Here we find common ground. Like Colin Powell and you, I too believe Obama is a transformational figure. I fear how he would change America though, given his dark vision of the "fundamental flaw" in our constitution regarding our government's missing authority to redistribute the wealth. This essay at American Thinker details his alliance with leftist ideology:
Yet, no one to my knowledge has yet connected all the dots between Barack Obama and the Radical Left. When seen together, the influences on Obama's life comprise a who's who of the radical leftist movement, and it becomes painfully apparent that not only is Obama a willing participant in that movement, he has spent most of his adult life deeply immersed in it.I believe you have the best of intentions in your desire to emulate the socialist countries of western Europe, your highest goal being equality. However, I hope we can agree, factually, that “equality” is not the value that brought America to this pinnacle of prosperity and freedom. As a conservative, I wish to “conserve” what America has achieved and I believe you and Obama wish to “progress” beyond it. Is that fair enough? One might say, you want to dance with a new guy at the prom and I want to dance with the guy who 'brung' me.
This is why charges of “anti-Americanism” and “un-American” are brought by conservatives. I don't believe you are unpatriotic and I challenge you to quote one mainstream Republican politician who has leveled that charge. We believe you love America in the abstract – what it could be. We also believe your vision for what it could be is a Marxist utopia. This is why pictures of Bill Ayers standing on the American flag and stating he and the Weathermen only regret they “didn't do enough” in the way of bombing American institutions don't strike you as anti-American. Bill Ayers just wants a better America – right? You have seen these pictures and read or heard these words, haven't you? Or are they only available on alternative “right-wing” media?
We conservatives love America for its founding principle of Liberty. This freedom is what makes the American Dream possible for the likes of Joe the plumber and, yes, even Sarah Palin. Americans have not traditionally been awed by expertise and college credentials – by intellectualism. In fact, Matthew Arnold, a British poet and culture critic said, "If there be a discipline in which the Americans are wanting, it is the discipline of awe and respect." To which Mark Twain, the target of his criticism replied, "A discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of human liberty."
The inscription is from Leviticus (25:10):You will answer we don't love liberty enough to protect a woman's “right to choose”. Again, I find common ground with Obama, who said in his eloquent professorial manner at the Saddleback Forum that abortion is a moral issue. “Gee, thanks for enlightening us, Senator." Yes – and moral values are codified in our laws. You support a man who, when in doubt (after all, it is “above his pay grade” to say when human rights accrue to a fetus), prefers to place absolutely no limits on the practice of abortion, including denying legal protections to a viable fetus who happens to survive an abortion attempt. Did you know that – or, again, is this information only made available to those who seek out conservative opinion? Don't try to weasel this one with Obama campaign talking points. I have too much information at my disposal about his actual record.
You, on the other hand, would happily sacrifice everyday liberties for what you believe would be a more virtuous society. Given the chance, you will outlaw trans fats (NYC), high fructose corn syrup and compel all farmers to grow organic. No smoking – ever, unless you meet the state's standards for medical marijuana use. I suppose you will make another exception for Presidente Obama's cigarette smoking. We'll all be living under the sterile blue light and happy little hum of energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs and the state will monitor and remotely control our thermostat settings (tried in California). The feds decided long ago how much water should be allowed to flush through our toilets – the unintended consequence being multiple flushings required to eliminate our elimination.
These losses of liberty are nuisances compared to what the Democrats have promised will be at the top of their agenda next session. In true fascist fashion, they will silence the opposition by re-instituting the Orwellian-named “Fairness Doctrine”. Um – freedom of speech an American value, anyone? And second, they will eliminate the secret ballot in unionization voting via the deceptively named “Employee Free Choice Act”. Even George McGovern opposes this. But, I understand – the goal of equality is so preeminent, so absolutely fabulous – any means of achieving it is worth it. Up is down. Right is left. Black is white. The Christians with whom you live and work are bigoted, intolerant, hateful warmongers and Barak Obama is a healer and is wise beyond his years. George Bush is the “worst president ever” despite seven years of unexpected national security and an amazing post-9-11 economic recovery and the Democrats have supremacy on the economic issues despite instituting government sponsored entities (GSEs) run by Democrats and their political allies into the ground and opposing any regulation that might impinge on their ability to feel good about loaning money to people who can't pay it back.
FFA? Future Fascists of America rally on theirway to early voting at Colorado College.
You see only fundamentalist Christians and anthropogenic global warming (AGW) as threats to civilization. We see Christian values as the foundation on which this great nation was built. And we believe America is the greatest national force for good the world has ever known. We actually believe this is indisputable. We see AGW as another manufactured crisis used by your side to justify state control of the commanding heights of the economy on the road to your Marxist utopia. Often when you or your candidate describe America, we simply don't recognize the place. Not that we think it is perfect – we just see it as a whole lot better than you do. This is also why we don't have an urgent need for radical “change”.
