Shelby Steele: The Exhaustion of American Liberalism

White guilt gave us a mock politics based on the pretense of moral authority. --The recent flurry of marches, demonstrations and even riots, along with the Democratic Party’s spiteful reaction to the Trump presidency, exposes what modern liberalism has become: a politics shrouded in pathos. Unlike the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s, when protesters wore their Sunday best and carried themselves with heroic dignity, today’s liberal marches are marked by incoherence and downright lunacy—hats designed to evoke sexual organs, poems that scream in anger yet have no point to make, and an hysterical anti-Americanism. --All this suggests lostness, the end of something rather than the beginning. What is ending?

A subscription is required to read the full article The Exhaustion Of American Liberalism, published March 5, 2017 by Wall Street Journal. Read More......

Unfair, Unjust, Privileged, Politically Incorrect Bedtime Stories

From time to time, a news story will pop up somewhere that perfectly illustrates the demonstrable damage that political correctness (and the liberal definition of equality) has caused to conventional wisdom and society as a whole. Such a story presented itself this week when a man named Adam Swift, a British academic and described philosopher, offered his thoughts on the societal unfairness created when parents read bedtime stories to their children. --Yes, bedtime stories.

Read more at BernardGoldberg.com Read More......

How Obama is Turning Liberalism Into an Instrument of Coercion

Liberals just aren't very liberal these days. The word "liberal" comes from the Latin word meaning freedom, and in the 19th century, liberals in this country and abroad stood for free speech, free exercise of religion, free markets, free trade -- for minimal state interference in people's lives.  In the 20th-century, New Dealers revised this definition by arguing that people had a right not only to free speech and freedom of religion but also, as Franklin Roosevelt said in his 1941 Four Freedoms speech, freedom from fear and from want.

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Women Cry Out

When Melissa Harris-Perry of MSNBC said “we” need to “break through” the notion of children belonging with parents, there was a huge public outcry. No one cried out louder than the indomitable Michelle Malkin, who was interviewed by Sean Hannity soon after (must see: 3:55 video). Malkin derided the progressive idea of collective ownership:  “Hands off my kids! My kids are not your guinea pigs. My kids are not your cash cows. My kids’ minds are not for you to propagandize, and my kids’ futures are not for you to raid in the name of social justice!”

Parent activist Yvonne Gasparino said it this way (text in graphic titled A Mother's Cry):

“My children, my own flesh and blood, these beautiful little souls that I carried for nine months with nothing but unconditional love from the time the stick read “positive” –are being ripped out of my loving and protective hands virtually and kidnapped by the government for their future use. I will not and cannot let that happen and will fight with every moral fiber of my soul that God has bestowed upon me.”

Find more articles at WhatIsCommonCore? You'll notice that these mom's answered the question, What is Common Core?" right on their header... "COMMON CORE Education Without Representation." Read More......

A Conservative finds clues from a Liberal to fight Liberalism

This 2009 article from blogger, A Goy and his Blog, with video and graphs is interesting. Essentially, the conservative's job is education not compromise. Find out why (fairly long piece but valuable).  He starts with this question, "Why do leftist ideologues persist with each new decade in clinging to a perennially discredited Utopian fantasy?"

Compromising with Moral Adolescence: A Losing Strategy Read More......

Liberal women are particularly venomous...

GOP USA, 10/28/2010 by Kay Daly - ....against conservative women. And they call conservative women the mean girls? ∴ Joy Behar calls Sharon Angle a bitch, on live daytime TV no less, and in the same breath demands that Sharon get sensitivity training. Liberal men are no better. however. Jerry Brown calls Meg Whitman a whore, half apologizes, clearly wonders what all the fuss is about and yet claims to be "sensitive to the women's agenda." Whatever that is. ∴ You know what really drives liberal women crazy? A conservative woman who is pregnant, married and happy. If looks could abort! Somehow, they believe we are lesser beings for embracing tradition, getting married, having children, having a career inside or outside of the home, but either way, not resenting every moment bitterly.

