American Piety
Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2023 2:14 am
Douglas Mercer
July 20 2021
In the long stretch of history Michael Flynn was only in the Trump Administration for a short cup of coffee. He was last seen angrily striding to the podium to tell the world that "Iran was on notice."
He was doing the bidding of Jews and before you can say Jews Rule America Jews had taken him out.
And yet he still thinks America is a great nation, and not only a great nation but a divinely ordained great nation. A shining city on a hill, of all things. They don't get any greater than that. And on July 18 2021 he took to the pages of the Western Journal to deliver a theological homily in the form of pie-eyed treacle about the wonders of this lone beacon in a the sea of darkness.
And truly American piety has neve been more obnoxious.
Indeed, it has been reported that Jesus Christ himself felt that he laid it on a bit thick.
These pious nonentities, they never stop their warbling.
" America’s singular function is to be as described deep in the Bible itself: a light for the world, a light that cannot be hidden."
"My interpretation of the light is the truth, and I know from personal experience that truth cannot be hidden — it always rises to the surface. Although some may desire to keep falsehoods and lies alive, I firmly believe that the return to faith by many Americans today is further evidence of God’s divine Providence and his determination for America to be a light for the rest of the world."
The thing about the Puritans of East Anglia who ended up in Massachusetts is that they had large families, the eldest son was always a minister, they had high literacy rates, and they were clannish. For all intents and purposes that is, they were White Jews, and they certainly worshipped Jews. Indeed, not a few of Cromwell's men were such committed Christians they did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ but stuck to the Old Testament. They were building a new Zion, a new Zion on the edge of a new wilderness, the wilderness of the world. Never trust a people who name their children Glory-Be-To God, Blessing, Abuse Not, and Aid On High.
The Puritan movement in Massachusetts lasted for about a century. Its influence never waned, as the movement from its origins intersected with Jewish rabbis and brought both rabbinic texts and the study of the Kabbalah to the new world, not to mention the undue worship of the Old Testament.
"What is America’s foundation? She was a new creation preordained by God yet made by man. Through prayer, toil, hardship, sacrifice, then resilience and determination, America was founded so future generations could shine, reflecting the greatness of him."
"America was destined to be a truth, a light, a foundation for mankind to embrace. Through Providence, America’s foundation remains strong. It is “We the People,” in our human form that gives in, too easily at times, to the very weaknesses we tend to deny exist in our own lives. Remember, although America was divined by our Creator, our nation was made by man; therefore, it can be destroyed by man."
This supposed "high destiny" of America, is nothing but intellectual sop concocted first by the Puritans and then by the founders and taken to its screeching limit by those pious frauds we call conservatives. It's this alleged destiny which put the Judeo in Judeo-Christian. This supposed foundation is the foundation of the notion of America as the asylum of nations, a phrase and idea which was running loose in the mid nineteenth century. And also ultimately to the legal notion of asylum. It undergirds much of the nation of immigrant rhetoric, that beacon to humanity atop the Statue Of Liberty, the welcoming of the poor huddled masses, the supposed last best hope on earth. That is, it sits at a sick rhetorical nexus that has led to so much harm. That America is a nation of nations, the biblical idea that America is an ingathering of the nations to auger in the Second Coming, with Somalis slouching towards your town where their children will be born.
"To most nations across the entire planet, America is seen as the last bastion of salvation — salvation not in the biblical sense but in a practical sense. I’ve stated on many occasions there is one thing far more important than personal freedom, and that is your personal faith in God. There is only one America, built on faith, faith in ourselves as individuals, faith in each other (especially our families), and faith in our communities and our country."
Somehow these Christians are obsessed with our image in the eyes of other peoples, a light to the world, a salvation to the world, it's crucial to their self image as God's people that we bee seen as paragons. This is theology masquerading as politics, it is crackpot transcendence which leads to the dilution of our native blood. And in their utter naivety what they fail to grasp is that the people around the world aren't looking at us admiringly but covetously. It's the last best hope for getting them out of the dire straights of a failed state and grabbing some of the White man's wealth. How it plays out is that just as the left wants the Guatemalans, and the Hondurans, and the Mexicans and the Africans to come here, so the right is hell bent on bringing in the Venezuelans, the Cubans, those from Hong Kong, or Afghanis. Bring in enough of them, and we have, and the light of the world goes dark, quite literally.
