12-7 and 9-11

Vote Republican.net ^ | 12-3-03 | Michael P. Tremoglie

[Hill Street Blues]

12-7 and 9-11

by Michael P. Tremoglie

The 1930’s were known as the Red Decade. It was an era when American culture and political thought were becoming increasingly leftist in orientation.

In the words of Eugene Lyons in his book The Red Decade: "Never before --or since-- had all areas of American society been so deeply penetrated by a foreign nation and a foreign ideology. Never before had the country's thinking, official policies, education, art, and moral attitudes been so profoundly affected by the agents, sympathisers and unwitting puppets of a distant dictatorship."

Pearl Harbor changed that orientation.

After Pearl Harbor Americans became more patriotic, more religious, and more democratic after Pearl Harbor. The institutions of American culture were changed. Media, art, music all became more appreciative of American democracy and less appreciative of foreign “utopias.”

For the next two decades, American culture promoted the ideas of democracy, religion, equality, capitalism, and patriotism. The uniformed services were regarded with esteem. Capitalism was enjoyed and revered. The only bastions of leftist culture were in the very influential (albeit small) fields of art, literature, entertainment, journalism, government, and academia. However, unlike the 30’s, leftist philosophy was not the preeminent belief among Americans even though it may have been among some elites.

All that changed in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

Leftist/socialist/communist thought became the major philosophy, the zeitgeist as it were. It was represented sympathetically in movies, theater, television, art, books, and most importantly academia. These institutions promoted ideas that were antithetical to the American ethos. Uniform services were reviled. Capitalism was disdained.

The average American reverted to being skeptical about the American ideal and public opinion was receptive to the communist propaganda. After all, many soldiers in Viet Nam believed it was an “economic war.” Many citizens believed that it was only the “poor and the minorities who were being sent to Viet Nam” - a myth that to this day is being recited by such influential journalists as Chris Mathews and historians like Doris Kearns Goodwin.

We were told that Ho Chi Minh modeled his declaration from the Declaration of Independence. Americans serving in Viet Nam were given the analogy by the media of comparing Viet Nam to our own Revolutionary War. They were made to feel that we were the British and they the redcoats. The Communists were like the American colonists - patriots who only wanted freedom.

These anti-American feelings precipitated a purge of the government institutions like defense and intelligence in the post-Viet Nam era. Public opinion, disillusioned by Viet Nam and Watergate, and fueled by a liberal media, was ripe to begin dismantling intelligence because of the “revelations” of Cointelpro. These revelations of FBI spying on “civil rights” groups and leaders; clergy; and charitable organizations were portrayed by the media as fascism.

9-11 changed all that.

Since then, we have noticed a reverence for the uniform services. A reverence that has not existed since WWII. This reverence has been shared by and, in some instances implemented by, the artistic and literary community. American capitalism and military have a new appreciation as imperfect as they are.

Those in the media or on campus may question whether the flag should be displayed. However, this question would never have been considered before. They would have considered displaying a flag jingoistic.

It is only among some academicians, some government officials and the mainstream media that the anti-American status quo is retained. It is only among them that this transmogrification from loathing of American culture to an appreciation of what America provides them has not occurred.

Yet, this is a positive thing. It is positive because the public needs to know about: professors who proclaim that any group that can destroy the Pentagon is admirable; professors who proclaim that it is America who is responsible for the Taliban; CEO’s of media corporations who proclaim that they cannot issue a condemnation of terrorism because of their objectivity; government officials who prohibit patriotic displays; librarians who unctuously reprimand an employee for furnishing the FBI information about terrorists.

As long as the average American is aware of such anti-American fanaticism these people will be discredited. Ordinary America will now know these liberal elites are not altruists. They do not believe in democracy. They are demagogues. They are totalitarians. They are aristocrats.

The liberals are becoming increasingly marginalized as more is known about them. As ordinary Americans are learning about who is operating their cultural institutions and as they learn that they have not been told the truth, those institutions will change. As more and more Americans learn that educators do not want the pledge of allegiance recited because it somehow might make some students uncomfortable, Americans might ask themselves - is the prohibition of prayer in school really a constitutional issue or an attempt to bowdlerize religion from the culture? Are the proclamations by civil libertarians opposing military tribunals really a civil liberties issue or just fanaticism?

As more Americans hear and read mainstream media journalists describe as jingoistic Lee Greenwood singing “ I’m proud to be an American, God Bless the USA,” those journalists will be recognized as the as the sanctimonious, supercilious twits they are.