I have had less hysterical liberal women explain it to me. Apparently they really dislike conservative women because they truly believe that we are somehow traiitors -- that we despise our own gender. And they feel morally justified in doing whatever it takes to discredit a conservative woman.

For years I have been getting hate mail from liberals, but the most vicious stuff definitely originates from the gals. I have even been defriended on Facebook by one liberal gal because I said something nice about Sarah Palin. The horror!

Christine O'Donnell has been called every name in the book and unfortunately, it hasn't originated solely from the liberal wing.. There have been conservative naysayers as well who bent over backwards to try to make sure she lost the primary. And don't get confused here -- I am not a feminist. I don't believe for a moment that those who dislike(d) O'Donnell had some burr under their saddle that she was a female. She just wasn't part of the "vetted inner circle." Mike Castle was someone that the powers that be knew wouldn't rock the boat.

I think we can all agree that the boat needs some serious rocking.

The hatred is hardly reserved just for conservative female candidates, either. There is one conservative columnist who told me that she moved her entire family because the liberals had put her home address, phone number and even a picture of her home on a very public website. Pretty high price to pay for having a difference of opinion.

Just think for a moment if the tables were turned here. I can only imagine what would happen if Sharon called Joy a bitch and Meg called Jerry a whore. Can you imagine the hysteria on the left?

In some bizarre way, I am actually thrilled that this is happening out in the public eye because it has gone on unchecked for years. Now you all can see in living color what outspoken conservative women have gone through for years out of the viewfinder of the camera lens and just out of earshot of a microphone. It has only served to make most conservative women hone their skills, toughen up and be determined to stand on principle, no matter what the cost.
Like it or not, my liberal sisters, it is definitely the year of the conservative woman. And as Ronald Reagan used to say, "You ain't seen nothin' yet."

Related:
Malkin: Standing Tall - The Rise and Resilience of Conservative Women

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Liberals plot to ‘Turn off Fox News’ in public places

Say you are ‘drinking liberally’ in a bar and out of the corner of your eye, an insidious FOX logo keeps floating across the screen. ∴ Yeah, you could ask the bartender to change the channel, but why not convince the manager to ban the Fox News channel altogether? Read more about this plot to silence Fox News at the San Francisco Examiner... Read More......

Barack Obama has awakened a sleeping nation

ASPEN TIMES WEEKLY (via email/hat tip: Linda Weimer) by Gary Hubbell - Barack Obama is the best thing that has happened to America in the last 100 years. Truly, he is the savior of America's future. He is the best thing ever. ∴ Despite the fact that he has some of the lowest approval ratings among recent presidents, history will see Barack Obama as the source of America's resurrection. Barack Obama has plunged the country into levels of debt that we could not have previously imagined; his efforts to nationalize health care have been met with fierce resistance nationwide; TARP bailouts and stimulus spending have shown little positive effect on the national economy; unemployment is unacceptably high and looks to remain that way for most of a decade; legacy entitlement programs have ballooned to unsustainable levels, and there is a seething anger in the populace. ∴ That's why Barack Obama is such a good thing for America.

Obama is the symbol of a creeping liberalism that has infected our society like a cancer for the last 100 years. Just as Hitler is the face of fascism, Obama will go down in history as the face of unchecked liberalism. The cancer metastasized to the point where it could no longer be ignored.

Average Americans who have quietly gone about their lives, earning a paycheck, contributing to their favorite charities, going to high school football games on Friday night, spending their weekends at the beach or on hunting trips - they've gotten off the fence. They've woken up. There is a level of political activism in this country that we haven't seen since the American Revolution, and Barack Obama has been the catalyst that has sparked a restructuring of the American political and social consciousness.

