Posted on 09/03/2010 10:36:13 PM PDT by neverdem
For decades, liberals won the culture wars and, consequently most of the elections that reshaped America. More than politics is changing in this crossroads year of 2010—Americans are reasserting traditional culture. You won't read or see it in the mainstream media, but this fact is driving the political story.
The Republican Party is not resurgent (although it may be the beneficiary); America is resurgent.
Generations of Americans have never known any culture except the progressive, politically correct left.
Beginning in the 1960s, God was driven out of American public life because liberals said the Constitution demanded a separation of church and state.
Planned Parenthood was part of a campaign that convinced many Americans that killing unborn babies was really a defense of a woman's constitutional right to choose.
The ACLU sued to define "free speech" to include vandalism, sacrilegious art, and spitting on returning veterans of the Vietnam War.
Even more depressing, the drive for equal rights for liberated slaves, begun by Republicans during and after the Civil War, morphed into a liberal affirmative action program which reintroduced privilege based on skin color.
In 2010, the tide has turned.
This year, liberals demanded Americans respect the triumphalist mosque near Ground Zero as an expression of American commitment to religious freedom. At the same time, liberals sued to remove a cross in a remote area of California's Mojave Desert and sponsored hate crime legislation that would put Christian pastors in jail for reading Biblical passages condemning homosexuality.
The hypocrisy had gone too far. Americans noticed the one-sidedness; they saw “The Agenda” at work. Americans by 70% oppose the Ground Zero mosque and Obama's support of it has hurt him and his party going into November. The liberals lost the culture conflict and, consequently, the political momentum.
In the 2008 campaign, liberals promised Planned Parenthood that healthcare "reform" would include all "reproductive services" (read: federally funded abortions). But in the debate over healthcare legislation, Rep. Bart Stupak and a small band of pro-life Democrats joined with Republicans in demanding the continuation of a ban on federally funded abortions.
Based on promises made by Pelosi and Reid, Stupak and enough others caved and the "reform" passed. But the "ban" was watered down in the final bill drafted in secret; abortion coverage was made subject to further rule-making by the federal bureaucracy.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was given the power to write regulations governing required coverage in all health insurance plans under the Obamacare bill. A notorious pro-abortion advocate, Sebelius prepared to require abortion as a covered procedure, with federal funding for those who could not afford it.
The deception was too obvious. Americans noticed. Obama, Reid, and Pelosi would say or do anything (or bribe anyone) to advance a federal takeover of our healthcare choices.
Americans by 60-70% want this "reform" repealed. Obama and Co. won the legislative battle, but lost the culture. Now they are losing the politics as well.
The Obamacare debate awakened what Nixon called the "Silent Majority." Silent no more, the Tea Party gatherings starting in the summer of 2009 galvanized American grassroots opposition. Liberal attempts to scold, denigrate, and marginalize this movement backfired. Now, incumbents of both parties are being thrown out of office in a political bloodbath that will reach a crescendo in November.
Al Sharpton's pathetic counter demonstration to Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” event in D.C. is only the latest highlight of the perversion of the civil rights movement by its current self proclaimed "leaders." More and more American blacks have come to realize that the Democratic government plantation is not so different from the Democrat's original version in the pre-Civil War South. Dependency is dependency. A welfare check and food stamps are doled out by the new "massa”—same as the old "massa".
Americans of all backgrounds have noticed. Equality of opportunity has degenerated into new privileges based on skin color. Most Americans want a return to an opportunity society with "equal justice for all." The Voting Rights Act should apply to the New Black Panthers, too.
Too many commentators have looked only to the economy and Obama's failed economic policies to explain the Democrats swift fall from grace and the growing belief that the November election will turn the House, and maybe the Senate, over to the Republicans.
Underlying all politics is the culture. It is changing. The dominant liberal culture has yielded division and decay in American society—and a government-directed economy destroying our standard of living. The rejection of liberal culture has begun; the rejection of liberal politics will follow.
Roger Hedgecock is a nationally-syndicated radio talk host. Visit rogerhedgecock.com. The Roger Hedgecock Show is syndicated on the Radio America network.
I grew up in the 50s and 60s. You're entirely correct. America was a much better place, despite all of the societal upheavals and changes of the times.
A lot of damage has been done since then, but it's not impossible to reverse and undo. In fact, I believe that the culture is now moving back in a rightward direction in response to all of the destructive excesses of the progressive liberal agenda.
This is simply human nature. In millions of small acts, by millions of people, making ever so slight changes in their personal choices, the culture is moving back toward sanity.
The politicians and others in the ruling class have no control over this, and are on the effect end of the equation. The people are at cause.
The November Tsunami is only the most visible sign of what's occurring below the surface. Americans know who and what they are, and are exerting their will to stand firm that beingness, the political class be damned.
Trust me. In your lifetime, you will see the re-emergence of an America that those of us born in earlier times remember well.