December 7th ended the Red Decade. September 11th will change American culture as well.

[gcruse]

That book made a believer out of me.

[aristeides]

Timothy Wilford's Pearl Harbor Redefined: USN Radio Intelligence in 1941 contains a good deal of additional evidence supporting Stinnett's case (even though Wilford writes in a noncommittal way, as politics probably require of an academic like him.)

[Calpernia]

Bronx cheer? I didn't know that was a Bronx cheer. Now if you will excuse me, I am off to go climb a mountain to solely prove to you it does not bow.

And a Bronx Cheer to you.

[gcruse]

Alrighty. Be careful with the climbing, though. If you do it long enough, you will wear the mountain down to nothing. It's called erosion. You know, that geology stuff.

[Young Werther]

In a word, "No!"

Of course, that's my opinion.

[RJCogburn]

Pinging me to a very weakly written and reasoned article, but thanks just the same.
;^)

[gcruse]

Actually, it was to see the explosion of a poster in the form of animated raspberries, but the article needed knocking, too.

[JohnGalt]

Day of Deceit bump.

[Maelstrom]

gcruse, we're dealing with Damaged goods...

...we're going to have to give up on this one. It clearly belongs to the "guilty until proven innocent" crowd and it's too old and too full of hubris to take correction.

Calpernia is an ignorant, mislead, non-learner.

[Hill Street Blues]

Well since you choose to get insulting I will reply in kind and you ain't gonna like it.

No, Galt, people like me are not sheep - just human. And we are not some black helicopter conspiracy theory freaks like you are.

What is the name of your militia, Adolf? Do you see commies sneaking into your bedroom at night? Conservatism? Yeah right you're an American conservative like the KKK was American conservative.

Libertarian? You mean libertine don't you? Isolationist are you? Try existing in the world by yourself.

You think the neocons are taking over the world like Buchanan? You have more in common with Hillary and her crowd than you know Galt. You both spit on people in uniform.

[Maelstrom]

So will you be climbing the rockies, or the wind-worn rocks in Arizona, or the wind-eroded peaks of the Allegheny mountains?

Your high school diploma is worthless.

[gcruse]

Yes, I guess so. Ignorance in the service of a poor education is susceptible to bumper-sticker thinking over contemplation. The level of sophistication is captured perfectly in the animated, slobbering raspberries.

[JohnGalt]

Wrong on all counts, but thanks for proving my point Leftie:

I don't believe in black helicopters the way you people fear 'dirty bombs' and cave dwellers.

I don't belong to a militia, but thanks for demonstrating to the group that you are a knee jerk leftie with nothing to add, posing as a conservative because you like tanks and bombs and sending teenage girls off to battle to protect you.

I believe the JBS over-estimated the Communist threat, but I don't think that is such a bad thing on its own. Not a member, though.

I am not a libertine. I believe abortion is murder. I believe sex outside marriage is wrong. I believe virtue comes before liberty.

I am a mere isolationist in so far that I believe the only foreign policy document that needs to be studied is George Washington's Farewell Address.

No, I think the Neocons and neo-liberals have been taken over both parties.

I believe you agree with Hillary that we should send more troops to the Middle East. I stand with conservatives in bringing them home as soon as possible.

I have friends in Iraq and have to read scared imbeciles and key board patriots argue that its a good policy to use US soldiers as human bait for terrorists.

[Calpernia]

>>>Actually, it was to see the explosion of a poster in the form of animated raspberries

Psst, RJ, don't let GCruse fool you. This is how he flirts. He secretly has a crush on me.

[Calpernia]

>>>Calpernia is an ignorant, mislead, non-learner.

*bats eyelashes*

Tell me again about my eyes

(smooches)

[Calpernia]

I found nothing to climb. The world is flat. You haven't fallen for that round world conspiracy stuff, have you?

[Calpernia]

>>>>Ignorance in the service of a poor education is susceptible to bumper-sticker thinking over contemplation.

How dare you! I would never put a bumper-sticker on my car. Ruins the paint.

>>>The level of sophistication is captured perfectly in the animated, slobbering raspberries.

I knew you missed me!

[Maelstrom]

Sorry, I don't participate in adultery.

However, you're still wrong about several things.

I do apologize for trying to teach you the errors of your tagline, the errors in your Earth Science, and the error of trying to teach you the definition of the word "context".

It was wrong of me to try to help you.

[Calpernia]

Thank you. Apology accepted. I forgive you.

***But I meant the smooches!*** ;)

[Maelstrom]

Then you must accept a slap.