The political pendulum had swung back and forth for a while. After scandal and a period of liberal drift, there had been a strong leader, a return to the patriotism of the old days. After an unwarranted attack, and in the name of patriotism, a war had been undertaken to re-establish pre-eminence in the world, but it left the country economically weakened and unpopular with friends and rivals alike. In the period that followed, national pride seemed to take a back seat. A new liberal republic emerged, pandering to the outside world, even to the point of following a growing socialist trend in allied countries. The order of the old days was changing. Indeed it looked like the sky might really be falling.

But a spark of nationalism, of pride in the past and a return to the heady days of world leadership remained. True believers must lead, not watered down moderates and certainly not the liberals or socialists. Supported by aristocrats of industry, with the blessing and encouragement of the Christian evangelical community, a new movement was born. Even the Catholic Church signed on. You let us do our thing, you do your thing. Finally, and critically, a loyal media outlet was created that would define the enemy, speak pride to weakness, expose the liberal status quo, and set things right again.

Bold enough to speak out, brave enough to address the issues, the true believers would rise again. There were national threats. Other ethnic groups were taking jobs from deserving citizens with a natural birthright. Worse, they were polluting a national identity that had been won over generations. The liberal politicians were giving away the country’s natural right to world leadership. The national defense had been whittled down and was becoming dangerously weak. The sky was falling. There was much to fear and it was vital that the populace saw it and felt it.

Germany, 1933.

Time to act. A devil’s bargain was made with the very socialists so hated in the east. Poland would be divided up. France would be short work, Britain an afterthought. World conquest would follow, turning on the previous socialist “ally” in an extreme conservative revival, all in the name of returning Germany to its rightful place as the leader of the developed world. By using fear in everything not German, by channeling it with a controlled media, the Nazi’s could inspire the nation that they alone could and would save the country from ruin and return the pride that had been lost at Versailles.

But another kind of conservative, another believer in national pride and tradition, had another idea. Churchill’s view was not of conservative, despotic power but of a legacy of stewardship. His patriotism was not authoritarian but rather a love of freedom and a way of life, of protecting first the dignity and the freedom of all. The truth that he fought to protect was not a truth of dogma or an ideology defined and pitched by a media outlet, but a truth proven in the decency of humanity and in the resolve of humanity to live free. And he believed that the sky would not fall. The truth holds up even a heavy sky.

And he won the fight in collaboration with a liberal. Franklin Roosevelt was a practical man like Churchill with the same belief that while beliefs are good, ideas are better than ideology. They shared a passion that right is right, something to be discovered not dictated. A passion that right would win, that the sky would not, and in fact could not, fall.

Hope was the fuel, not fear. Where despots manipulate with fear, leaders inspire with hope. Despots frighten people. Leaders empower them. Despots arbitrate truth. Leaders search for it.

Truth. It always bubbles up. It finds a way. Like grass through cracks in the concrete. God blesses the grass. He blesses truth. Truth prevails. The sky never falls, because truth never falls.

What lessons are there from history? We have to learn from it or we will repeat it.

• That hope is better than fear.
• That truth is something worth the trouble to seek, rather than taking the easy way out and just defining it.