I’m in agreement with you, DirtyHarry. How it plays out depends on a number of factors, but huge numbers of people are getting seriously riled up, angry, awake, disgusted, fed up, enraged, and are going to soon get to a point where they will not take it any more.
The leftists are pushing pushing pushing and unless they shrivel like a popped balloon all of a sudden, things will get - “interesting”.
And, btw, transsexualism or transgenderism or whatever the **** it’s called is part and parcel of the leftist degraded culture and a mental illness to boot.
We haven’t won yet but the peasants with pitchforks are forming on the ridge lines and the Liberals look up and see impending doom.
November will be our Battle of Trenton.
Obama, Reid and Pelosi will be awakened in the middle of the night to be cast out into the cold darkness to flee for their political lives.
Wonderful imagery - and it is occurring, just as you portray it.
Those on our side who are living on their knees, with heads bowed in defeatism, are not helping to see our victory come to pass. I only wonder if any of them will ever realize that victory begins in every man's mind. It will not come, as long as they persist in believing that we cannot overcome our debased and degraded adversaries.
When your great grandchildren study the history of this era will they see your name? Will the family have passed down stories of your efforts to restore America?
The defeatists among us should ask themselves that question. They should also ask themselves how they will one day answer to all of the patriots who gave their lives to bestow upon them, the magnificent country they've inherited.
Such “Woe is us - all is lost” mentality is one of the reasons we have come to this sorry pass.
Courage is needed - not hopelessness!
I just posted this comment on another thread:
Sex Toys on Display at the World Youth Conference
Life Site News ^ | Friday September 3, 2010 | Terrence McKeegan, J.D.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2582832/posts?page=3
I take this and other like events as symptoms that things cannot get too much worse. Either some natural cataclysm will occur, or man-made catastrophic event/s, or maybe both.
It is time for conservatives of every religion to take heart - read my tagline! - take shelter in God, and stand up in whatever way each of us can for His truth. Come what may. The body is perishable, the soul - who we really are inside - is eternal. We should not fear death, we should fear evil and any accomodating evil. That is the only thing to fear. And with God’s help within, we can live free of fear, no matter what the world does.
It’s getting close to the time (IMHO) where we may need to do civil disobedience, national strikes, whatever.
When this stuff starts happening in public schools (just a trickle here and there so far, I pinged an article about one school the other day) people in the communities need to go en masse and protest - get in the schools and rip the crap out. Cops can’t arrest a crowd of 2000 people cleaning the filth out of the public school. I mean the books and condoms, nothing violent.
Sitting back and taking has gotten us where we are today.
The premise of this article is one that states liberals are losing the culture wars. Look around and tell me this isn't ridiculous.
Conservatives can prevail in November and thwart Obama's agenda and that in itself would be a good thing but to believe this will roll back decades of liberalism is delusional. It will only slow the progression of liberalism. America today is culturally more liberal than it was twenty years ago. And twenty years before that. And twenty years before that. You get the picture. Liberalism has been allowed to slowly encroach on society since the days of the New Deal and this is where we are now and even when conservatives had held majorities in Washington, rolling back this liberalism has not happened. They've only slowed it.
You speak of an America that returns to the values of our Founding Fathers. This travels way past optimistic and enters the realm of delusional. An America capable or willing to do such that would never have voted Obama in the first place. Understanding this, I will raise my family the best I can while realizing it will be up to me, not Washington, not American culture, to instill the values I want my children to have.
Sorry, Luke, but you're a doomer. If you were truly being objective, you would also note all of the gains the right is making, and acknowledge the weight, momentum, and inertia that is propelling America in a rightward direction.
That you choose to accept some writer's belief that, "the right may only rule as the left allows", is just that...your choice. You are now filtering every development you witness through the sieve of this one man's thinking.
You could just as easily filter everything you witness through the sieve of what the Founders wrote. Personally, I think what they wrote is for the ages, and carries much more weight than some political scientist's armchair musings.
I prefer to absorb history and current events at face value, unfiltered, and as bitter or as sweet as they are.
It is true that the ruling class has put a mighty suppress on fundamental Americanism, and on the American people, but the American people have it within them to overthrow that oppression, as they've done in the past. Revolution happens when a people reach their breaking point.
What you're witnessing today, is a people who are in a pre-revolutionary mode. For now, the people are still willing to work within the established system to exert their will over the ruling class. It will either work, or it won't work. If working within the system doesn't work, the pressure building within the populace will increase, and we will see even greater levels of defiance and resistance to the established regime.
At some point, someone's going to blink, and lay down their arms. It only remains to be seen how far we have to go, and what we have to go through to get to that point. If the people blink, then the American experiment is over, and a long dark night of enslavement is ahead. If the ruling class blinks, then the greater will of the people will prevail, and we will see our country restored to the fundamentals most Americans desire.
For what it's worth, my belief is that it would require the wholesale slaughter of millions of Americans to accomplish the ruling class' goals. They don't have the will, or the capacity to ever do that, so my money's on the people.
That is the next logical step in the people's natural resistance to tyranny. The Tea Parties are a verbal communication to the ruling class. Civil disobedience is the next logical expression of that resistance, and the first step of concrete action.
