Posted on 07/25/2005 5:08:06 PM PDT by CHARLITE
At the heart of the challenge facing the conservative agenda lies one simple fact: while we focused our efforts on politics, our opponents on the left focused instead on culture.
Each of us won. Compared to where the conservative movement was the year I came to Washington, 1967, we are today immensely stronger politically. Republicans, most of whom are at least nominally conservative, control both Houses of Congress and the White House. That is success on a grand scale.
Unfortunately, our opponents have won an equally large victory over our culture. Today, what was called the "counter-culture" in the 1960s now controls almost every cultural venue: the entertainment industry (which is now the most powerful force in our culture), the government schools, the media, even many churches. The ideology usually know as "Political Correctness," which is really the cultural Marxism of the infamous Frankfurt School, is using every type of cultural institution in our country to achieve its purpose, which is the destruction of traditional Western culture and the Christian religion. All we have to do is look around us and compare what we see with the America of the 1950s to understand how vast their victory is. The old sins have become virtues and the old virtues have become sins.
The nub of the problem is this: culture is stronger than politics. Despite everything conservatives have achieved in politics, the left's cultural victory trumps ours. That is why even when we win election after election, our country continues to deteriorate.
(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...
Excellent observations from a conservative culture-watcher. We cannot win in the political sphere alone. Our true success will come when we can reverse the amoral nihilism that is becoming the standard of the post-modern era. To do that, we need to demonstrate that a world with values -- even flawed values -- is better than a world with nothing. Sounds easy, but to generations robbed of their moral heros, there's not much left to dream.
Excellent article!
Most of the citizens of America do not comprehend what is happening to their country. The changes we see in America did not happen overnight. We hear people remark over and over It wasnt like this when I was a kid!, What is happening to my countery?.
What is happening to my country started over forty years ago. The changes to be made were charted out and documented in the: Communist Goals (1963). The many groups of Socialist front groups have achieved most of the items listed in the Communists Goals.
The old Frog in a pan of water comparison fits very well to what is taking place. Our principals, our morality and our Constitution are under assault and half of the citizens of our country do not see it. Some of these 45 goals being achieved are:
Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press
Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history
Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
bttt
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