Think of the crap we've slowly learned to tolerate over the past 50 years as liberalism sought to re-structure the America that was the symbol of freedom and liberty to all the people of the world. Immigration laws were ignored on the basis of compassion. Welfare policies encouraged irresponsibility, the fracturing of families, and a cycle of generations of dependency. Debt was regarded as a tonic to lubricate the economy. Our children left school having been taught that they are exceptional and special, while great numbers of them cannot perform basic functions of mathematics and literacy. Legislators decided that people could not be trusted to defend their own homes, and stripped citizens of their rights to own firearms. Productive members of society have been penalized with a heavy burden of taxes in order to support legions of do-nothings who loll around, reveling in their addictions, obesity, indolence, ignorance and "disabilities." Criminals have been arrested and re-arrested, coddled and set free to pillage the citizenry yet again. Lawyers routinely extort fortunes from doctors, contractors and business people with dubious torts.

We slowly learned to tolerate these outrages, shaking our heads in disbelief, and we went on with our lives.

But Barack Obama has ripped the lid off a seething cauldron of dissatisfaction and unrest.

In the time of Barack Obama, Black Panther members stand outside polling places in black commando uniforms, slapping truncheons into their palms. ACORN - a taxpayer-supported organization - is given a role in taking the census, even after its members were caught on tape offering advice to set up child prostitution rings. A former Communist is given a paid government position in the White House as an advisor to the president. Auto companies are taken over by the government, and the auto workers' union - whose contracts are completely insupportable in any economic sense - is rewarded with a stake in the company. Government bails out Wall Street investment bankers and insurance companies, who pay their executives outrageous bonuses as thanks for the public support. Terrorists are read their Miranda rights and given free lawyers. And, despite overwhelming public disapproval, Barack Obama has pushed forward with a health care plan that would re-structure one-sixth of the American economy.

I don't know about you, but the other day I was at the courthouse doing some business, and I stepped into the court clerk's office and changed my voter affiliation from "Independent" to "Republican." I am under no illusion that the Republican party is perfect, but at least they're starting to awaken to the fact that we cannot sustain massive levels of debt; we cannot afford to hand out billions of dollars in corporate subsidies; we have to somehow trim our massive entitlement programs; we can no longer be the world's policeman and dole out billions in aid to countries whose citizens seek to harm us.

Literally millions of Americans have had enough. They're organizing, they're studying the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, they're reading history and case law, they're showing up at rallies and meetings, and a slew of conservative candidates are throwing their hats into the ring. Is there a revolution brewing? Yes, in the sense that there is a keen awareness that our priorities and sensibilities must be radically re-structured. Will it be a violent revolution? No. It will be done through the interpretation of the original document that has guided us for 220 years - the Constitution. Just as the pendulum swung to embrace political correctness and liberalism, there will be a backlash, a complete repudiation of a hundred years of nonsense. A hundred years from now, history will perceive the year 2010 as the time when America got back on the right track. And for that, we can thank Barack Hussein Obama.

Gary Hubbell is a hunter, rancher, and former hunting and fly-fishing guide. Gary works as a Colorado ranch real estate broker. He can be reached through his website, aspenranchrealestate.com.

Aspen Times Weekly Read More......

Roots of Liberalism

FORBES.COM by Peter Robinson - The movement may be 100 years old, but conservative ideas are even more deeply rooted in America's history. ∴ A near quadrupling of the federal deficit in 2009 alone. The nationalization of the Detroit automakers. The reduction of the biggest banks in the country to mere factotums. Plans to force legislation through Congress this very summer that would amount to a government takeover of health care, which makes up one-seventh of the entire economy. ∴ May I ask a question? Where does President Barack Obama's agenda come from? Read Robinson's answer at Forbes... Read More......

