Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.
—Benjamin Franklin, pictured above in the center as he works at a printing press—

You show me a world where bakers can be fined $135,000 for declining to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding because of their beliefs about marriage, and I’ll show you one where defenders of a sexual predator can persuade well-meaning people to act as though inappropriate language is a more serious offense than abusing and mistreating women. No kidding!

You show me a world where bakers can be fined $135,000 for declining to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding because of their beliefs about marriage, and I’ll show you one where defenders of a sexual predator can persuade well-meaning people to act as though inappropriate language is a more serious offense than abusing and mistreating women.

After a ten-year old video was made public in which Donald Trump, speaking privately, made lewd and sexually inappropriate comments about women, a firestorm erupted. Surely his statements cannot be defended in any way, and Trump apologized for making them. Yet, among Trump’s harshest critics were secularists, many of whom are Democrats, “who defended the abusive and disgusting behavior of Bill Clinton, not when he was a private citizen but when he was a sitting president.” These same people also have for decades belittled those of us who have sought to uphold character and moral standards as important for our nation’s leaders. Notable establishment Republicans joined them; they too were horrified over Trump’s remarks—yet they and their kind repeatedly have told the Republican base not to focus on moral values or moral issues.

What was the end game of all of this? Apparently it was to get those of us who believe in moral values to dump Trump. In this massive effort, the Clinton campaign was getting a great deal of help from the mainstream media.

Evangelical leaders Dr. James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, Franklin Graham, and Eric Metaxas weren’t taking the bait. They condemned Trump’s comments but warned that in this election, America’s future as a free nation hangs in the balance. Trump is not a perfect candidate, but scandal ridden Hillary Clinton is far worse.

Beyond apologizing, Donald Trump went on the offensive. He held a news conference on October 9 before the second presidential debate. Joining him were Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, and Paula Jones, each of whom has a story to tell of an unwanted sexual advance from Bill Clinton. Broaddrick even says he raped her. Kathy Shelton also was present. As a 12-year old she was raped, and the lawyer who defended her predator in 1975 was Hillary Clinton. Regarding the case, reporter Jeff Dunetz writes, “Court records show, Ms. Clinton questioned the sixth grader’s honesty and invented a claim that the girl made false accusations in the past. Hillary also portrayed the girl as often fantasizing and as seeking out older men’ like the rapist. In other words she made up stories to blame the young victim.”

The strategy of blaming and maligning victims went into overdrive in the wake of Trump’s news conference. On the Monday, October 10 broadcast of The View Joy Behar suggested that with regard to the first three women, Hillary Clinton should have said, “I would like to apologize to those tramps that have slept with my husband.” The next day, she apologized, but others who made disparaging comments did not. The women Behar had maligned had pushed back regarding Behar’s “tramp” comment.

As Monday’s show unfolded, its hosts were dumbfounded that conservatives would blame Hillary Clinton for Bill’s inappropriate and at times predatory sexual behavior. Yet conservatives don’t do this at all. Rather, they say Hillary is at fault for “lashing out at the women in question repeatedly over time.” This makes Mrs. Clinton’s condemnation of Trump’s language ring hollow.

Earlier in Monday’s show, Whoppi Goldberg had indicated, falsely, that the women appearing with Trump at the news conference really weren’t injured parties: “Several of those women slept with him knowing he was a married man … [Hillary Clinton] was the victim in this…the person to whom dirty was done.”

Audio Player

Also, on Monday’s Bill Press Show, Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a Clinton supporter, “described the Bill Clinton accusers who had attended the previous night’s debate as ‘a bunch of women, not looking their best, perhaps looking much better, you know, 40 years ago, to present them before the debate, for what purpose?’” Norton also said she “‘almost felt sorry for’ these ‘middle aged-looking women, who were apparently young women, who Bill Clinton hit on.’”

Given the avalanche of damaging information now being made public about Hillary Clinton, is it any wonder that, on the heels of all this, new allegations of inappropriate behavior are being made against Trump? Trump has flatly denied the charges and has noted the clear coordination between the Clinton campaign and the media.

Several observations are in order at this point. This list will review some of the territory we’ve covered already and break new ground.

First, the very people who for years have said morality and virtue aren’t important and must be ignored are seeking to use morality and virtue against their opponents without applying it to themselves. This is utter hypocrisy.

Second, these people have the stage, the microphones, the personnel, and the means to get their message out to a society filled with people who don’t have diverse or balanced sources of information. Their spokesmen are effectively using every means at their disposal to further their agenda, and they are repeating their messages relentlessly. We’re reminded that Joseph Goebbels, Adolph Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, declared,

It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.

Such rhetoric sets the stage for a world in which inappropriate words are deemed to be far worse than abusive sexual behavior—convoluted as this idea actually is. We do well to remember that it was Bill Clinton who said, “It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

Third, Proverbs 18:17 declares, “In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines.” Donald Trump is seeking to respond to the accusations being leveled against him and to present his side. He can reach some Americans through his speeches and campaign ads, but the ideas he is trying to convey are, to a very large degree, filtered through a pro-liberal, pro-Clinton media machine.

Fourth, because society has listened to the left’s diatribes against virtue and morality for decades, it no longer has any objective standard by which to judge its own behavior, let alone the behavior of any leader or prospective leader. Note here how judging or evaluating messages is essential if we are to maintain an independent and free society.

Fifth, without any objective standard of morality, a society is a sitting duck, pliable and malleable, open to being persuaded to believe everything they hear from those who have the loudest voice and the most pervasive message.

Please take note: In the fourth and fifth principles are the most important lessons of this article. We may summarize these as follows.

When people in a society are taught they can believe anything, they will believe anything! Only adherence to objective moral standards can guard against tyrannical manipulation.

As Founding Father John Adams declared, “Statesmen my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.…The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a greater Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty.—They will only exchange Tyrants and Tyrannies.”

Sadly, we’ve abandoned morality and absolute truth. That’s why we live in a world where bakers can be fined $135,000 for declining to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, and one in which a lot of well-meaning people can be persuaded that inappropriate words are more offensive than abusing and mistreating women.

You can’t have one without the other.

Update, December, 2017: Court rules against Oregon bakers in wedding-cake case

Notes:

Copyright © 2016 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.