"I remain optimistic that America’s foundation remains solid. I also believe we are being tested by our Creator. Fairy dust will not be sprinkled on our heads and suddenly — poof — everything is made right. Many ask how long does the toil of war await the consummation of peace?"
It's one thing to honor and celebrate your heritage, as part of the normal course of the year. But it's extremely odd how they use the word "founding" or "founding father" as a sort of talismanic charm. You rarely if ever hear them talk about their vision for our future, what society should be like, what our great aims and goals are, other than that we should be "free"--like the founders wanted. It's not conservative at all, it's more like fetishizing dead people and dead documents as a substitute for imagination.
"In 1630, John Winthrop delivered a sermon on board a ship hazarding an Atlantic Ocean crossing. The congregation comprised people seeking to discover a new world and a new life. They were sacrificing everything, leaving their former homeland for a variety of individual reasons, but principally due to political persecutions for their Christian beliefs."
Cromwell came near to emigrating to America. As Jew lover and as one beholden to Jews he allowed them to come back in to England legally, the first time they could do that since 1290. The people who came to America from his group were like minded.
Prior to arriving in Massachusetts Bradford and the rest of his congregation went to Amsterdam where for the first time they came in contact with Jews. There they met both Sephardic Jews and conversos reveling in the free thought of that city. The group moved to a city called Leiden where Jews were studying at the university.
Bradford became a producer of fabric and was working with Sephardic merchants who came in and out of Leiden’s large ship canals.
When after fifteen years in Leiden the Puritans decided to head to the New World they came wearing the clothing of Western European merchants, clothing which was indistinguishable in dress from the Spanish Jewish merchants to whom they sold goods, which sometimes included a humble black skullcap and beard.
It was of course the Bible which gave these Englishmen access to Jewish history and led the Puritans to establish Israel in the New World. They called Massachusetts “the new Zion” and made every effort to follow the commands of the Torah as they understood them. The Pilgrims also used the Hebrew language when naming towns and villages, such as Medina, meaning community, or Salem, meaning peace. The Puritans also used Hebrew names, including Jacob, Israel, Moses, Joshua, etc.
In 1641 the Puritans adopted a legal code in Massachusetts and in 1650 in Connecticut. These codes were directly taken from the Torah, including Sabbath observance. Puritans believed, like ancient Israel, that they were ruled directly by God and therefore abolished all hierarchies in religion.
"Winthrop preached to the emigrants that the eyes of the world would be upon them, that they would be as a city set upon a hill for all to observe. If these faithful principles were true from the very origins of America, then from the very beginning, America has played a role in setting the world right."
Setting the world right sound suspiciously like tikku olam and that's no Cohen-cidence. So that famous Yankee Zeal we've heard so much about was not so different from Jewish Zeal. It was the zeal of a people who considered themselves separate and chosen by God to bring righteousness to the world, not so different than later "making the world safe for democracy" or spreading "human rights" around the world, or unfurling Black Lives Matter of Rainbow flags draped across our embassies in foreign lands. The sickness is the same. And it was that Yankee Zeal which had to destroy the South, had to destroy the Cavalier South. That is, they had to set the world right, or so they thought.
My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord!
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored
His truth is marching on!
Poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson was from a prominent New England family. He was also a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilly.
It was the intellectual inheritors of the Puritan sensibility, the transcendentalists, who came up with a disembodied philosophy which in the end led to the disqualification of race as a criteria for nationhood. Rather they formed "moral communities" which defined the group in terms of ideology, not blood. If intellectuals in the nineteenth century had a double consciousness about America, that it was an Anglo-Saxon nation but also one committed to ideas (liberty, equality) then these thinkers were harbingers of the end of the former and the triumph of the latter.
Truth to tell most of American reformers of the nineteenth century did not believe truly in the idea of negro equality. The were offended by slavery, the expression of White Supremacy, it supposedly went against the word of the Lord or their own tender moral consciences, but they had no intention of mixing with them. There were some exceptions of course, John Brown being foremost among them. Brown believed every bit in his heart and his soul in negro equality, that negros were just as good as you and me. Where would he have got such an insane idea?