However, we also have two threats to civilization we fear. We see Islamic fascism as this century's biggest threat to western civilization together with, frankly, your suicidal tendencies. You and Senator
Obama believe, through the force of his personality (another interesting correlation with previous fascist regimes), we can reason with our enemies. Really – to understand the nightmare we conservatives are envisioning, you should read Lee Harris' “Suicide of Reason”. Professor Harris is a man of the left – a gay man with a long-term partner – and a member of the intellectual elite. He so clearly identifies what we see – that Western civilization has fostered the “rational actor” - us soft, pampered, affluent people acting in our “enlightened self-interest”. You on the left expect everyone to behave rationally, while we conservatives and the Islamists themselves recognize that they are “tribal” actors living by the rules of the jungle, the first of which is – there are no rules. While you're fighting for the “right” of gays to marry and scrupulously monitoring your carbon footprint – we see our common enemy advancing on us with his scimitar poised to lop off our heads. And that is what is making us crazy! It is one thing for you to be suicidal – it is another for you to take us down with you!We acknowledge the good that has been done by various movements originating on the left. The civil rights movement really has succeeded at eliminating institutional racism in America. There are still racists to be sure, but racism has become socially unacceptable - unless you're Jeremiah Wright. When I was a kid, I played in creeks with orange foam floating over the ripples and the Cuyahoga River really did burn – more than once. The environmental movement succeeded admirably in cleaning up the air and water. I also happen to believe prosperity is a huge factor as people of affluence don't like to live in effluence. But if you want to see polluted environs, check out those workers' paradises! Even the socialists in France and Britain do not enjoy the air and water quality we have here (you don't want to know what they drop on the train tracks in France!). Feminism made it possible for me to pursue an engineering degree in a class that was half women twenty-five years after my sister was denied entry to a dermatology specialty after completing medical school as one of very few women allowed in the program.
But, what we recognize, which you seem to overlook, is how these movements have radicalized. Feminism is all about the right to abort your offspring. Did you know between a third and a half of black babies suffer this fate in our country? Talk about racial genocide! Civil rights now take the form of reparations and grievance studies, which Obama promotes as one of his education policies. We Ohioans have family stories that include great grandfathers and great uncles marching off with Sherman's army to fight and die for black Americans' freedom. If we pay reparations, do we then get to start classes in grievance? I admit, I am deeply aggrieved by affluent black Americans about to become president and first lady being ungrateful for the blood spilled on behalf of them and their ancestors. Is there anything as unattractive as ingratitude for the ultimate sacrifice? Environmentalism is now used as a tool to punish “evil” capitalist corporations that have made American prosperity possible. If you manage to kill Walmart, it is the poor you claim to champion who will suffer. Environmentalists have already killed millions in Africa with their anti-DDT absolutism. All hail the pristine environment in which mosquitoes and eagles thrive and humans die!
I also want to mention the other radical movement - secularism. America has developed as the most highly advanced country with a secular government and religious society. You seem to fear the rise of a Christian theocracy despite having lived in a Christian culture your entire American life and having succeeded in influencing both Christianity and the culture more than the other way around. With the breakdown of authority in the 60s and the rise of the therapeutic culture, churches have responded by eliminating God as judge and have made Him everyone's best friend. And really, you can't open the paper or turn on the TV and believe the religious right has influenced the culture much, can you? Yet, you seem to chafe under the religious influences in our society. George Bush believing he will be held to account is no comfort to you. But, Barak Obama's professions of faith cultivated for twenty years in a radical racist church don't disturb you. Could it be you doubt his sincerity?
We do believe a non-denominational prayer in schools, like the ones said back when we were united by common values, really never hurt anyone. “God bless our parents, our teachers, our school and our country” just doesn't seem all that threatening when you consider the other cultural influences our kids are experiencing. You seem to think MTV good, prayer in school bad. We also believe you promote anti-Biblical values. Your tax policy of taking from the worker to give to the non-worker promotes sloth, ingratitude and covetousness. As the economist Arthur Laffer said, “don't be surprised if you end up with a lot more people not working”. In Jewish law, even the person living on charity is supposed to tithe 10%. Do you believe there is any wisdom in that? We get really fried when you want to confiscate our hard won earnings to support everyone's sexual sin. Sure, in a free society, you have every right to get knocked-up. We just don't want to have to pay for your birth control to prevent it, your Viagra to help it along or your abortion when you “succeed”. In a flier I received from NARAL in support of Obama, they call these “reproductive rights”. Oy vey, the emanations and penumbra!
As David Horowitz says, you are so “intoxicated with your virtue”, you can't or won't admit the harm your utopianism has done in the world. Do you really believe the rise in government dependence has made people happier or better citizens? And yet you promote more. Do you really believe America is a “mean” and ungenerous place? Why does the world look to us then when people suffer tsunamis and earthquakes and yes – even cruel dictatorships like Sadam Hussein's? And how will the Europeans and the UN who are so desirous of an Obama win respond to these crisis when President Obama weakens our military and chokes our economic engine with confiscatory taxes? Have you ever heard about “the tragedy of the commons”? Unfortunately, it was an argument made for population control, which may end up being the only success the left ever fully achieves. But it very clearly illustrates why socialism leads to rationing. Once the Democrats achieve their dream of socialized medicine in America, where are the Canadians going to go for timely and high quality health care? Their system works great until you get sick, but somehow America's liberals will just do a better job of it I guess.
Low-tech lynching of uppity conservative
Christian, Sarah Palin, in California
Your side sees Sarah Palin as an object of scorn and derision at best and an immoral unenlightened Bambi-killing, book-banning, Bible-thumping troglodyte married to an incestuous, testosterone-poisoned hillbilly at worst. We see her as one of us – an exceptionally decent, hard-working, righteous-living self-made one of us. Yet – we are the ones accused of hate-mongering. As my sister says... interesting times. Indeed, Big Brother.
Float at Obama rally in Denver 10/26/08I'm obviously not praying for an Obama win. However, I am praying that, if he wins, it is by a convincing margin. God forbid it would be a few thousand votes here and there. If that happens, I will suspect the election was decided by the drunks and drug addicts taken off the city streets of my home state by ACORN to register and vote on the same day (Democrats only, thank you) , or the Howard Stern show interviewees who support Obama because he is pro-life and selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. I might become bitter. I pray, “Please Lord, don't let it be a Mickey Mouse margin.”
