Posted on 05/22/2006 11:31:47 PM PDT by goldstategop
The highest-ranking Democrat in America, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, described the Senate bill making English the national language of the American people as "racist." And the New York Times editorial page labeled the bill "xenophobic." Welcome to the thoughtless world of contemporary liberalism. Beginning in the 1960s, liberalism, once the home of many deep thinkers, began to substitute feeling for thought and descended into superficiality.
One-word put-downs of opponents' ideas and motives were substituted for thoughtful rebuttal. Though liberals regard themselves as intellectual -- their views, after all, are those of nearly all university professors -- liberal thought has almost died. Instead of feeling the need to thoughtfully consider an idea, most liberal minds today work on automatic. One-word reactions to most issues are the liberal norm.
This is easy to demonstrate.
Here is a list of terms liberals apply to virtually every idea or action with which they differ:
Racist Sexist Homophobic Islamophobic Imperialist Bigoted Intolerant
And here is the list of one-word descriptions of what liberals are for:
Peace Fairness Tolerance The poor The disenfranchised The environment
These two lists serve contemporary liberals in at least three ways.
First, they attack the motives of non-liberals and thereby morally dismiss the non-liberal person.
Second, these words make it easy to be a liberal -- essentially all one needs to do is to memorize this brief list and apply the right term to any idea or policy. That is one reason young people are more likely to be liberal -- they have not had the time or inclination to think issues through, but they know they oppose racism, imperialism and bigotry, and that they are for peace, tolerance and the environment.
Third, they make the liberal feel good about himself -- by opposing conservative ideas and policies, he is automatically opposing racism, bigotry, imperialism, etc.
Examples could fill a book.
Harry Reid, as noted above, supplied a classic one. Instead of grappling with the enormously significant question of how to maintain American identity and values with tens of millions of non-Americans coming into America, the Democratic leader and others on the Left simply label attempts to keep English as a unifying language as "racist."
Another classic example of liberal non-thought was the reaction to former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers' mere question about whether the female and male brains were wired differently. Again, instead of grappling with the issue, Harvard and other liberals merely dismissed Summers as "sexist."
A third example is the use of the term "racist" to end debate about race-based affirmative action or even to describe a Capitol police officer who stops a black congresswoman who has no ID badge.
"Phobic" is the current one-word favorite among liberal dismissals of ideological opponents. It combines instant moral dismissal with instant psychological analysis. If you do not support society redefining marriage to include members of the same sex you are "homophobic" -- and further thought is unnecessary. If you articulate a concern about the moral state of Islam today, you are "Islamophobic" -- and again further thought is unnecessary. And if you seek to retain English as America's unifying language, you are not only racist, you are, as the New York Times editorial describes you, "xenophobic" and "Latinophobic," the latest phobia uncovered by the Left.
There is a steep price paid for the liberal one-wording of complex ideas -- the decline of liberal thought. But with more and more Americans graduating college and therefore taught the liberal list of one-word reactions instead of critical thinking, many liberals do not see any pressing need to think through issues. They therefore do not believe they have paid any price at all.
But American society is paying a steep price. Every car that has a bumper sticker declaring "War is not the answer" powerfully testifies to the intellectual decline of the well educated and to the devolution of "liberal thought" into an oxymoron.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
"the decline of liberal thought. "
Aha..they wanted the public to THINK there was thought behind their "message". The only thought they have is to regain political power. They want to turn America into a socialist failure, throw out the Constitution, coddle criminals, get rid of all guns, raise taxes, bend over for terrorists and kill off all that is American and America.
Liberal thought.
Tight slacks.
Jumbo shrimp.
Military intelligence.
Express mail.
Good Muslim.
Entertaining sermon.
Microsoft Works.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
Modern liberalism reeks of failure, mediocrity and pain wherever and
whenever its tried. It stymies progress and attempts to reduce risk to
the point of killing all chance to pursue greatness and realize
dreams. It attacks the pillars of our society and tries to replace
them with proven failed idealistic utopian nonsense.
It promises more then any form of government could possibly deliver
and looks down on those it claims to champion as individuals that
could never succeed without them.
It exempts the liberal elite from having to live under the very rules
they preach that the rest of us should live under. It claims to
champion freedom of speech but only when it is hate filled and
corrupting of young minds. It preaches tolerance unless its
conservatism. It claims to champion minorities but mocks the success
of minorities if they are conservative. It seeks not equal rights but
special rights for the party faithful. It is condescending to the
point of claiming insight to the human heart if one is compassionate
or not by their definition of course.