John Brown was of the fourth generation, in regular descent, from Peter Brown, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, who landed from the Mayflower at Plymouth, Massachusetts on December 22, 1620.
"Yes, America does differ from the rest of the world. From the laying of the foundation to building out our “one nation under God,” America’s strength is in our people."
During his term in office Barack Obama took exception to the idea that America was an exceptional nation, postulating the Greece or Italy likely think they are exceptional too. In response to this unexceptional idea conservatives rose in one in outrage as if they were defending the honor of their wives or defending their stock portfolios. No, they said America was the exceptional nation. we are one of a kind, unique. Never has been another nation like us, and there never will be. About themselves as a race Jews hold this peculiar notion as well.
"America’s foundation reveals many things, but the most important is that We the People still represent those on that long journey seeking a better life. We the people are the ones in charge of our children, our homes, our communities, our health and yes, our destiny. We the people represent what remains good and decent in America, and we the people represent the bedrock of our foundation."
"However, regardless if we are meek and lowly or wealthy and prosperous, we owe allegiance to our Creator and what comes with allegiance is standing up after prayer and acting — acting in good faith for ourselves, our families, our communities and most especially, our nation. But our actions must be moral, ethical, legal and peaceful. Maintaining the moral high ground is the surest way to achieve victory."
The notion of A City On A Hill has become current in our political life. Ironically, like that huddled masses poem and the phrase a nation of immigrants, the City On A Hill phrase would have been unknown to American a hundred years ago. And of course they all were resurrected from the deep hole of memory at roughly the same time.
This is no Cohen-cidence.
"A City upon a Hill" or course was originally uttered by wandering busy body Jesus Of Nazareth, either him or the people who wrote down stories about his treks.
In our current context the phrase means that America is a beacon of hope to the world. The last best hope, and all of that, as we begin to see the picture.
After a millennia and more the words were picked up by John Winthrop when he gave his speech called A Model Of Christian Charity in 1630. Winthrop warned his fellows that the community they were creating was going to be "as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us."
Far from being immediately famous Winthrop's words were soon sunk in richly earned oblivion until the Massachusetts Historical Society published it in 1838. Still, however, it was a hundred years and more before enterprising politicians picked up the phrase to pull the wool over the eyes of a blinkered populace. It was in that long so-called "twilight struggle" called the Cold War that America as moral exemplar became very useful.
It remained an obscure reference for more than another century until Cold War era historians and political leaders made it relevant to their time, crediting Winthrop's text as the foundational document of the idea of American exceptionalism.
On January 9, 1961 John Kennedy gave what came to be known as the "City Upon A Hill Speech" at the state house in Boston, Massachusetts.
Speaking of his home state he said that " Its democratic institutions--including this historic body--have served as beacon lights for other nations as well as our sister states."
"I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arbella three hundred and thirty-one years ago, as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier."
It was of course that other verbal huckster, that congenial and ever sunny and optimistic Ronald Reagan who lifted the phrase to it final and irrevocable spot in the lexical pantheon.
On November 3, 1980 Regan said:
"I have quoted John Winthrop's words more than once on the campaign trail this year—for I believe that Americans in 1980 are every bit as committed to that vision of a shining city on a hill, as were those long ago settlers. These visitors to that city on the Potomac do not come as white or black, red or yellow; they are not Jews or Christians; conservatives or liberals; or Democrats or Republicans. They are Americans awed by what has gone before, proud of what for them is still a shining city on a hill."
Reagan would reference this concept through multiple speeches; notably again in his January 11, 1989, farewell speech to the nation:
"I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still."
The doors should have had locks. And guards. And turn off the lights, perhaps the invaders won't know we're in here.
Which only goes to show that if behind every fortune is a crime then behind every eternal phrase their is a manipulative history.
Flynn finished his gabbling with this sugary syrup:
"America was and will forever be the example for the world to see of that shining city on the hill for all faithful, freedom-loving people to seek. While our foundation remains strong and our courage remains immeasurable, our clarion call must now be to stand and demand accountability."
"We must demand accountability first from ourselves and then from our communities and our country, especially our elected officials. Are we the people ready to stand to answer the call? I for one believe we are. May God continue to shine his light on this city on the hill we call America."
There's another eternal phrase which would have been better taken to heart.
Charity begins at home.
