The movie Dunkirk is a visual and emotional delight and brings to life for a modern audience an event that can be considered a monumental turning point in Western Civilization. During the period May 26 to June 4, 1940, over 338,000 British and French soldiers were evacuated and rescued from capture by Hitler’s advancing army in the town of Dunkirk which is located on France’s northeast coast bordering the English Channel. Allied forces were expelled from Dunkirk and were miraculously withdrawn across the English Channel to the safety of Britain with the result of being available to fight Hitler another day.
The dramatic end of the movie highlights one of Winston Churchill’s most famous and historic speeches which was given in front of the House of Commons on June 4, 1940. It is well known as the “we shall fight them on the beaches” speech which followed the equally famous “Blood, toil, tears and sweat” speech of May 13 delivered only three days after Churchill assumed power as the Prime Minister of the U.K. on May 10th.
This June 4th speech served as a major rallying cry for the British people at a dramatically low point in their history. Their very survival as a nation was at stake with an anticipated invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany forthcoming at any moment. Churchill candidly and in eloquent fashion laid out for the audience an admission of the great military disaster at Dunkirk and the series of losses in Europe, a warning of a possible German invasion and the prospect for eventual victory no matter how long and hard the road may be.
The speech served as a major morale boaster for the people of the U.K. and a declaration of the aim to fight on and never submit to the dark forces of Nazi Germany. Churchill was a man of great determination and a patriot of his nation and all that Britain stood for given its wide variety of political contributions to the world. Above all, he was a staunch supporter of freedom and the virtues of Western Civilization. From this time and continuing as Britain’s war leader and FDR and America’s indispensable ally, Churchill demonstrated a distinctive heroic brand of leadership for the ages.
Decisive action was taken by Churchill to fight the enemy at all costs
The overwhelming threat posed by Nazi Germany’s armies and its potential to cause a quick loss of the war, inspired both individuals and the newly appointed British leadership to take decisive action to save the day. Churchill was selected to assume power given this environment of uncertainty and the need to act.
All the courageous feats performed at Dunkirk and portrayed in the movie and topped off by Churchill’s historic June 4th speech evoked thoughts about current times. Our country today is facing grave threats on both the domestic and international fronts. In a similar fashion to a U.K. of a previous era, in our time the political environment in Washington is characterized by a lack of effective leadership because of the prevailing reality of political paralysis.
Our Republic of Self-Interest
This can be attributed to a political class dedicated to working in behalf of its own self-interest and the maintenance of the status quo. This is motivated by a desire to maintain their power and positions of privilege. Both Republicans and Democrats have been labeled by many as the Establishment and their determination to maintain their positions of power at the expense of the welfare of the average American citizen dominates our current political scene. In theory, politicians are elected in our representative democracy to act in behalf and serve the popular will and the needs of their constituency that elected them.
Washington politicians perceive their constituency not as the people that elected them rather they have become systematically beholden to a wide range of Special Interest groups of various types that operate behind the scenes. These Special Interest groups are responsible for the contributions necessary to finance election campaigns and they also often provide a variety of special favors to these politicians and their families.
This has been the prevailing case over the many years and has grown even more problematic over time as the influence of money in politics has grown in significance. Given this environment, it is not difficult to understand why so many politicians place their self-interest which necessitates supporting the various agendas of the special interest groups to the detriment of the common interest of the country. An undemocratic and insular form of Government has evolved and dominates today’s Washington.
A further drive toward tyranny
In addition, President Obama during the last eight years accelerated the direction of the Federal Government towards an era of Presidential Administration and a consolidation of power which was enacted by dramatically increasing the use of Executive Power. Due to the steady opposition in a Republican Congress to his policies, the Obama Administration turned to lead in a unilateral way by issuing a massive number of Executive Orders on issues critical to the nation. They enacted an ever-increasing number of environmental, immigration, financial industry, energy and healthcare and a multitude of many more of these types of regulations.
The creation of this increasing regulatory environment imposed billions of dollars in new costs on business and consumers. This is attributed to be a leading contributor to the failure of the Obama economy in any year to grow at a greater than a 2.0% rate during the all the years of his Administration.
Our Founding Fathers attempted to design a government that would prevent the rise of tyranny
What transpired was a move to pass a radical progressive agenda in an increasingly undemocratic fashion, intentionally bypassing Congress and the will of the American people. Our Founding Fathers were students of history and attempted to do their best to prevent such actions by creating our system of balanced government with three countervailing branches of government. They created a written Constitution that was structured with the long-term objective of attempting to prevent the rise of a tyranny in our country. However, their wishes were strongly countermanded by the actions of the previous Administration. Today in Washington, a different sort of government than the Founders intended exists. Given the results of the November election, enough people agreed with this judgement and voted for a distinct change of direction.
The outsider is elected
Donald Trump’s motivation for running for President was that he recognized the poor job the country’s politicians were doing and thought that it was possible for him to do better. To this day, there is ample evidence that politicians of the Washington Establishment continue to misinterpret and misread the political landscape of much of the country. Unlike most politicians in Washington today, President Trump is not primarily driven by ideology and his personal fortune insulates him from the politics of money that buys power and access. Rather he is a doer and a man that measures his success by his accomplishments and by the successful enactment of his promised Agenda to “Make America Great Again”.
Their finest hours! … Our finest hours?
In Britain’s darkest hours, Churchill demonstrated a bold style of leadership advocating and enacting a course of action to defeat Nazi Germany that was outside the then prevailing Establishment’s method of acting. Presiding U.K. PM Neville Chamberlain was struck by an unfortunate case of political paralysis at a precarious time in history. Churchill was the “Alpha” male for his time and saved the day. Our age’s “Alpha” male is Donald Trump. He too shares with Churchill a similar gift of being capable of communicating with ordinary citizens and invoking a Populist tone. Trump is a man of bold action and has vowed to “Drain the Swamp” in Washington. This is a task worthy of a Churchill.
The RightQuestions 