Monday, August 04, 2014

Say Amen

                        
    Liberal Culture                   

Dinesh D'Souza zeroes in on 2 competing, utterly opposite visions for America







Contrary to what we frequently read and hear, the great American divide is not a clash between conservatives who advocate liberty versus progressives who oppose liberty. Rather, the two sides each affirm a certain type of liberty.

One side, for example, cherishes economic liberty while the other champions liberty in the sexual and social domain. Nor is it a clash between patriots and anti-patriots. Both sides love America, but they love a different type of America. One sides loves the America of Columbus and the Fourth of July, of innovation and work and the “animal spirit” of capitalism, of the Boy Scouts and parochial schools, of traditional families and flag-saluting veterans. The other side loves the America of tolerance and social entitlements, of income and wealth redistribution, of slave-revolts and the civil rights movement, of Indian rights and women’s rights, of sexual liberation and abortion, of gay rights and gay marriage.

I recently debated Bill Ayers – 1960s radical and Obama mentor – at Dartmouth College. Our topic was “What’s So Great About America?” Ayers began by celebrating what he considered to be great about America. He did not, in this context, make any reference to the Founding Fathers. He didn’t mention Abraham Lincoln. Rather, he invoked a protest tradition in America, going back to the 19th-century socialists and continuing through the 20th-century progressives right up to, well, himself.
“While Americans cherish their freedom, Tocqueville emphasizes that they do not consider themselves immune from moral obligation or moral law. “It was never assumed in the United States that the citizen of a free country has a right to do whatever he pleases.” Americans, however, derive their obligations not from government mandate but from religious morality and social pressure. There are innumerable religious sects in America, but “all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God.”

Dinesh D’Souza’s bestselling books are available at the WND SuperstoreSimilarly in a recent book, Howard Zinn calls for America’s existing pantheon of heroes – such as the Founding Fathers – to be replaced by such figures as the Seminole leader Osceola, who fought a guerrilla campaign against the U.S. government, anarchist and social activist Emma Goldman, and the Iraq war protester Cindy Sheehan. This is their America; this is the America progressives celebrate on the Fourth of July.

If patriotism isn’t the dividing line, neither is American exceptionalism. Again, both sides believe America is exceptional, but one side believes America is exceptionally good while the other believes that America is exceptionally evil. Even here, the former group hates certain aspects of contemporary America while the latter affirms those same aspects, such as government-administered national health care or heterosexual and homosexual promiscuity advanced under the banner of “moral freedom.”


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"All our trials would be over"
As a happenstance:  I have been watching "Commune," the 2006 hippie film that Variety hyped as "Finally, and honest appraisal of the '60s."  Two minutes of the trailer brings life to D’Souza’s depiction of our dark side.  To me this whole movement would never have happened without mind altering drugs and KGB funding.  Ahem.

6 comments:

Fred Z said...

"this whole movement would never have happened without mind altering drugs and KGB funding"

Never ascribe something to conspiracy when stupidity will do.

Anonymous said...

Right - build Sodom and Gomorrah as long as you can finance it on money stolen from other people. The community average life expectancy would be about 50 if they stayed. First time somebody got really sick, they'd run back to decadent capitalistic medicine to save their asses. Their little Utopia would survive only as long as there was a society hovering over them built by and composed of people with a moral and work ethic to prop them up.

Notice how they're grinning - because they're embarrassed or because they're wanting that for all of us? If they'd admit to youthful optimism and ignorance, and that they were wrong, I could forgive them.
Otherwise, I'd love to yank all those jerks out of suburbia right now and send them back to their hole in the woods. Naked. No smart phones. No dental care. No internet. No tools made with fossil fuels. Erectile dysfunction and arthritis. Are they saving the world and having fun yet?
Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick

Anonymous said...

I really wish that you could quote something more realistic that World Nut Daily. Even if I agree with the comment, the fact that WND is involved completely destroys any pretense of credibility.
.

Rodger the Real King of France said...

I could not disagree with you more about WND. Yes, they were sandbagged a few times with purpose Birther leads, but going back to the Clinton tears, Joe Farrah was one of the very few who were on slicks heals, and he was hounded by the IRS for it. Maybe you could give me the names of truth presented by reputable sources, I'd be obliged.

Anonymous said...

So can we agree that the whole "one nation under God" horseshit was a bunch of reconstructionist propaganda? America IS and always has been clearly divided. We were settled by two factions that had just had two civil wars over in merry ole England. Maybe if we can acknowledge this fact, we can take on a sane parting similar to Sweden and Norway. Liberal Commies over here, conservative capitalists over here. Maybe we can save part of the original America, if not we loose it all. Lets compare notes in 50 years. Oh yeah libs, rule number one: No Movesie Backsies. -Anymouse

Rodger the Real King of France said...

"So can we agree that the whole "one nation under God" horseshit was a bunch of reconstructionist propaganda?"

No.

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