Joe Biden and the Battle for the Soul of America

Former Vice President Joe Biden joined the pool of the other nineteen Democrat candidates who want to be President of the United States.  In his video announcement, he accused President Trump of saying things that “shocked the conscience of the nation.”  He went on to state that we are in a “battle for the soul of America.”

On this the former VP of the United States is precisely correct.  As a people, we are indeed in a battle for the soul of America.  There are many ongoing events that indeed shock the conscience of our nation.  But they are NOT the matters to which Joe Biden is alluding.  Perhaps he does not realize what the battle is about.  It appears the pressing moral matters in the United States are not that to which Biden is referring.

Here is what is shocking the conscience of the American people.  This is where the lines are drawn in the Battle for the Soul of America.

We have moved from the concept of “safe, legal and rare” regarding abortion to late-term abortions, even to the time of full-term delivery, which is nothing more than infanticide.  And the progressives in our country state they are not at all troubled by this.  Joe Biden, for example, has moved from his stated opinion in 1974 that a woman should not have the “sole right to say what should happen to her body,” to his statement in 2012 that the government doesn’t have “a right to tell other people that women, they can’t control their body.” Never mind that it is not only her body, but also the body of a child. Only a few years ago it would have been shocking to hear that leading politicians would end the life of a child right after delivery, if the mother so chose.  But that is the stance of many people on the Left today.  That truly is a battle for the soul of our country. 

The battle for our collective soul is also joined on the issue of the insidious influence of socialism in America.  Without shock or shame, many candidates on the Left vigorously promote concepts that a generation ago would have been an insult to the consciences of people who had watched socialism, and its fraternal twin communism, wreak havoc in the world and cause the deaths of untold millions.  A few years ago, the idea that individual liberty would be subservient to government control of healthcare and other aspects of a person’s life would have been rejected out of hand.  Only a short time back, a presidential candidate who decried success and called for the blanket redistribution of wealth would have been perceived as un-American.  A person who called for guaranteed income even for those “unwilling” to work and simply printing more money to pay for free college educations and an elimination of the gas and oil industry could never have even been elected to Congress—let alone become the darling of the mainstream media and left-leaning elected leaders.

Matters related to immigration are also part of the battle for America’s soul.  Progressives in Congress continue to block fixing our immigration system only for the purpose of political advantage and defying a President they don’t like.  This is in spite of the fact that there is a true humanitarian crisis on our southern border that, morally, demands a response.

This part of the battle for the soul of America centers around human trafficking, drug smuggling, and the tens of thousands of people seeking a better life in the United States who suffer along the journey to America and then suffer at the border because there is not enough personnel and facilities to adequately care for them.  Due to a shortage of immigration judges, over 800,000 people who seek asylum in our country are part of the years-long backlog. All efforts by one party in Congress to fix this have been blocked by the other party.  This political impasse is a blight on the moral conscience of America.  This does not include the national security aspects of the border issue, which is not only a battle for the soul of America—but also a battle for the safety of America.

These are only three aspects of this multi-faceted battle.  The only hope of winning this battle for our collective soul is if politicians put country above political party.  Victory is possible only if we hold fast to the American value of the dignity of every human life – at every stage of life.  We will overcome this challenge when we accept that border security is a central piece of a compassionate response to those seeking to enter our country.  We are assured success in this battle for our soul when we acknowledge that – as we affirm the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – that we are guaranteed equal opportunity, not equal results; personal responsibility is a key element of individual liberty.

Mr. Biden, you are  quite correct.  We are in the midst of a battle for the soul of America.  But not for the reasons promulgated by those on the Left, and probably not for the reasons you believe.  It is a battle, nonetheless.  The warriors in this battle are the American people who must hold their elected leaders accountable, reject evil when they confront it, and hold fast to the idea of America as the locus of liberty and justice for all—a beacon to all decent and freedom-loving people around the world.