And that it should end there too, that should be the real American Piety.
July 20 2021
In the long stretch of history Michael Flynn was only in the Trump Administration for a short cup of coffee. He was last seen angrily striding to the podium to tell the world that "Iran was on notice."
He was doing the bidding of Jews and before you can say Jews Rule America Jews had taken him out.
And yet he still thinks America is a great nation, and not only a great nation but a divinely ordained great nation. A shining city on a hill, of all things. They don't get any greater than that. And on July 18 2021 he took to the pages of the Western Journal to deliver a theological homily in the form of pie-eyed treacle about the wonders of this lone beacon in a the sea of darkness.
And truly American piety has neve been more obnoxious.
Indeed, it has been reported that Jesus Christ himself felt that he laid it on a bit thick.
These pious nonentities, they never stop their warbling.
" America’s singular function is to be as described deep in the Bible itself: a light for the world, a light that cannot be hidden."
"My interpretation of the light is the truth, and I know from personal experience that truth cannot be hidden — it always rises to the surface. Although some may desire to keep falsehoods and lies alive, I firmly believe that the return to faith by many Americans today is further evidence of God’s divine Providence and his determination for America to be a light for the rest of the world."
The thing about the Puritans of East Anglia who ended up in Massachusetts is that they had large families, the eldest son was always a minister, they had high literacy rates, and they were clannish. For all intents and purposes that is, they were White Jews, and they certainly worshipped Jews. Indeed, not a few of Cromwell's men were such committed Christians they did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ but stuck to the Old Testament. They were building a new Zion, a new Zion on the edge of a new wilderness, the wilderness of the world. Never trust a people who name their children Glory-Be-To God, Blessing, Abuse Not, and Aid On High.
The Puritan movement in Massachusetts lasted for about a century. Its influence never waned, as the movement from its origins intersected with Jewish rabbis and brought both rabbinic texts and the study of the Kabbalah to the new world, not to mention the undue worship of the Old Testament.
"What is America’s foundation? She was a new creation preordained by God yet made by man. Through prayer, toil, hardship, sacrifice, then resilience and determination, America was founded so future generations could shine, reflecting the greatness of him."
"America was destined to be a truth, a light, a foundation for mankind to embrace. Through Providence, America’s foundation remains strong. It is “We the People,” in our human form that gives in, too easily at times, to the very weaknesses we tend to deny exist in our own lives. Remember, although America was divined by our Creator, our nation was made by man; therefore, it can be destroyed by man."
This supposed "high destiny" of America, is nothing but intellectual sop concocted first by the Puritans and then by the founders and taken to its screeching limit by those pious frauds we call conservatives. It's this alleged destiny which put the Judeo in Judeo-Christian. This supposed foundation is the foundation of the notion of America as the asylum of nations, a phrase and idea which was running loose in the mid nineteenth century. And also ultimately to the legal notion of asylum. It undergirds much of the nation of immigrant rhetoric, that beacon to humanity atop the Statue Of Liberty, the welcoming of the poor huddled masses, the supposed last best hope on earth. That is, it sits at a sick rhetorical nexus that has led to so much harm. That America is a nation of nations, the biblical idea that America is an ingathering of the nations to auger in the Second Coming, with Somalis slouching towards your town where their children will be born.
"To most nations across the entire planet, America is seen as the last bastion of salvation — salvation not in the biblical sense but in a practical sense. I’ve stated on many occasions there is one thing far more important than personal freedom, and that is your personal faith in God. There is only one America, built on faith, faith in ourselves as individuals, faith in each other (especially our families), and faith in our communities and our country."
Somehow these Christians are obsessed with our image in the eyes of other peoples, a light to the world, a salvation to the world, it's crucial to their self image as God's people that we bee seen as paragons. This is theology masquerading as politics, it is crackpot transcendence which leads to the dilution of our native blood. And in their utter naivety what they fail to grasp is that the people around the world aren't looking at us admiringly but covetously. It's the last best hope for getting them out of the dire straights of a failed state and grabbing some of the White man's wealth. How it plays out is that just as the left wants the Guatemalans, and the Hondurans, and the Mexicans and the Africans to come here, so the right is hell bent on bringing in the Venezuelans, the Cubans, those from Hong Kong, or Afghanis. Bring in enough of them, and we have, and the light of the world goes dark, quite literally.
