We Are Losing Our Moral Moorings

We Are Losing our Moral Moorings Everywhere I look, I grow more concerned that we as a country and as a world are losing our moral moorings. Admittedly, imperfectly, we left World War II committed to putting in place a set of controls, a set of limits, a commitment to international law, a set of moral understandings, that would limit, if not prevent, the spread of war. We committed to recognize national boundaries. We committed to avoid needless civilian deaths. We committed, in one Presidential inaugural address after another, to respect the way other people lived, while defending our most important national interests. What has followed is that we have begun incursions into one country after another, in the first instance to combat terrorism but, in the end -- and maybe at the very heart of it from the start--it turned into a misbeggoten all-out campaigns to change the way they live. This was true in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Libya and now in Iran and Cuba. We have a president that undercuts those very institutions (education, law) that have made us the nation we have become. The balance of power, so carefully put in place by our founders, is being neutered because the Congress is stepping aside from its responsibilities, including declaring what is war and what is not. As it has been said, and I have said, in the end, morals begin at home. And I draw hope and confidence from this reality because at home the majority of Americans want the same things: they want security, they want good health and the opportunity to achieve a sustaining livelihood, and they want the freedom to say what they believe. Again and again, I am reminded of the importance of human agency--of the difference that an individual leader can make. I think of the impact of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and of Dwight Eisenhower. Contrarily, I think of the devastating impact of President Donald J. Trump. I believe his presidency will go down in history as the proverbial road that should NOT have been taken. It grew out of voter's frustration that the government was not delivering what people want. So they reached for someone who they thought could be a savior, turn the system on its head and make it better. Tragically, this is not proving the case. So much depends now on the results of the mid-term (2026) elections and the 2028 presidential election. I hope and pray that the outcome will see us with leadership committed to restoring moral guidelines and actions that we are consistent with what we want in our own family and our Nation at its best.