Independence Day...

Michelle Malkin reminds me of a great passage from Zell Miller's 2004 RNC speech that's worth remembering this Fourth of July:

Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator.

And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.

Tell that to the one-half of Europe that was freed because Franklin Roosevelt led an army of liberators, not occupiers.

Tell that to the lower half of the Korean Peninsula that is free because Dwight Eisenhower commanded an army of liberators, not occupiers.

Tell that to the half a billion men, women and children who are free today from the Baltics to the Crimea, from Poland to Siberia, because Ronald Reagan rebuilt a military of liberators, not occupiers.

Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier. And, our soldiers don't just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for us here at home.

For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest.

It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom to abuse and burn that flag.

No one should dare to even think about being the Commander in Chief of this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home.

But don't waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my party today. In their warped way of thinking America is the problem, not the solution.

How about a great Ronald Reagan quote...

"There is no question that we have failed to live up to the dreams of the founding fathers many times and in many places. Sometimes we do better than others. But all in all, the one thing we must be on guard against is thinking that because of this, the system has failed. The system has not failed. Some human beings have failed the system."

Put that man on Rushmore!

Here's a piece from the Patriot Post - A Nation of Resolve, by Mark Alexander...

... It is remarkable, indeed, how our nation's character has changed. Upon deciding that independence was necessary, our Founding Fathers acted decisively. How often these days do we match such resolve?

Postmodern American man, steeped in moral relativism and doubtful of ascertaining truth, is a bundle of eclectic capacities and features -- a far cry from the Founders' notion of human nature. They believed that each individual human is created in the image of God, with the stamp of that divine impress best seen in the fact that each of us is a morally choosing being, fully capable of knowing and distinguishing right from wrong.

Our Founding Fathers thus treated liberty of conscience, most particularly in regard to faith, as central to the project of freedom: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...." The Founders believed our lives are not vehicles of pleasure but have moral consequence based on our chosen path of conscience and that government should follow our lead. ...

Listen to Alan Keyes about renewing our Declaration of Independence, and check out his Declaration Project.

... If we are indeed cognizant of that obligation which we owe, not just to ourselves and to our children but to all the posterity of the Earth, then I think we are indeed capable of the renewal to our Declaration principles that this nation cries out for on this Independence Day. If we act together faithfully, then God willing, we shall fulfill that great promise with which our nation began, which in fact reflects, not a human decision, but rather the promise of God Himself for the better destiny of all the human race. May it be so. Blessed Fourth of July.

Finally, a HotAir film covering the weekend protest at the NY Times. Previous post... here.

Happy Independence Day everyone. As Christopher Hitchens writes, forget the polls. This is such a great country. She's not perfect, but she's the prettiest girl in the room.

-Home-