"I remain optimistic that America’s foundation remains solid. I also believe we are being tested by our Creator. Fairy dust will not be sprinkled on our heads and suddenly — poof — everything is made right. Many ask how long does the toil of war await the consummation of peace?"
It's one thing to honor and celebrate your heritage, as part of the normal course of the year. But it's extremely odd how they use the word "founding" or "founding father" as a sort of talismanic charm. You rarely if ever hear them talk about their vision for our future, what society should be like, what our great aims and goals are, other than that we should be "free"--like the founders wanted. It's not conservative at all, it's more like fetishizing dead people and dead documents as a substitute for imagination.
"In 1630, John Winthrop delivered a sermon on board a ship hazarding an Atlantic Ocean crossing. The congregation comprised people seeking to discover a new world and a new life. They were sacrificing everything, leaving their former homeland for a variety of individual reasons, but principally due to political persecutions for their Christian beliefs."
Cromwell came near to emigrating to America. As Jew lover and as one beholden to Jews he allowed them to come back in to England legally, the first time they could do that since 1290. The people who came to America from his group were like minded.
Prior to arriving in Massachusetts Bradford and the rest of his congregation went to Amsterdam where for the first time they came in contact with Jews. There they met both Sephardic Jews and conversos reveling in the free thought of that city. The group moved to a city called Leiden where Jews were studying at the university.
Bradford became a producer of fabric and was working with Sephardic merchants who came in and out of Leiden’s large ship canals.
When after fifteen years in Leiden the Puritans decided to head to the New World they came wearing the clothing of Western European merchants, clothing which was indistinguishable in dress from the Spanish Jewish merchants to whom they sold goods, which sometimes included a humble black skullcap and beard.
It was of course the Bible which gave these Englishmen access to Jewish history and led the Puritans to establish Israel in the New World. They called Massachusetts “the new Zion” and made every effort to follow the commands of the Torah as they understood them. The Pilgrims also used the Hebrew language when naming towns and villages, such as Medina, meaning community, or Salem, meaning peace. The Puritans also used Hebrew names, including Jacob, Israel, Moses, Joshua, etc.
In 1641 the Puritans adopted a legal code in Massachusetts and in 1650 in Connecticut. These codes were directly taken from the Torah, including Sabbath observance. Puritans believed, like ancient Israel, that they were ruled directly by God and therefore abolished all hierarchies in religion.
"Winthrop preached to the emigrants that the eyes of the world would be upon them, that they would be as a city set upon a hill for all to observe. If these faithful principles were true from the very origins of America, then from the very beginning, America has played a role in setting the world right."
Setting the world right sound suspiciously like tikku olam and that's no Cohen-cidence. So that famous Yankee Zeal we've heard so much about was not so different from Jewish Zeal. It was the zeal of a people who considered themselves separate and chosen by God to bring righteousness to the world, not so different than later "making the world safe for democracy" or spreading "human rights" around the world, or unfurling Black Lives Matter of Rainbow flags draped across our embassies in foreign lands. The sickness is the same. And it was that Yankee Zeal which had to destroy the South, had to destroy the Cavalier South. That is, they had to set the world right, or so they thought.
My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord!
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored
His truth is marching on!
Poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson was from a prominent New England family. He was also a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilly.
It was the intellectual inheritors of the Puritan sensibility, the transcendentalists, who came up with a disembodied philosophy which in the end led to the disqualification of race as a criteria for nationhood. Rather they formed "moral communities" which defined the group in terms of ideology, not blood. If intellectuals in the nineteenth century had a double consciousness about America, that it was an Anglo-Saxon nation but also one committed to ideas (liberty, equality) then these thinkers were harbingers of the end of the former and the triumph of the latter.
Truth to tell most of American reformers of the nineteenth century did not believe truly in the idea of negro equality. The were offended by slavery, the expression of White Supremacy, it supposedly went against the word of the Lord or their own tender moral consciences, but they had no intention of mixing with them. There were some exceptions of course, John Brown being foremost among them. Brown believed every bit in his heart and his soul in negro equality, that negros were just as good as you and me. Where would he have got such an insane idea?
John Brown was of the fourth generation, in regular descent, from Peter Brown, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, who landed from the Mayflower at Plymouth, Massachusetts on December 22, 1620.
