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Feb. 8, 2013
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Jewish World Review
Jan. 17, 2011 / 12 Shevat, 5771
Progressives: Always Angry, Newly Desperate
By
Arnold Ahlert
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Last week, for the umpteenth time, anything resembling decency or restraint was completely abandoned in an orgy of progressive foaming at the mouth over what they were convincedabsent a shred of evidencewere the "real" motives of a madman. So convinced that, even as the facts emerged regarding Jared Loughner, facts which completely destroyed their theories, not a single one of the ranters apologized or recanted. Even more appalling, when the objects of their hatred sought to defend themselves, they were attacked for doing so. Such behavior is completely unhingedand tiresomely predictable.
Being a writer makes one a reader, and this writer is no exception. Yet try as I might last week, I couldn't find a single column blaming the American left for what Jared Loughner did in Tuscon. Not one. That is not to say that none existed. Perhaps some obscure publication or two created by some far-right fringe elements published screeds of which I am unaware. But nothing remotely compares to the avalanche of vitriol which spewed from high-profile, mainstream media sources such as the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC or Newsweek, all of which was not only easy to find, but almost impossible to avoid.
Which is precisely why I refuse to go where far too many of those on the right went last week, neatly encapsulated in the part of the president's speech when he told Americans that "what we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other." With all due respect, we didn't turn on each other, Mr. President. It was overwhelmingly the American left which turned on anyone and everyone from Sarah Palin to talk radio, to the Tea party movement in particular, and conservatism in general. And anyone who equates those on the right defending themselves with those on the left attacking themas a means of demonstrating "moral equivalence," no lessis only kidding himself.
But let's give the devil his due and assume, despite much historical evidence to the contrary in a nation where far too many are ignorant of our own history, that political rhetoric has reached "unprecedented" levels of anger. Why is that? Because, regarding the future of the nation, the stakes have never been higher.
On one side of the divide are those more than willing to turn America into a socialist/marxist entity in which the Constitution is, as the Washington Post's Ezra Klein put it, "confusing because it was written more than a hundred years ago" and "has no binding power on anything." They are the same people with "core values" that are completely situationalwhich is why they can dismiss Muslim terrorists such as Fort Hood killer Maj. Nidal Hasan or wannbe underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as "lone wolves," even as they remain firmly convinced that Jared Lougher was the agent of an entire political ideology. They are people who claim to own the franchise on sensitivity, even as they demonstrated none for the dead, the wounded, or their grieving families or friends immediately following the tragedy. They are people firmly convinced that America is a conglomeration of racists, bigots, homophobes, and nativists, all of whom are beyond redemption without the soothing hand of their progressive betters to guide them.
On the other side of the divide are those who believe freedom is under assault, that the nation is teetering on the brink of fiscal insolvency, and that the Constitution means exactly what is says. They are people whose core values are attached to something bigger than themselves, and those values are not negotiable. They still believe in the grand experiment known as American exceptionalism, and they will not be hectored or guilted into abandoning it. They recognize that political correctness is nothing more than a club designed to cow them into silenceand they will be silent about it no longer.
Last week's attacks were not about Jared Loughner and his crime. He was nothing more than the "cannon fodder du jour" for a movement long used to demonizing its opponents and getting away with it. Perhaps nothing is more infuriating to the progressive agitators than the surveys which revealed the American public is now up to speed on their devious nature: nearly six-in-ten Americans rejected their attempt to tie Loughner to inflammatory political discourse.
Would anyone dare do a survey asking the American public if they think the left was exploiting a tragedy for its own ends?
Don't bet on it. And don't bet on any of these people toning down their rhetoric. For the first time in a long time, the progressive movement is staring at the historical abyss. The 2010 election wasn't merely a "shellacking." It was an utter repudiation of a political movement which thought the 2008 election was enough of a mandate to step from behind the curtain and reveal who they truly are to the American electorate. What most American saw was an arrogance coupled with an anything goes a lust for power they found both appalling and frightening. Even worse for progressives, many of those same Americans are beginning to recognize how thoroughly contaminated our mainstream media is. They saw the attack dogs unleashed while the bodies of the dead lay in the morgue and the wounded in the hospital. They saw "expert" after "expert" take to the airwaves to tell us exactly what motivated Jared Loughner, none of which remotely jibed with the facts.
What did progressives see? The 2012 election. The genuine possibility of historically unprecedented political irrelevance in less than two years. Think last week was ugly? That was only the beginning of the 2012 election campaign. The bet here is that by the time we reach the end, what Americans heard and saw last week will be tame by comparison. Progressive are "all in" for 2012but unlike 2008, most Americans now know exactly who they're dealing with.
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Previously:
01/12/11: Twain vs. the Totalitarians
01/10/11: Politically Correct Passports?
01/05/11: Showdown at the Fiscal Corral
01/03/11: Reading the Constitution Aloud is a Good Start
12/30/10: Getting Our Moral Mojo Back
12/27/10: PC Airport Safety is an Oxymoron
12/23/10: Getting America Back On Track
12/20/10: A Collectivist Coalition of Convenience
12/15/10: The President Who Wasn't There
12/13/10: Tech-No!
