Posted on 02/09/2008 10:52:51 PM PST by Rurudyne
EVAN SAYET
I call myself a 9/13 Republican. I grew up a liberal New York Jew; you don't get much more liberal than that--although it was lower-case "l," not what's considered Liberal today. I graduated from high school knowing only one thing about politics: that Democrats are good and Republicans are evil.
I tell a story. It's not a true story, but it helps crystallize my thinking that brought me to become a conservative. I say: Imagine being in a restaurant with an old friend, and you're catching up, and suddenly he blurts out, "I hate my wife." You chuckle to yourself because he says it every time you're together, and you know he doesn't hate his wife; they've been together for 35 years. He loves his daughters, and they're just like her. No, he doesn't hate his wife.
So you're having dinner, and you look out the window and spot his wife, and she's being beaten up right outside the restaurant. You grab your friend and say, "Come on, let's help her. Let's help your wife," and he says, "Nah, I'm sure she deserves it." At that moment, it dawns on you: He really does hate his wife.
That's what 9/11 was to me. For years and years I'd hear my friends from the Left say how evil and horrible and racist and imperialistic and oppressive America is, and I'd chuckle to myself and think, "Oh, they always say that; they love America." Then on 9/11, we were beaten up, and when I grabbed them by the collar, and I said, "Come on, let's help her. Let's help America," and they said, "Nah, she deserves it."
At that moment, I realized: They really do hate America.
(Excerpt) Read more at heritage.org ...
Thanks!
...Mr. Sayet IS correct regarding his observations of Modern Liberals in America.
I'm quite sure you may have gotten a whiff of the rather smelly controversy emanating from The Peoples' Republic Of Berkley (CA), in which the City Council wrote a letter to the U.S. Marine Corps requesting they shut down the recruitment center on Shadduck Avenue.
That is but one of many of examples of pure, unadulterated hatred and stupidity that comes from the Left, especially when a U.S. city council grants an odious group of morons like Code Pink a permanent parking space of protest (which of course is their First Amendment right, given in the shed blood of the very Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Coast Guardsmen they loathe), while shunning those brave men and women risking their lives on a daily basis, not just in Iraq but practically all over the entire planet!
...Oh, but they're always quick to say, 'We Support The Troops.'
Yeah, right.
I think Mr. Sayet misses the fundamental key to liberalism, though, which I call "Liberal Mind Fog". It allows people to see a world that doesn't exist--a world in which liberal nihilism begets paradise. While Mr. Sayet is correct in noting that liberals do, in a very real sense, hate America, in their own minds they love America but just hate various factors that pollute and corrupt it. It never dawns on them that the factors they see as "polluting and corrupting" are, in fact, the essence of what makes this country what it is.
True historical World Conservativism (think unabashed monarchist or totalitarian systems) enjoin: potent government; centralized governance; and arbitrary authority for governance.So here is the rub: these Progressives are really Regressives hauling us back from the genius of our Founding and into the morass of human illiberalism.
True historical Worlds Liberals, which is to say Political Liberals like the Founding Fathers, will tend to enjoin: limited government; decentralized governance; and constitutional authority for governance.
But the Founding Fathers went two steps further: instead of mere "constitutional authority for governance" they adopted "enumerated authority for governance" which is a stricter standard; and they retained, and even reinforced, English Common Laws as the basis for our laws and liberty.
This last is an important truth to disprove that they were in no way "Radicals" as were the authors of the French Revolution who instead enjoined what might be called "Administrative Laws" where all laws and privileges are ONLY sourced in the political process.
Now, I know that we will hear people decry the "arbitrary nature" of common laws (especially when they run counter to some life style choice); but, please consider that Administrative Law is an EXPRESSLY ARBITRARY form of and basis for Laws and so the protest is a bit like a pot calling the good china black.
Truth be told, the Founding Fathers wanted to avoid even the taint of arbitrary governance or basis for laws and that is why they were even more Politically Liberal than almost anyone else while still NOT being radicals.
BUT these American "Liberals" enjoin all of these in spades: potent government; centralized governance; arbitrary authority for governance; AND arbitrary authority for Laws.
They are really in the larger world sense, Political Conservatives who are only separated from the worst regimes by their devotion to "civil rights" — which are only sourced in the political process and are not anything like "inalienable rights" even though they may be based on them (like the French The Rights of Man was).
The "liberal" leaders who exploit "Liberal Mind Fog" among their subjects as a means of expanding their power need to be recognized for what they are: authoritarian anarchists (or perhaps totalitarian anarchists). Although I'm not the first to use such phraseology (it exists on Google) it's a concept I don't think is sufficiently widely recognized.
The leaders want all power unto themselves, but they have no concern about whether the power they seek has any legitimate basis beyond their ability to get it. Thus, they are simultaneously totalitarians and anarchists.
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