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.
You can't compare 94 and 80 to 2010. It's a case of apples and oranges. You didn't have a massive, widespread resistance movement building and boiling then, like you do today. Sure, Reagan won his first election by a landslide, but that was due to the horrible performance of his predecessor. The same thing would happen to Obama, even without the influence of the Tea Parties.
You didn't have a center-right that is so angry about what's happened to their country that they're forming coalitions of political activists, and creating real effects in the political arena.
You also didn't have a progressive left that has nearly ripped the last remaining foundation blocks out from under our constitutional republic.
What's happening now, is much deeper and broader than the politics-as-usual of the recent past. As Roger Hedgecock wrote in his article, we're witnessing a fundamental shift in American culture, that is having huge effects on the country's politics.
The primary point of this discussion is that what's fueling the movement in politics today, is the underlying and tectonic force of changes in the public's attitudes toward what our government is doing. Frankly, millions of folks have simply been pushed to the wall, and are coming close to the point where they'll have nothing left to lose.
It's not just the politicians that all this anger is being directed at. Those on the rebel side have correctly identified all of the destructive and corrosive forces that are undermining our nation's stability, and are directing their energies against all of them. It's a cultural shift - not a political one, though the political landscape is where the main battle appears to be taking place.
...when you call someone with a screen name of “Liberty or Death” a liberal you show yourself for the kneejerk fool you are.
I don't remember calling you a liberal. Perhaps I said that you were behaving like a liberal. Name-calling is something our enemies resort to when they're losing the argument. Sort of like what you're doing now.
It's mighty arrogant of you to think that your screen name puts you above reproach on an internet forum.
Wrong. I have chosen to take the fight to a more basic level, one that I have control over by instilling the values I hold dear in the children I raise and by setting an example to the young men and women I lead.
This is where I can make a difference, not by focusing my energies on sending Tweedledumb over Tweedledumber to Washington in the next election. The battle in Washington has for decades been between "liberal" and "more liberal", "socialism" and "more socialism" and honestly, I just don't care about those people.
Will I vote? Sure. But whoever wins the election won't change the way I live my life, the values I instill or the examples I set. I refuse to give politicians that much power.
You’re clueless or being duplicitous, one or the other. The laws the suits in DC enact, sign, and fund - using your tax dollars - do affect the world you live in, which affects you in many ways - schools, media, speech, what you and others can say or not say, hear or not hear - regulations of every kind including what you can do on or with your own property, rules about the regulations, do’s and don’ts - your business if you employ people, your workplace if you’re hired, the military - whether the ROE kill more military or not, whether homosexuals are allowed openly or not (which you said is fine with you!), which you say you are a member of - affects everyone, one way or another.
You’re saying “lie back and take it because it’s inevitable”.
And knowing your posting history to reveal a liberal mindset, I’d say you’re trying to instill defeatism to demoralize conservatives.
Good for you. That is admirable, and it's something we all should be doing. Many of us, however, choose to also fight to reclaim the America of our childrens' future. It will do little good for me to instill timeless American values in my children, if there's no America for them to exercise those ideals in.
This is where I can make a difference, not by focusing my energies on sending Tweedledumb over Tweedledumber to Washington in the next election.
You seem to focusing quite a bit of energy on the ongoing conversation about politics on this website. Unfortunately, most of it seems to be an attempt to convince others of the hopelessness of our cause.
If our cause is hopeless, then I'd better forget about teaching my kids about American ideals, and instead, teach them how to survive in a post-American world. You should do likewise, if you honestly believe there's no hope for us.
‘Boomers” were people born between 1943 and 1965. Most of the people who voted for Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972 are dead. But, of course, the generation was split between liberals and conservatives, which is one reason why the Pro-Life movement has persisted. Traditional values are the mother’s milk of the Conservative movement.
The current, fleshly attempts to turn us back to a moral society are anemic, misdirected, and disorganized. When you have Glenn Beck saying that he doesn't care if same-sex "marriage" happens, you know this is true.
1. Completion date for Flight 93 Memorial crescent: 9/11/2011
2. Proposed Ground Zero mosque dedication: 9/11/2011
3. One World Trade Center rooftop level: ‘4th quarter of 2011’ although the spire’s completion is expected to be 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_World_Trade_Center
Thanks for the ping.
Nice post - thanks.
Don't get your panties in a bunch over it, sweetie...
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....
While we are on the subjects of military imagery, perhaps a little real life practical training would be in order...
I would suggest the following:
It ain’t my panties all bunched up.
(*smile*)
Very accurate description in my opinion. They couldn’t control themselves and started an all out full assault with all (or at least most) of the pretense discarded and have now gotten caught red-handed. Sure, there are still more Americans than there should be blindly schleping along in a stupor, but the progressives’ all too hasty grab at the ring over the past few years has awakened a sizable portion of our citizenry. Soon we will see if the numbers that have been awakened are sufficient to make a difference. I believe that it is the case, November 2010 and 2012 will give us a lot more clarity on whether or not our numbers are sufficient.
I don’t take mentally ill people seriously. I have pity for them, but if they don’t seek help and live a life of pretense and duplicity, that’s misusing their free will.
Which means the left will be much more dangerous now. Cornered and wounded animals are always dangerous.
I. unfortunately to some degree, am a Boomer and I HAVE NEVER NEVER NEVER BEEN A LIBERAL. I have been screaming warnings about communism since the Beatnik days (Google it...) Finally, folks are starting to understand that Liberals want to enslave us, destroy or culture and destroy or economic prosperity and political freedoms. They took our "cultural hand gun" and turned it on us and we didn't even notice. I noticed and so have many, many Goldwater Conservatives of the past...
Roger is on fire with this Op Ed piece. The message is getting out loud and clear. Liberals are bad. Identify them. Punish them.
"We are the ones we've been waiting for..."
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