12/08/10: A Lethal Military, Inclusive or Not
12/06/10: The Unexpected Consequences of Progressivism
12/01/10: Leakers and Losers
11/29/10: We Won, Part One
11/22/10: Keep Your Hands Off My Constitution
11/17/10: Grope and Change
11/14/10: Taking Back Our Country, One School At a Time
11/11/10: Checks (and Balances), Please
11/08/10: Curtain Up, Progressives Down
11/04/10: Last Chance, Republicans
11/01/10: By Their Own Words Shall Ye Know Them
10/28/10: Progressive Determination to Undermine American Elections
10/25/10: Shock, but more importantly, action: De-Unionize Public Schools now
10/20/10: Multiculturalism? Check, Please
10/18/10: Healthcare: Alice in Wonderland vs. The Constitution
10/11/10: Vote for Restoring the Rule of Law in November
10/11/10: Dems: Running From Clarity
10/07/10: Hypersensitive Hogwash
10/04/10: Comprehensive Con Artists
09/29/10: Why Dems Are Going Down in November
09/27/10: The Unholiest of Unholy Alliances
09/22/10: Two Words for Republicans to Remember: I Won
09/20/10: Purging Me First Politicians
09/17/10: No More Lesser of Two Evils
09/15/10: Recovery Arms Race
09/13/10: Bigots in the Majority --- Again?
09/09/10: Giving Voters Something to Vote For
09/07/10: Irresponsible Dems, Incomprehensible Bills
09/02/10: War Weary Americans vs. Implacable Islamists
08/31/10: A Dream Debased
08/25/10: American Bigots Versus Media Propagandists
08/23/10: Recovery Bummer
08/19/10: An Unholy Alliance of Radicals
08/16/10: You've Lost America, Mr. President
08/13/10: The Twin Towers of Progressive Disconnect
08/11/10: A Far Better National Discussion
08/09/10: It's Only One Dead Nun
08/06/10: Incremental Tyranny
08/04/10: Ground Zero Mosque: Context Counts
08/02/10: The Arizona Ruling: a Gift for November
07/29/10: The United Cities of America
07/26/10: JournoList: Coordinated Ideological Bankruptcy
07/20/10: Go For Broke Or Get Out of the Way
07/14/10: You're a Liberal/Progressive if You Believe…
07/12/10: $33-an-hour--For Sleeping On the Job
07/08/10: Extortionist Government
07/06/10: Commerce Clause Totalitarians
07/01/10: Another Public School Travesty in MA
06/30/10: Calling YOUR Bluff, Mr. President
06/28/10: A Trifecta of Progressive Corruption
06/23/10: Plug the Darn Hole --- In Our Border
06/21/10: Our Empty-Suit-in-Chief
06/16/10: Betraying Our Children
06/14/10: Who Gets the Benefit of the Doubt?
06/07/10: Politically Correct Warfare
06/01/10: Bill Maher's Black President
05/25/10: A Mosque At Ground Zero
05/23/10: Libs Stand Tall --- For Mexico
05/19/10: The 'Unintended Consequences' of Liberalism
05/17/10: 'Los' Suns: Stuck on Stupido
05/12/10: Union Audacity: Yes We Will!
05/10/10: Greeks, Leaks and and Double-Speak
05/05/10: Twelve Million Illegals --- or Thirty?
05/02/10: Republicans: Playing Not to Lose Doesn't Cut It
04/28/10: Arizona: Progressivism's Waterloo?
04/26/10: Son of Amnesty
04/22/10: Mortgages and Moral Meltdowns
04/20/10: Bashing Christians Or Gays?
04/15/10: Personal Integri-tea
04/12/10: Fools, Tools and Ghouls
04/08/10: (Tea) Party On
04/05/10: The Triumph of Mediocrity
04/02/10: Two For the Road
03/29/10: The Innate Immorality of Liberalism
03/24/10: The Art of War
03/22/10: I Want My Country Back
03/18/10: A Perpetual Process
03/17/10: American Exhibitionists
03/15/10: A Light Bulb Moment of Clarity
03/10/10: Little Things Mean A Lot
02/03/10: Budgetary Fork in the Road
02/01/10: Liberal Economic Illiteracy
01/27/10: Roe-ing and Wade-ing Back to Reason
01/25/10: Arrogance When Up, Denial When Down
01/20/10: Connecting the Educational Dots
01/19/10: The Next Tea Party?
01/15/10: The Myth That Keeps on Giving
01/13/10: Airport Security Begins Away From the Airport
01/11/10: Secrets and Lies
01/08/10: Embracing Bigotry or Rejecting Bullying?
01/06/10: Hanging by an Ideological Thread
01/04/10: Our Wonderama Bureaucracy
12/30/09: A Day Off
12/28/09: Dangerous Myths
12/25/09: I, Me, Mine
12/23/09: A Very Harry Christmas
12/21/09: My Opinon
12/18/09: The Party of Repeal
12/15/09: Privileged Exemption
11/30/09: Settled Science and Unsettled Children
11/30/09: American Sharia Law
11/23/09:The Trial (Travesty) of the Century
11/04/09: American Vampires and Their Political Enablers
11/01/09: Opting Out of Insanity?
10/28/09: Cell Phones Cause Brain Cancer. Brain Required
10/26/09: Communism: Nazism With Better PR
10/21/09: Just Asking
10/16/09: Cost Projections vs. Actual Costs, or Hope and Change vs. Reality
10/14/09: News you can use …
10/07/09: Incremental Insidiousness
10/05/09: MIA: Common Sense and Common Decency
09/30/09: Iran: Bad Options and Unpreparedness
09/21/09: Crying Racism: the Last Refuge of Scoundrels
09/11/09: 9/11 Cannot Be Sanitized
09/08/09: Truthers and Consequences
09/01/09: A Paper Trail Challenge for the Mainstream Media
08/31/09: Drowning in Amorality
08/26/09: The Republican Recovery Program
© 2010, Arnold Ahlert
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