Posted on 01/23/2007 11:10:31 PM PST by Eagle Forgotten
From a review of Dinesh D’Souza's The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11:
At first Dinesh D’Souza considered him “a dark-eyed fanatic, a gun-toting extremist, a monster who laughs at the deaths of 3,000 innocent civilians.” But once he learned how Osama bin Laden was viewed in the Muslim world, D’Souza changed his mind. Now he finds bin Laden to be “a quiet, well-mannered, thoughtful, eloquent and deeply religious person.” ...
I never thought a book by D’Souza, the aging enfant terrible of American conservatism, would, like the Stalinist apologetics of the popular front period, contain such a soft spot for radical evil. But in “The Enemy at Home,” D’Souza’s cultural relativism hardly stops with bin Laden. ... Unlike President Bush, who once said he could not understand how anyone could hate America, D’Souza knows why Islamic radicals attack us. “Painful though it may be to admit,” he admits, “some of what the critics or even enemies say about America and the West ... may be true.”
... [D’Souza argues that we should] encourage a split between “radical” Muslims like bin Laden, who engage in jihad, and “traditional” Muslims who are conservative in their political views and deeply devout in their religious practices; understanding the radical Muslims, even being sympathetic to some of their complaints, is the best way to win the support of the traditionalists. We should stand with conservative Muslims in protest against the publication of the Danish cartoons that depicted the Prophet Muhammad rather than rallying to the liberal ideal of free speech. ... [M]ost important of all, conservative religious believers in America should join forces with conservative religious believers in the Islamic world to combat their common enemy: the cultural left.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I haven't read the book. Can anyone fill us in about whether Wolfe is distorting D'Souza's views, and taking quotations out of context, to make his point? or does D'Souza really say pretty much what Wolfe says he says?
please tell me this is a left wing smear.
Jaz, you still awake? Isn't this the guy we just had a thread about...and he was a good guy???
http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/2a5bcda1-8f43-4878-bc26-c61edf913615
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016556.php
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26553
If you insist on a more substantive indication, his bio of Ronald Reagan is subtitled "How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader". I've always considered him a conservative.
Actually, no. It's a hardcore leftist drug-induced (no doubt) fantasy.
phew, ok. that scare me a minute. so perhaps they are also lying about all the 'pubs abandoning the w.o.t. as well.
I hope.
Thank you for the info. I am sure I was on a thread the other day with one of his articles.
The NYTs is outing leftist conservatives? Color me suspicious.
excerpt: (italics/bold, mine)
=======================
[The Bush Administration and the conservatives must stop uncritically promoting American popular culture, because it is producing a blowback of Muslim rage. . . .American foreign policy should stand up for liberal values; but not for the liberal values associatied with the cultural left. Rather it must work to promote classical liberal ideas (. . . .)
There are also healthy aspects of American culture that we can be proud to share with the rest of the world. But we must stop exporting the cultural left's America. That means we should stop insisting on radical secularism, stop promoting the feminist conception of the family, stop trying to promote abortion and "sex education," and we should try to halt the export of the vulgar and corrupting elements of our popular culture. When we cannot do these things, we should apologize to the rest of the world and make it clear that we too find a good deal in this culture to be embarassing and disgusting.
There is no "clash of civilizations"between Islam and the West. But there are two clashes of civilizations that are shaping the world today.
The first is a clash between liberal and conservative values within America. The second is a clash between traditional Islam and radical Islam, a clash within Islamic society. So realize it or not, American conservatives are fighting a two-front war. The first is a war against Islamic radicalism and fundamentalism. The second is a political struggle against the left and its pernicious political and moral influence in America and around the globe.
My conclusion is that the two wars are intimately connected. In fact, we cannot win the first war without also winning the second war.]
=======================
Bought this book last week and just picked it up today to read. . .but only read intro. Agree, so far but perhaps not 'as far' as D'Souza appears to want to take readers; but then; have only just begun. . .
For sure; the Lefties- the cultural Left will not like being id' as Enemy #1; here at home; and globally. . .
Personally, think President Bush has, in fact, been careful not to promote the 'worst' elements of our culture abroad. On the contrary; he focuses on the job at hand of promoting Democracy/Freedom - which in turn, of course, makes ALL of America possible - and he does present a 'united front'; one American face; so to speak. He seldom (ever?) like all Repub Leadership, for that matter; identifies the Face of Our Enemy here at home.
Right now, it seems the Left IS winning the 'Culture War' at least by many measures; but not all of course. The current and most critical front is the war; and of course, the enemy forces driving it; worldwide. . . and 'our home enemies' could ultimately win here as well - by our withdrawing in defeat that is.
We have asked/pleaded our Repub leadership to match their own WILL against that of our Military who must fight the 'other' enemy. . . but have seen little genuine Will; or courage to exercise it. (Had there been; think Repubs would NOT now be, the Minority in Washington.)
Think 'we' are now left to create the groundswell here. . .or the wave. . .or whatever. But we must make it happen.