Liberalism *today* has no great cause, has no voice of rationality
only shrill emotionalism and craves power at all costs but has no idea
how to use it and offers zero workable solutions only criticisms of
those who risk, lead and do. It offers nothing but disdain for anyone
who would stand in its way or dare question its reasoning. It has
produced some of the most divisive shrill politicians this nation has
ever seen. Kerry, Kennedy, Pelosi, Gore, Dean, Biden, Byrd, prime
examples, And if you dare disagree as a democrat? well Ask Zell
Miller that one.
The Democratic party is under control of this modern liberalism
that is now simply a party of irrational opposition for the sake of
opposition itself.
Um... Doesn't this assume that there was liberal thought to begin with?
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
IMHO, we should be thankful every day for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. It's difficult to imagine two more incompetent opposing leaders.
He really is one of the best, consistently over many years.
That seems to have dissipated under the relentless insistence of style over substance that is typified by that best friend of conservatives in the U.S., Howard Dean. A party that had been in majority in the House for four decades seemed to deliberately choose minority because it better fit the sort of responsibility-free demagoguery that originated on college campuses in the 70's and that is now contending for the soul of the party. I do not see any particular indication that its current inhabitants really desire to be in the majority again, with all the accountability that will demand. Much better to snipe incessantly at Bush with the hope that it may eventually bring him down and the fear of what will happen should they come into an unwanted responsibility thereafter.
More liberal "thoughts"--
Disenfranchised voters.
Soup kitchens.
Bush's fault.
Rich Americans.
Terrorist rights.
Freedom fighters.
Gas guzzlers.
Yeah, but like George Romero's "dead" it will still kill millions. The coveting of others property, and the manipulations to steal it will never die. Liberalism, all envy no morality.
They aren't liberals. They are socialists, many with totalitarian impulses about what can be expressed. Political correctness is "cultural marxism."
The other day I was conversing with a liberal, and she gave me the usual heroic story about her opposing some stupid redneck southern yokel who had dared use the "n" profanity in her presence. Liberals run into these types every day you know. She stopped telling the tale as if she was expecting applause. She had just hit all the notes of the new soviet template and I didn't affirm her courage and righteousness. She was shocked.
Instead, I told her I was of southern ancestry, and that my people worked in the fields with the slaves and were too poor to do anything but harvest crops and join the service during segregation. I told her I had often ran into liberals who thought I hung sheets in my closet because of my family's deep south origins.
Then, the finish. I told her that I always tell these liberals that I have two black nieces and a Polynesian sister in law. I then ask the ethnic makeup of their family. As I left the room I (innocently) mentioned that people practicing their non-racist superiority is as bad as Bible thumpers entering a room and telling people they are going to Hell.
I don't think I've ever sen a wider pair of eyes. That's a lot for one liberal to think about.
Who are the people who hate me because I believe we are at war? What wold you call those who hate me because I don't believe in federally funded abortions? Where do those come from who call me names for believing lower taxes eqautes to econmic growth? Whoever they are, they want the government to take a larger bite out of my income; most want to socialize medicine. Most want to test al qaeda and wait for another attack. These are the same people who believe our society should welcome bad artists who use urine and dung on Christian icons while prohibiting nativity scenes in the public square--who have sued their way for the religion of PC into our daily American scene, from education to the workplace. Some have held signs that say "we support out troops when they shoot thier officers," and other vile references. Whoever they are, they are not like me and don't think like I do--take away labels, sure... we could simply say there are haters and non-haters I suppose. Because one thing's for sure, I don't hate them; I just never want to see them in power and I will always fight their wrong, bad ideas. They--whoever, whatever--sure do hate me.
As far as I see, the Quran is not a good book. It's a book that promotes murder of people who disagree with you. Nor is Islam a good religion, in any sense of the word "good." Nor does it produce good people.
A nice little "feel good" piece, but total BS...
Liberalism is alive and well, and in control of congress..
Liberalism is just Socialism waiting to take power..
Liberalism is pounded into the brains of the masses, on a daily, hourly basis, and they have succumbed to the propaganda, and become brainwashed by it..
Judge for yourself..
The Liberals make public demands for an end to resistance against the terrorist Islamicists that publicly state they want to kill us or subjugate us... ( The terrorists don't care which..)
Likewise, even though the US now has 10% of Mexico's population living and working in the US, Liberals want more..
And Congress and our President are helping..
Liberalism is NOT DEAD..
Senate Intelligence.
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