If you note the history of the late 20th century, you'll see that the center-right is following the same progression of resistance that the liberal-left took, 50 years ago. Look to that history to see where we're headed, and how intense things are likely to become over the next five years or so.
It's my reasoned deduction that the center-right will need to go further in their resistance efforts than the left did, to achieve their goals. The liberal-left exerted their will against a more-or-less moral and decent class of elites, and American traditions. We've got to overcome a ruling class and a set of values that are abjectly evil, and death cult-hardened. It may get brutal.
I guess I have half asleep when I saw this:
The attendance was over 15,000. The largest crowd ever at Raley Field Sacramento.
After being disappointed by the Bush Administration and disheartened by the election of Obama, I looked in the mirror and thought that for the first time in my adult life, I just don't really care about politics anymore. At 41-years old with a wife and a young child to raise, I've made the decision that my personal happiness and well-being will no longer be governed by whomever sits in Washington. It has really been quite liberating.
I will do my best to raise my child (and future children) and instill the values I believe will make them successful, happy and productive members of society. And accomplishing this will no longer be dependent upon who sits in the White House.
Bashing my head against the wall every time my guy loses (or wins only to disappoint me) is giving these idiots in Washington too much power over my life --power they didn't earn and don't deserve.
Bush, Obama, I don't care anymore. My duties to my wife, my children and to myself are my responsibilities, not theirs. I am my own captain.
Hell, the Boomers gave you Ronald Reagan. What more do you want. The hippies were a minority, which is why Nixon's much ridiculed "Great Silent Majority" gave him a monster landslide in 1972.
I'm looking around me, Drew, and what I see is a building resistance to the destructive creep of liberal rot, everywhere I look.
That this resistance hasn't yet resulted in a wholesale restoration of the America we once knew, isn't cause for gloom. On the contrary, it should cause all of us to experience restored hope in the future of our country.
The push back against the progressive left's agenda isn't imaginary. It's happening in the hearts and minds of millions upon millions of your fellow citizens. Every motion or action begins in the mind. This is true for every historical turning of cultures. These turnings begin in the minds of millions of people, and eventually express themselves in real societal change.
You've seen the people's collective thoughts expressed in the explosion of the Tea Party movement, and in the rapidly declining fortunes of the left-Democrat party. This will continue, and in time, will express itself in concrete changes to the liberal status quo.
What's occurring under the surface is much bigger than any election. It's a widespread repudiation of the last 100-odd years of leftward creep, and the throwing out of our country's timeless American ideals.
Politics and politicians are following this trend - not leading it. The power of propulsion is coming from the people, just as it always has. What you're witnessing now, is only the beginning of a massive, long-term shift in the direction of America.
My point is valid whether you like it or not. 1994 gave us what? 1980 gave us what? These same tectonic shifts you speak of happened then too. The problem is that we have allowed the left to entrench themselves like ticks into the education system from top to bottom. When the republicans have had any power in the last 30 years it was at times used for good but not nearly on the balance the left has used theirs for evil.
And when you call someone with a screen name of “Liberty or Death” a liberal you show yourself for the kneejerk fool you are. I will fight to the death for our liberty and have probably given 10 times more money to true conservative candidates like Michelle Bauchman then you and many other keypad warriors. So piss off.
excellent point...when I left urban liberal Nashville for rural Williamson county last year I surprised to see the local school board was much more leftist than the population
‘
lefties know this tactic
Defeatist.
And you post on a leftist website.
“Change for the worse is inevitable. Just accept it.”
Defeatism. Not how wars are won.
Usually defeatists call themselves “realists”. Just like Screwtape did.
By your own admission, you have chosen to stand down, and are no longer in the fight. That's your choice, but it also explains your dour outlook on America's future.
Please understand that your gloomy prognostications here affect the minds of others, who might not lay down their arms, but for the disheartening influence of your defeatist statements.
If you've lost all hope, please do us a favor and keep it to yourself. Enthusiasm, as well as defeatism, are contagious.
Many young people are becoming pro-life. Many. A big upsurge.
I just don’t really care about politics anymore.
Maybe politics can drive you crazy, but we must make a basic decision without getting into the minutia of everyday events. Do we want a massive government controlled by a ruling class regulating every aspect of our lives or don’t we? No one politician is going to please you 100% of the time and we shouldn’t try to make them into saints. The choice is more basic than that and this year it’s plainly on the table, big government and big spending or not.
The “Not” isn’t going to be easy, because government is like a ball that is rolling and gaining momentum as it travels. We will need to give it some time to bring the ball to a stop. It may take several elections and we’ll need every good soul to help.
It had a follow-up that went, "If you can't teach, teach teachers!"
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I agree with the article; he left a few things out that I would have included but it's an excellent general overview. And very interesting discussion on the thread. I see it as another call to action. Those pushing defeatism, trying to demoralize others, should get out of the way and shut up.
Read my tagline!
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