Why don't our good Repubs - perhaps with Newt's help; write a Republican Constitution; a Document of some name anyway; that first LIBERATES us all from the psychological constraints exercised by 'political correctness'. . .or make these two words mean what they say; and re-name; recast; re-learn PC for what it is; a political wrong; better a moral and political travesty.
And then make sure our Leadership gets on board and signs it. . .(not a bad idea perhaps; and just for starters. . .)
Understandable! But if you look at the very informative links provided by M. Thatcher (post #4 above), you'll see some conservatives saying pretty much the same things that Wolfe says.
Wolfe isn't that stupid, but he is that much of a liar. Typical NYT Leftist. What D'Souza is saying is that a good portion of the blame for the Islamofascists' blood feud with the West can be blamed on the cesspool of a culture that Leftists are foisting on the rest of the world.
If you listen to Leftist liars, you'd think that the US is landing on the beaches of peaceloving Islamic nations, murdering civilians indiscriminately, confiscating oilfields and then bootcamping the survivors in the Christian eguivalents of Madrassas - to spread Christianity at the point of a sword. This is supposedly why the Islamofascists are fighting us. Otherwise urbane and intelligent liberals believe this delusional tripe, which begs the definitions for both adjectives.
D'Souza instead blasts the Left with a truth they don't want to hear. Islam is a very traditional culture. For starters, it is does not like movies and plays about girls yammering on about their vaginas, flaunting their wares in various advertisements like 20 dollar street hookers, and they do not believe in the Religion called Feminism - which is being spread by the UN, Western NGO's and corporate do-gooders more fervently than any religion has ever been spread by these institutions. As an example, I have a relative working for a joint European/US/UN organization in a conservative Islamic country who is concentrating on spreading feminist ideology there. He doesn't understand why the government does not like his organization, does not understand that Feminism is a religion in any effective sense of the word, but is absolutely sure that Christians in the US are a big threat to the US and the world. It takes a special blend of fashionable intellectualism to be that obtuse.
Second, Hollywood is a cesspool of sleaze, violence and jaded decadence, plain and simple - but that's all the world sees of the US in many cases. The other side they see is the US media self-flagellating in a more deranged manner than any Shiite religious ceremony, where they beat themselves bloody with chains. So, they figure...hating the US is like really cool and hip, that is, until the SHTF, and they'll be screaming for the Marines to save their ignorant and/or stupid asses.
I'm an expat living in Asia. I see what they see of the US. There's a lot of residual good will for the US that is being actively undermined not by the Iraqi war, but by the garbage culture that thankfully only infects half of the US body politic. But the 'Rat half has control over the cultural airwaves - and they continue to spread their poisonous crap to the world. The world does not hear from us, the common and commonsensical decent folk that are the historic bedrock of the functioning Constitutional Republic that has done so much for the world. We are being undermined from home. The war first needs to be won against the political and cultural terrorists that are destroying the social fabric of the US. Otherwise, nothing we do outside the borders will be successful.
These are my own comments on D'Souza's interview about his book. The full interview is posted on FR at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1772570/posts
Such is the price one pays for living in and maintaining a free society.
Sucks, but.....
We may be living in a free society but our maintenance of it is quite disappointing .I dont think one can even argue that anymore ,all you have to say is acceptance of Bill Clinton twice and now his accomplice is the front runner for the demonrats .I rest my case
Coulter has also been linked with (Senator) Bob Torricelli (D-NJ) and Bob Guccione Jr. (Penthouse).
And don't forget who Mary Maitlin is married to......
I am Catholic - converted several years ago. I have a priest whom I consider a very intelligent person. Knows his religion, history, etc. Yet, he votes for Democrats. He grew up in Chicago. Big lover of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Kennedys, et at. Voted for Clinton. On one hand, he attempts to teach his flock the faith. On the other, he constantly votes for people who implement laws and a way of life that destroys that faith. I have found there are thousands of Catholics out there like that. And they do not seem to see the disconnect of their two actions.
Obviously so. Furthermore, as much as I despise the Slimes, I am astonished that its so-called, "editors" allowed a headline as egregiously ungrammatical as
to be published...
It is no coincidence Islamic pagans hate Israel, Jews, Christians and Western Civilization. The entire basis of Western Civilization is Mosaic Law, something both the Neo-Pagan Left and the pagan Islamic thugs cannot abide and wish to destroy.
The very idea that human beings have individual rights not subject to the whims of an earthly monarch, but subject to the laws of Yahweh, is directly from Moses.
Historically, this is proven over and over again with the successive conflicts between the forces of paganism and the Judaic culture. (This includes the idolatry of cultural Marxist paganism.)
Good morning, Justa. I had just given it up when you posted to me and yes, D'Souza is the good guy on the thread we were on.
I've read two of his articles and I believe this Alan Wolfe is blowing smoke but can't say for sure right now. I'm about to read The Enemy At Home so I'll find out for myself.
In the one article I read by him he states we should separate the traditional muslims from the radicals and that we can exist with the traditionals. I guess even that might not sit well with some staunch conservatives.
I sure didn't get the picture this Wolfe is painting of D'Souza from what I read.
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