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I posted this essay exactly 3 years ago February. It illustrates just how little things have changed in a period that most people say has been chaotic.
Learning From Elephants One of the most disturbing trends in the American experience is the strain politics is putting on the relationships between our family and friends. The fact is that since the beginning, Americans have been divided. Every four years we confront those feelings by conducting a national election. It is something that forces us, as a union of fifty states, to reconcile our differences in a peaceful manner. President Lincoln was hated by the opposition party because he wanted to disrupt a tradition of holding slaves. Democrats threatened to use violence if necessary to undo his attack on their way of life. We all know how that ended up. So here we are hundreds of years later and some angry progressives are also threatening impeachment and even assassination to stop what they consider the hijacking of their politically correct social construct of equanimity and social justice, as personified by Barack Obama. I see daily pleas to not let politics come between our personal relationships. Isn't it funny that only now that a conservative coalition has assumed power that some people are suddenly concerned about microaggressions? I don't remember anyone showing empathy for conservatives when Obama policies attacked Christians for refusing to participate or condone practices they deemed antithetical to their beliefs. I don't remember anyone coming forward to protect the rights of ranchland owners whose property was being invaded by illegal immigrants streaming across the Mexican border. I don't remember anyone coming to the rescue when the institution of marriage was redefined by judicial fiat. I know for a fact that for the past eight years, myself and many of my conservative friends have had to bite our tongue and remain silent under the threat of being called bigots because we had policy differences with the administration. For the past few years, we have had to endear slanderous assaults over virtually anything we said: we were constantly being characterized as racists, homophobes, misogynists and haters. This is a new form of fascism. Instead of using a super nationalist fervor to dominate the opposition, the leftists have rallied around their own social justice agenda. They have their own 'God' to crusade for, and it is 'Group Think' about sexism, environmentalism, racism and innumerable other 'isms'. I hate the idea that we can't sit around the dinner table and have a rational, adult discussion of social issues! But I think the idea that we have to suppress our patriotism, our faith, our self identity, our male or female instincts, our family structure, our compassion or empathies, our success and our wealth or lack of it is in and of itself is destructive and un-American. The anger over the threat to our relationships is, in my view, misplaced. The stress that we Americans are feeling has manifested it's irrational intensity since the Vietnam War. The national anger was on display at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It was the beginning of the street demonstrations, the violence and demonization of the opposition, the overt anti-Americanism. It has since been institutionalized by college curricula, by the liberal press, by the liberal film and television industry, and by a coalition of leftist world organizations who embrace the anti-semitism of the Third Reich. Now we have the attack on Western values by extremist Islamic Jihadists groups (and recently by Progressive Democrats). The asymmetrical war has changed our way of life. We have lost many of the fundamental freedoms we took for granted; casual international travel, fearless congregations of large groups in public assemblies, loss of privacy and nearly invisible community law enforcement. We should be focusing our anger on the forces of terror for driving a wedge between our family differences. The terrorists are purposely shredding our libertarian bonds. The painful strains we feel within our national family are not accidental. Instead of blaming each other, we should be outraged by how terrorism is screwing up the world! Recently we have witnessed outright pleas for violence, murder and ethnic (aka, conservatives) cleansing by extremist groups rampaging through the streets, sacking businesses, starting fires, and attacking innocent bystanders. They claim they are resisting nationalist right-wingers from stealing their freedoms. But ironically, it is their actions that are restricting the freedoms of Americans, not the other way around. Their actions are actually micro terrorism. Whether intentional or not, they are encouraging chaos and suppression. So what should we traditionalist Americans do? Should we suppress our nationalism, our patriotism, our love of God, just so we don't hurt someone's feelings? Why are people that don't share our love of Americanism so special? Why should we go out of our way to avoid any conversation that might offend them? When they were in power, they showed no such empathy towards us! In fact, there is evidence that some government agencies were politicized and used to intimidate opposition groups (the IRS was caught auditing Tea Party activists). This idea that we should all just cautiously dance around subjects that might offend reminds me of Orwell's Animal Farm; the Farmers were demonized, and the animals mounted a revolution. But in the end, the revolution crashed because some animals decided that other animals just weren't smart enough to govern themselves. That theme exemplifies the narcissism and nihilism of the leftist cabal. Every country, or family, has a structure, or it isn't really a family or an autonomous country. There has to be some sort of hierarchy, or you have anarchy. The question is, can that structure operate in a fair and equitable way? The difference in successful family units is the acceptance by each person in the unit that they hold the outcome in their individual hands by accepting their roles, operating out of an unconditional love for each other, and recognizing that without the support of the unit, the Team, if you will, each individual cannot have the same level of success in life. Leftists will call that idea a biblical nuclear family. Fair enough. History shows that is is the most successful strategy for maintaining social stability. The same principles should apply to government. The representative form of democracy that America invented has proven to be just the formula for building a national family unit. It means that every four years we elect our 'father'. Then we decide how we, as the family tree, can support him or her, so that each of us can contribute to the success of the whole. One of those roles is to be able to sit down with our brothers and sisters, and respectfully disagree with each other. In the end, when a decision has to be made, 'dad' makes the choice and the family supports that decision. When one of the family kicks and screams that it didn't go their way, the family suffers. And as much as it may hurt to do, 'dad' must reign in the rebel. If he doesn't, the family will ultimately implode. Of course there are proper settings for these discussions; and the dinner table may not be appropriate. But sitting around and avoiding the elephant in the room is in my view, un-American. We can learn a lot from elephants. They have survived longer than we have as a species, and they operate in a strict family hierarchy. Colleges are producing two distinctively different graduates. One group goes on to build a family and a career. They use their college experience to leverage a job by using their connections, then give an excellent, well framed and articulate job interview, and then show up on time ready to contribute. The other student profile is not seriously looking for a job. They are looking for a lifestyle. Graduating rabble rousers are not unhappy about how college let them down. In fact, they have a high regard for the professors who awakened their latent hatred for the American experience. They are angry at our culture, our heritage and especially at those that venerate America. They will tell you it was college that helped them understand their inner turmoil, and turn it into productive social justice activism. For Progressives, college was like going to a doctor and getting an elixir. It is where the lost souls go to get affirmation and to find a movement to join. Intentional or not, our college system is just as divided as our country. Either you graduate as a worker bee, or you become a social warrior. (Excerpted from The Illusion of Knowledge: Why So Many Educated Americans Embrace Marxism) |
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