"Yes, America does differ from the rest of the world. From the laying of the foundation to building out our “one nation under God,” America’s strength is in our people."
During his term in office Barack Obama took exception to the idea that America was an exceptional nation, postulating the Greece or Italy likely think they are exceptional too. In response to this unexceptional idea conservatives rose in one in outrage as if they were defending the honor of their wives or defending their stock portfolios. No, they said America was the exceptional nation. we are one of a kind, unique. Never has been another nation like us, and there never will be. About themselves as a race Jews hold this peculiar notion as well.
"America’s foundation reveals many things, but the most important is that We the People still represent those on that long journey seeking a better life. We the people are the ones in charge of our children, our homes, our communities, our health and yes, our destiny. We the people represent what remains good and decent in America, and we the people represent the bedrock of our foundation."
"However, regardless if we are meek and lowly or wealthy and prosperous, we owe allegiance to our Creator and what comes with allegiance is standing up after prayer and acting — acting in good faith for ourselves, our families, our communities and most especially, our nation. But our actions must be moral, ethical, legal and peaceful. Maintaining the moral high ground is the surest way to achieve victory."
The notion of A City On A Hill has become current in our political life. Ironically, like that huddled masses poem and the phrase a nation of immigrants, the City On A Hill phrase would have been unknown to American a hundred years ago. And of course they all were resurrected from the deep hole of memory at roughly the same time.
This is no Cohen-cidence.
"A City upon a Hill" or course was originally uttered by wandering busy body Jesus Of Nazareth, either him or the people who wrote down stories about his treks.
In our current context the phrase means that America is a beacon of hope to the world. The last best hope, and all of that, as we begin to see the picture.
After a millennia and more the words were picked up by John Winthrop when he gave his speech called A Model Of Christian Charity in 1630. Winthrop warned his fellows that the community they were creating was going to be "as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us."
Far from being immediately famous Winthrop's words were soon sunk in richly earned oblivion until the Massachusetts Historical Society published it in 1838. Still, however, it was a hundred years and more before enterprising politicians picked up the phrase to pull the wool over the eyes of a blinkered populace. It was in that long so-called "twilight struggle" called the Cold War that America as moral exemplar became very useful.
It remained an obscure reference for more than another century until Cold War era historians and political leaders made it relevant to their time, crediting Winthrop's text as the foundational document of the idea of American exceptionalism.
On January 9, 1961 John Kennedy gave what came to be known as the "City Upon A Hill Speech" at the state house in Boston, Massachusetts.
Speaking of his home state he said that " Its democratic institutions--including this historic body--have served as beacon lights for other nations as well as our sister states."
"I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arbella three hundred and thirty-one years ago, as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier."
It was of course that other verbal huckster, that congenial and ever sunny and optimistic Ronald Reagan who lifted the phrase to it final and irrevocable spot in the lexical pantheon.
On November 3, 1980 Regan said:
"I have quoted John Winthrop's words more than once on the campaign trail this year—for I believe that Americans in 1980 are every bit as committed to that vision of a shining city on a hill, as were those long ago settlers. These visitors to that city on the Potomac do not come as white or black, red or yellow; they are not Jews or Christians; conservatives or liberals; or Democrats or Republicans. They are Americans awed by what has gone before, proud of what for them is still a shining city on a hill."
Reagan would reference this concept through multiple speeches; notably again in his January 11, 1989, farewell speech to the nation:
"I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still."
The doors should have had locks. And guards. And turn off the lights, perhaps the invaders won't know we're in here.
Which only goes to show that if behind every fortune is a crime then behind every eternal phrase their is a manipulative history.
Flynn finished his gabbling with this sugary syrup:
"America was and will forever be the example for the world to see of that shining city on the hill for all faithful, freedom-loving people to seek. While our foundation remains strong and our courage remains immeasurable, our clarion call must now be to stand and demand accountability."
"We must demand accountability first from ourselves and then from our communities and our country, especially our elected officials. Are we the people ready to stand to answer the call? I for one believe we are. May God continue to shine his light on this city on the hill we call America."
There's another eternal phrase which would have been better taken to heart.
Charity begins at home.
And that it should end there too, that should be the real American Piety.