Keeping Faith with Our Common Values.

Zubrod, Gordon A.D.

Keeping Faith with Our Common Values

By Hon. John Howard, Former Australian Prime Minister

Text of speech: www.aei.org/publications/pubID.27613,filter.all/pub_detail.asp

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard recently gave the annual Irving Kristol Lecture at the American Enterprise Institute, entitled "Keeping Faith with Our Common Values." Howard's thesis was that the magnificent achievements of democratic nations should have produced "a soaring optimism about the future of freedom and democracy," but instead optimism and confidence have been steadily eroded by "a soft underbelly of cultural self-doubt in certain Western societies." This self doubt has been generated and sustained by the Left, with its control of educational institutions and large segments of the media, and its penchant for intellectual bullying and moralizing, most recently displayed in the debate over global warming. Smelling blood in the water, radical Islam launched its attack.

Howard believes that the pessimism of the Left is not grounded in reality. Democratic principles of governance are being embraced across the world, particularly in Asia. More people live under democratic rule in Asia than in any other region of the world. In fact, Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation, embraced democracy ten years ago without bloodshed and continues to grow in stability. The implications of this development are enormous for the emerging century. Should Indonesia succeed in establishing firmly rooted democratic institutions, its success could be the death knell for jihadists.

Howard noted that this movement toward democratic governance was made possible by the "security umbrella" provided by the United States, and is nourished by U.S. trade and investment. For democracy to triumph, however, the United States and its allies must retain a "steadfast belief in the continuing worth of our own national value systems." It is these values that terrorists despise most and, Howard exhorted, "We should never compromise with them."

Howard warned that significant cultural, economic, and military challenges face the United States and its allies in the coming years, and our success or failure in meeting and overcoming them rests in the degree to which we possess a common guiding philosophy, directed by values and ideas and not merely by an instinct for political survival.

Culturally, the West must stand for personal liberty, individual freedom, the belief that decency and hard work define a person's worth, not class or race or social background, with the confidence that all peoples of the world will embrace democracy if they are given the opportunity to enjoy its benefits. Howard emphasized the central role of marriage and the family in creating economic prosperity, and the need for "a cultural bias" in favor of families, "not only the best emotional nursery for children but also the most efficient social welfare system that mankind has ever devised."

Economically, competitive capitalism operating within free markets is the most effective paradigm, both domestically and internationally, according to Howard. He favors a pragmatic, mutually beneficial approach to China, whose growth is not only good for China but for the whole world--millions in China and in other parts of the Asia-Pacific region have been lifted from poverty by the rapid rise of a middle class. Although the economic transformation in China has created much of the worldwide financial pressure currently experienced in the West and the United States in particular, the proper responses to these challenges will be grounded in free market orthodoxies.

Howard voiced support for the surge in Iraq and opined that it should be given time to work without the pressure of premature draw-downs of troop strength. Arguments against battling Al Qaeda in Iraq are naive and dangerous.

The former prime minister ended by invoking the sentiments of Peggy Noonan (in her tribute to the late William F. Buckley, Jr.): "The conservative values we hold are grounded in the unshakeable realities of life--governments serve people, not the reverse, freedom is good and must be defended against all assaults, whether from communism in the past or from Islamic fascism today, and strong competitive markets produce the best economic results."

Reviewed by Gordon A.D. Zubrod, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Middle District of Pennsylvania