krasinski Square, rallying allies against what he described as “dire threats” to civilization and vowing, “the West will never, ever be broken.”…
“We write symphonies, we pursue innovation. … We reward brilliance. We strive for excellence, and cherish inspiring works of art that honor God,” the U.S. president said. “We treasure the rule of law and protect the right to free speech and free expression. … We debate everything, we challenge everything, we seek to know everything so that we can better know ourselves.”
Yes! It's about time someone stopped apologizing for the West's existence and made it clear that Western civilization is the best civilization that mankind has ever created.
And there was more:
“Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have the desire and courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who subvert and destroy it?” Trump asked. “If we don’t have strong families and strong values, we will be weak, and we will not survive.”
Trump also took a swipe at “the steady creep of government bureaucracy,” which he said is an “invisible” danger “on both sides of the Atlantic.”
“We must work together to confront forces whether they come from inside or out, south or east, that threaten to undermine these values and erase the bonds of culture, faith and tradition that makes us who we are,” Trump said. “These forces are doomed to fail if we want them to fail, and we do indeed want them to fail.”
And there was more:
“Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have the desire and courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who subvert and destroy it?” Trump asked. “If we don’t have strong families and strong values, we will be weak, and we will not survive.”
Trump also took a swipe at “the steady creep of government bureaucracy,” which he said is an “invisible” danger “on both sides of the Atlantic.”
“We must work together to confront forces whether they come from inside or out, south or east, that threaten to undermine these values and erase the bonds of culture, faith and tradition that makes us who we are,” Trump said. “These forces are doomed to fail if we want them to fail, and we do indeed want them to fail.”
New Criterion editor Roger Kimball summed it up:
After reminding his audience about the million people who gathered to hear John Paul II celebrate Mass in 1979, he asked: what did the people want? Answer: “We want God.” The prerequisite for the success of Western civilization is not material riches. Economic prosperity and military might on their own are not sufficient. The critical leaven is the confidence in core Western values: such things as free speech, the equality of women, respect for individual rights, the rule of law, the affirmation of faith and family. Hence, the “fundamental question” facing Western nations today is whether the people continue to nurture the cultural self-confidence in those fundamental values. If they do, the West is unbeatable. If those values dissipate, the West is lost. “As long as we know our history,” Trump said, “we will know how to build our future.” Trump spent a lot of time in his speech rehearsing Poland's heroic resistance to Nazi atrocities in the Warsaw uprising and its equally heroic resistance to Soviet aggression during and after the war. Not since Ronald Reagan has an American president gone so clearly to the nub of what makes the West great and what threatens that greatness.
But now for Melania's dressL What more could be said about her navy-blue Delpozo dress with its splashes of orange and pink that were as dramatic and vivid as her husband's speech? Loved the purple Manolo Blahnik pumps, too. Melania is the most elegant and glamorous First Lady ever (sorry, Jackie, sorry Michelle).
Naturally our snarky mainstream media, still fixated on the guy who made the CNN wrestling gif, pronounced Trump's Polish speech an "alt-right manifesto" because he mentioned, you know, God. And also family and defending the West and its civilization. We can't have that.
And Time magazine decided that Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda had indulged in a "diss" of Trump by supposedly ignoring his outstretched hand to shake that of American First Lady Melania–as proper protocol surely requires. This prompted CNN's Trump-bashing Chris Cilizza to tweet a virtual paroxysm of "OhMyGod"'s (well, at least he didn't mind invoking the deity!). Even the reliably liberal Bradd Jaffy at NBC thought this was a bit much. "Folks, Poland's first lady did not diss Trump's handshake attempt. She was looking at Melania, shook her hand, then shook Trump's. Stop," he tweeted.
In short–what a day!