The Man on Whom Everything was Lost

[COMMENT MINE: INCLUDING GLORIOUS ELEMENTS OF REPUBLICAN HISTORY]
Commentary Magazine, February 2008, by Joseph Epstein

ABSTRACT - Others have offered a kinder, gentler view of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. than the one provided by Edmund Wilson in his diaries. “He was a great historian and an incomparable witness,” said Paul LeClerc, president of the New York Public Library, in announcing the library’s acquisition of Schlesinger’s voluminous personal papers this past November. LeClerc went on to compare Schlesinger, who died a year ago at the age of eighty-nine, with Voltaire—to the latter’s detriment. Voltaire, after all, may have been “the historian of France, but he didn’t get in the inner circle the way Schlesinger did.” The recent publication of Schlesinger’s diaries* is a useful reality check on such claims. The book also provides an account of a career in American liberalism that is, in microcosm, a partial account of the career of the liberal temperament itself over the past half-century. [Full article requires subscription]

Note: A December 2002 Weekly Standard article, Race and Republicans, previously posted on this site attributes the loss of the Republican Party's illustrious history in civil rights achievement in part to left-leaning historians, "the Arthur Schlesingers."

See Michael Zak's Grand Old Partisan Blog for January 31, 2008 for a shining example of one of the GOP's great achievements.

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When boys were allowed to be boys...

Sippican Cottage (Blogger/Essayist/Furniture Manufacturer),

My son received The Dangerous Book For Boys as a gift. It's a right smart looking tome, with its old-fashioned cloth cover, Warren G. Harding typeface, and heavyweight off-white paper inside. I got to looking around in there.

Hmmm. How to play soccer. Make a paper airplane. Marbling paper.

Marbling paper? This is beginning to sound like the Dangerous Book For Emily Dickinson. It appears to my untrained eye that perhaps the only dangerous thing in this book is nine letters between "The" and "Book." Well, we are not our hearty and hardy forbears, are we? But perhaps we can punch this up a bit. Kick it up a notch. There are plenty of things a boy can do to get himself in real trouble these days. Here's my outline for new version: The Borerline Sociopathic Book for Boys...

Hat tip and photo credit: Gerard Vanderleun at American Digest

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Conservative Debate Handbook (Introduction)

Brief excerpts from "Handbook"

Synopsis: The natural advantage of Conservatism in defense of what has been found valid in past experience versus wishful/windborne values of modern "Liberalism"; questions which must be answered to put any proposed change into context of reality; unproven assumptions that underlie all Collectivist movements.

Purpose: Learn how to confront and dismantle the intellectual pretensions of any Collectivist "Liberal," anywhere, any time.

Natural Advantages of the Conservative Position

• Logical Position (The general course of any human social development will reflect the nature of those developing it.)
  
• FORCES OF REALITY
  • Conservatives are those who by instinct appreciate what is valuable in the historic struggle and achievements of their society.
    
  • We are thus the heirs to a vast amount of mental effort, soul searching, [as witness to] trial and error over many generations, by those intent to find the best course, based upon all past experience, on which to navigate the future.
    
  • We are the heirs to the layers of foundations and the builders of civilizations.
    
  • Grounded on past experience

Modern “Liberal” Position – No Natural Advantages

• Wishful Thinking/airborne
  • Attacker
    
  • Despoiler
• Defines Issues/confuses issues
  
• Sets parameters of debate
  
• In the throes of an airborne philosophy, the "Liberal" shows concern, but never respect, for the objects of his attention. It is easy to patronize; respect requires understanding.

Example subject: Property rights/ Civil rights in America

Conservative: People own property, not property people. Property rights are the rights to the fruit of your and your forebears' labor. They are your most important rights, for they enable you to have the privacy and independence to exercise all other rights.

Modern Liberal: The "windborne" may try to confuse an issue by suggesting that "human rights" are more important than "property rights," or that "States Rights" in America must give way to new Federal pronouncements of "Civil Rights." But all they can establish is their own confusion.

FYI: The author(s) offer valuable information though, IMO, they tend to lean more toward libertarian thought than conservative . See the Conservative Debate Handbook (Introduction) here, which includes links to additional posts, studies, letters, etc. Read More......