"Our values and way of life will prevail - terrorism will not"
About this Quote
It is a promise dressed up as a reassurance: a nation doesn’t just survive terrorism, it morally outlasts it. John Linder’s line works because it shifts the battlefield from security policy to identity. “Our values and way of life” is deliberately roomy language, built to gather a coalition without naming the messy trade-offs that actually define those values in practice. It’s an anthem, not a briefing.
The syntax matters. “Will prevail” casts history as a referee already leaning our direction, smoothing over uncertainty and fear. Then the dash functions like a gavel: “terrorism will not.” The enemy is made abstract and singular, not an organization with motives but an evil that can be negated. That rhetorical move offers emotional closure in a moment when reality is open-ended; it’s how leaders create the feeling of control when they can’t guarantee it.
The subtext is also a warning to the home audience: unity is patriotism, dissent risks sounding like doubt in the “values.” After 9/11-era politics, that framing often came bundled with expanded surveillance, wars justified as defense of “our way of life,” and cultural boundary-drawing around who counts as “our.” The line is motivational, but it quietly polices the conversation.
As political speech, it’s efficient: it affirms, divides, and absolves. If “we” are the values, then whatever “we” do can be narrated as their protection. That’s the seduction - and the danger - of turning policy into a morality play.
The syntax matters. “Will prevail” casts history as a referee already leaning our direction, smoothing over uncertainty and fear. Then the dash functions like a gavel: “terrorism will not.” The enemy is made abstract and singular, not an organization with motives but an evil that can be negated. That rhetorical move offers emotional closure in a moment when reality is open-ended; it’s how leaders create the feeling of control when they can’t guarantee it.
The subtext is also a warning to the home audience: unity is patriotism, dissent risks sounding like doubt in the “values.” After 9/11-era politics, that framing often came bundled with expanded surveillance, wars justified as defense of “our way of life,” and cultural boundary-drawing around who counts as “our.” The line is motivational, but it quietly polices the conversation.
As political speech, it’s efficient: it affirms, divides, and absolves. If “we” are the values, then whatever “we” do can be narrated as their protection. That’s the seduction - and the danger - of turning policy into a morality play.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
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