RUSH: Angela Merkel says that success is based on open societies and shared values. Not the way she means, and I’m gonna explain why I say that in quoting from Donald Trump today in his speech in Poland. It is amazing. It is the first such speech of its kind since Ronald Reagan. I’m not kidding you. George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush got close. But what Trump did today with his speech in Poland — actually, with his conclusion. The whole thing is awesome. But he started about 75% of the way in, and it is stunning.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’m gonna share with you the salient point of Trump’s speech in Poland today that — well, Roger Kimball of PJ Media says this speech is one of many that’s going to end up defining Donald Trump as one of the greatest presidents ever. And this speech that Trump gave today has not been given, has not even been attempted by any president since Ronald Reagan.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here is a salient point or part of the Trump speech in Poland today that sets up what I think is phenomenal. It’s audio sound bite number 6. Here it is.
THE PRESIDENT: Your oppressors tried to break you, but Poland could not be broken. And when the day came on June 2nd, 1979, and one million Poles gathered around Victory Square for their very first Mass with their Polish pope, that day every communist in Warsaw must have known that their oppressive system would soon come crashing down. They must have known it at the exact moment during Pope John Paul II’s sermon when a million Polish men, women, and children suddenly raised their voices in a single prayer. A million Polish people did not ask for wealth. They did not ask for privilege. Instead, one million Poles saying three simple words: “We want God.”
RUSH: And he’s right. That was a huge moment in the destruction of Soviet communism, Pope John Paul, part of the troika with Margaret Thatcher, Ronaldus Magnus, bringing down the Soviet Union. And Pope John Paul II, a fervent anti-communist went to Poland as pope, and the country went crazy for him. But after that comment is where Trump got to the heart of his speech.
He said, “The prerequisite for the success of Western civilization is not material riches. Economic prosperity and military might on their own are not sufficient. The critical leaven is the confidence in core Western values, such things as free speech, the equality of women, respect for individual rights, the rule of law, the affirmation of faith and family. Hence, the fundamental question facing Western nations today is whether the people continue to nurture the cultural self-confidence in those fundamental values. If they do, the West is unbeatable. If those values dissipate, the West is lost. As long as we know our history,” Trump said, “We will know how to build our future.”
Then he spent a lot of time rehearsing Poland’s heroic resistance to Nazi atrocities in the Warsaw uprising, heroic resistance to Soviet aggression. Roger Kimball, who heard the speech, wrote at PJ Media: “Not since Ronald Reagan has an American president gone so clearly to the nub of what makes the West great and what threatens that greatness.”
And he’s talking about Western civilization, Western values, American culture. This distinct American culture that resulted from our founding that is now under assault, not just from enemies around the world, but from enemies within. That distinctive American culture which has given freedom its greatest repository and chance in the world is under assault from the American media and its agents in the Democrat Party and in academia and in Hollywood. The threat to American Western civilization is now primarily domestic, and it has to be beaten back if we are to survive. It’s a battle to the death, folks, and we’re smack-dab in the middle of it. And Trump’s the only president since Reagan to acknowledge it.