Infested, too.
Amazing << Hear this. Feel this, and tell me that this isn't music.
Groove to Black Violin EPK, too.
Posted on 12/06/2008 12:37:57 PM PST by Fred
Just a few years ago, I took the opportunity to attend special guest appearances by two high-profile political personalities at Syracuse University whose visits were within a few weeks of each other—Ralph Reed, former leader of the Christian Coalition and a Republican strategist on the right, and Jocelyn Elders, former surgeon general of the United States during the Clinton administration and a Democrat of decidedly left orientation.
Although their addresses and responses to questions that followed illustrated vividly their wide differences of opinion on current issues, that was not the most striking contrast between the two mid-week evening events at Hendricks Chapel on the university campus. The most significant distinction between them was not the behavior of the respective guests, but the behavior of their audiences.
Dr. Elders drew the smaller audience, most which appeared to be of similar political persuasion. Following her address, she fielded questions from attendees representing both sides of the political spectrum, all of which were presented respectfully and answered by Dr. Elders in an uncompromising but mutually respectful and cordial manner.
By contrast, Dr. Reed drew a much larger audience, but it was evident from the start that many were there to challenge him openly and berate him for his political positions. Far-left activists in the audience were disruptive throughout, and although Dr. Reed completed his address and responded to a few questions with courtesy and dignity, he eventually had to be escorted out of the chapel for his and everyone else’s safety.
At the time, what occurred in the chapel that night may have seemed like little more than an isolated example of extreme discourtesy on the part of a few members of the extreme left. But recent reports from across the nation about an increasing incidence of this sort of behavior, and worse, by those on the political left provide evidence of a pattern—the use of interference, intimidation, and even violence by left-wing activists in order to suppress opposition to their political viewpoints.
From a few hecklers interrupting an opposing speaker, to same-sex marriage activists disrupting a church service, to left-wing counter-demonstrators accosting an elderly woman and destroying a sign she was carrying, a significant segment of political-left activism has evidently adopted “forcible suppression of opposition” as an acceptable strategy to advance their causes in the public square.
This is, indeed, the very definition of fascism.
Although Americans are about to witness the inauguration of the most left-leaning president in the nation’s history, and his administration working in consort with perhaps the most left-leaning congressional majority we have ever seen, it is not from within government that citizens of the republic must first fear the rise of fascism, but from outside and eventually creeping in.
This modern American societal fascism of the left has already become well established across the culture. Some of it arises out of simple, seemingly innocent things that many would scoff at taking very seriously, such as all manner of “political correctness,” which has been progressing for several years. What is this so-called political correctness, anyway, but activist imposition of revised standards, according to politically left sensibilities, for acceptable and unacceptable thought and behavior?
Like any forced evolution toward political totalitarianism—the logical outcome of an unchecked fascist trend—the progression begins with the seemingly innocent stuff. Eventually, coercion, intimidation, and suppression of non-conforming viewpoints becomes institutionalized here and there on the way to everywhere. Although government may not be initiating the trend or its manifestations, given sufficient political momentum it will be in complicitity at first and later the primary purveyor after things have gone irreversibly too far.
The early signs are plentiful, and typically marked by descriptions that belie the real essence and agenda. Witness the “Fairness Doctrine”—regulation the left-leaning majority in Congress would love to impose on the free-enterprise media market in order to suppress the one traditional outlet the left does not already monopolize—talk radio.
Now, we may be about to witness another example of institutionalized suppression of opposition compliments of another politically left oriented institution—labor unions. The so-called “Employee Free Choice Act,” promoted by organized labor leaders and bantered about the news media these days as “card check,” has been hanging around Congress since 2005. If its supporters can scare up at least 60 votes in the new Senate, this legislation will make it to the president’s desk and, Mr. Obama has signaled, receive his signature.
This legislation would remove the guarantee of a secret ballot wherever employees of a company would be voting on whether to unionize their workplace. The primary objection of those opposed to the legislation? The increased exposure to workers of intimidation and coercion in absence of a secret ballot.
Ironically, rank-and-file union members are overwhelmingly against the proposal being pushed in Congress by their leadership. A recent Zogby poll revealed that 71 percent of union members favor ballot privacy, while a McLaughlin poll showed that 79 percent of Americans oppose “card-check” legislation that would make private-ballot elections no longer mandatory.
Despite overwhelming favorability numbers like that to retain the basic American right of ballot privacy in the workplace, the small minority who favor card-check legislation are only a couple allied senators away from getting the new law imposed on everyone else. It is just the latest sign, and a pretty glaring one, that the fascism of the left is moving right along as it builds momentum to change the very fabric of the American nation.
And then we bring up examples of leftist agitators (community organizers) interrupting Hitler's speeches and we still call it fascism. Were those leftists fascist then? I'm confused!
This whole movement took hold among the middle class in the 60s when college students, attending on mom and dad’s dime, began to take over Admiistration buildings on campus. They were allowed to get away with it both by the parents and college administrators who’d abdicated their responsibiities. The “Greatest Generation” created those brats.
Those very 60s students are now grandparents of today’s college students, and we are still paying for it. What was radical and revolutionary then is assumed today.
Alot of money came in from communists outside the US, Soviet Union, France, North Viet-Nam, China just to name a few.
McCarthey was correct, our government was and still is invested with communists, socialists, and marxists.
Infested, too.
Amazing << Hear this. Feel this, and tell me that this isn't music.
Groove to Black Violin EPK, too.
Sorry for the typo, yes invested and infested.
ping for later
Adorno and Horkheimer did not pull their punches, although they withheld publication until the danger was past. Those intellectuals who try to reason, eggheads, are overrun.
Fascism is only a little to the right of communism, since it claims it allows private property. Note I said claims. You may hold the title, but the state dictates how it is used. And the state will take it when it deems it necessary or convenient.
Very true ... BUT had the institutions of the time stood up and stood together to preserve traditional American ideals, all the money in the world could not have prevailed against them. Instead, they caved at every level.
Liberals/progressives are relentless. For whatever reason, peop;e of a leftist persuasion seem to be more committed than those on the right. They never, ever give up on achieving their goals. Unlike conservatives, liberals will accept a partial victory, retreat, and come back for another partial victory until they have everything they want.
Although a ‘lesser’ issue, think about smoking on planes .. started with a smoking section, then no smoking on planes for flights under x miles, then no smoking on flights of any length and duration, then no smoking in the airport. Now there is no smoking in any building anywhere. Took 20-30 years, but they achieved their goal.
Had that effort been led by conservatives, if the end goal of banning all smoking in all venues not been achieved in one fell swoop, they’d have quit and gone home. And cursed the politicians who let them down.
It is that very strategy the liberals/progressives use so effectively that concerns them if it were ever taken up by conservatives, especially on the issue of abortion. When they fear momentum by conservatives, it’s a ‘slippery slope.’ Using that straategy, those seeking to overturn RvW would accept the ban on partial birth abortion as only step one. Then it would be parental consent. Then third trimester, etc., until abortion was banned altogether.
But, alas, with conservatives it’s always all or nothing. The PBA ban just wasn’t enough, and those who might move on to the next step haven’t received the persistence support and encouragement needed to achieve the end goal.
Good job, Fatima and friends!
I think we need to see a lot more complacent conservatives out on the streets over the next couple of years. Freedom isn't free, y'all.
When a girl from my Catholic university phoned for the annual donation, I told her I could not support the school that invited only leftist speakers to campus events. She did not argue with me, but I hope she understood what I was telling her.
Fellow Fordham grad?
Our job to slay it. Yes!
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I think this is a very intersting article. Conciliation and being "nice" is not always a virtue. Courage is the test of all other virtues, and I think all conservatives need a lot of courage. The leftists are not going to stop until THEY ARE STOPPED.
“The worst are full of passionate intensity
While the best have lost all conviction.”
WB Yeats
(maybe the lines are reversed...)
God bless you for mentioning “Nuttin’ But Strings”. I’d never had known of this music before, it grabbed my heart,squeezed it and never let go! Hope I can buy album.
Fascism is but National Socialism, Communism is INTER-national Socialism.
Pollyanna! I’m 100% certain it will end that way, bar natural disasters like H5N1 pandemic and/or major war that clears some of the deck, so to speak.
But I am not hopeless. I think that the leftist crap and all that goes with it will be very, very subdued - in a while, and at least for a good long while. But we conservatives need courage, badly.
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