The Silver Lining of the Left in Power

[PJABBER]

you finished Going Rogue already? impressive!

Reading is FUNdamental!

 

[Red Dawn]

While some here may live in a world of dreams and fairy dust, most of us have to work for a living, want to raise our children right and wish for liberty and economic opportunity for all.

We elect our government officials to represent the common good. Sorely disappointing, we see only a government representative of special interests.

Each Administration has a particular character. Some are bold, others timid. Some shoot for breakthroughs and great things, others wimper under the challenge, uncertain and dissolute.

We are now approaching the end of the first year of the Obama Administration. Not surprisingly, it is highly representative of the Left, and almost not at all of the Right.

But some people, let's call them "Independents," are shocked! Shocked, I say! that the Obama Administration is so damn liberal.

They had listened to the soporific speeches, the dulcet tones, the seductive turns of phrase meant to mean whatever it is you thought he might mean. An ever optimistic bunch, Americans voted the Left into power.

Now, the price is being paid for optimism and naivete. And the somnolescent masses are awakening to a brave new world. And they are shocked. Shocked, I say!

***************

The Silver Lining of the Left in Power
Dennis Prager
Tuesday, November 17, 2009

There may be a major silver lining for conservatives and for America's future thanks to the foreign and domestic policies of President Obama and the Democrat-controlled House and Senate: For the first time in their lives, millions of Americans are coming to understand the left.

It is difficult to overstate how important this is. For decades, the left has largely controlled the news media, the arts, the universities and the entertainment media. And vast numbers of Americans have imbibed these leftist messages and the leftist critiques of conservatives. What these Americans have never been able to do is to see what the left would actually do if in power.

Of course, all one had to do was look at California and see how a left-wing legislature brought the country's largest state economy to near insolvency and bankruptcy, chased away many of its most productive citizens, and wasted tens of billions of dollars thanks in large measure to union domination of the state's politics.

But most Americans do not observe other states. Most Americans are preoccupied with their lives and, unfortunately, with what is on television.

Now, this has all changed. Americans are watching California enacted on the national stage.

And it is scaring all but the ideologically committed left -- a rather small, if profoundly influential and powerful, minority. This is why last week, Gallup reported an extraordinarily dramatic and quick shift of independent voters' electoral preferences. In the Gallup Poll's words: "Over the course of the year, independents' preference for the Republican candidate in their districts has grown, from a 1-point advantage in July to the current 22-point gap."

In half a year, there has been a 23 percent shift from Democrats to Republicans among independent voters. And nothing particularly bad had occurred -- no further economic meltdown, no terrorist attack from abroad (the Poll preceded the Fort Hood attack).

Now Americans see the left's policies for what they are:

1. The left wants America to abandon its defining commitment to individualism and replace it with a European-style nanny, or welfare, state. At most Americans' core is an abiding belief that we are supposed to take care of ourselves, our families and our neighbors, and not rely on the state to do so.

2. The left is naive about evil. Most Americans deemed Communism evil; the left ridiculed President Ronald Reagan for calling the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and often undermined the fight against the Communist world. So, too, the left is naive about Islamic terror and undermines the fight against it.

The smoking gun was the nearly universal denial by the left that his Islamic beliefs had anything to do with Maj. Nidal Hasan's mass murder of fellow servicemen at Fort Hood. One of many examples was this reaction to the shootings by Evan Thomas, Editor at Large at Newsweek: "I think he's probably just a nut case. But with that label (Muslim) attached to him, it will get the right wing going..."

3. The left is more interested in redistributing wealth than in creating it. This should have been as obvious to Americans as the brightness of the sun. Finally, Americans are coming to realize that the left's goal is now, as it always has been, equality, not prosperity.

4. The left is far more interested in power than the right is. This, too, should have been self-evident, but finally, people are realizing that those who are preoccupied with creating an ever-expanding state are obviously far more interested in amassing power than those who want a smaller state.

5. The left is preoccupied with America being loved, and in pursuit of that end, compromises some of America's core values. Examples abound here, too. To cite a few: the Obama administration's neglect of those in Iran risking their lives for freedom in that tyranny; the administration's refusal to meet with the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan leader visited Washington, lest the president annoy China's dictators; the American government siding with Hugo Chavez against the Honduran government, which had legally removed a Chavez clone from the Honduran presidency; and the president's obsequious apologies for America wherever he goes.

A motto of my radio show and of my life is "Clarity is our friend." It is certainly so here. Clarity about the left will be a blessing to America.

Dude I swear, you sound like you just finished giving Rush Limbaugh mouth to mouth liposuction

 

[shadow9d9]

There is no "left" in the US. Just Center and right right right.

Nothing even approaching "left" though.

 

[Ausm]

Dude I swear, you sound like you just finished giving Rush Limbaugh mouth to mouth liposuction

I doubt that's the only thing of Rush's he would suck

 

[PJABBER]

Dude I swear, you sound like you just finished giving Rush Limbaugh mouth to mouth liposuction

Nah, I find Rush kind of boring. Prager on the other hand I find very interesting and I do try to read most of his stuff. His books are in my library and I read his columns when I can. Prager is not really very political, though he does tie in politics to a lot of his work. He is a moralist, an ethicist and a philosopher, so I can relate. IMO, he is one of the best radio talk show hosts in America.

You might find his columns interesting if you overcome your personal partisanship -

http://www.dennisprager.com/columns.aspx

I recommend "Happiness Is A Serious Problem" and "Think A Second Time" but the other works are also good reading even if you are not Jewish.

* In August of 2003, Simon and Schuster reissued Dennis' totally revised seminal work on anti-Semitism, Why the Jews, co-written with Joseph Telushkin.
* Happiness Is A Serious Problem, was published in February, 1998 by HarperCollins and was best seller for fifteen consecutive weeks on the Los Angeles Times best seller list
* Think A Second Time (HarperCollins), 1996 contains 44 essays on 44 different subjects. Bill Bennett called it "one of those rare books that can change an intelligent mind." USA Today columnist and professor of law Susan Estrich called it "Brilliant, a tour de force."
* The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism, Simon and Schuster, co-written with Joseph Telushkin has been translated into nearly a dozen languages, and is the most widely used introduction to Judaism in the world. It is still a best-seller in paperback over 20 years after it's release.

 

[Red Dawn]

Nah, I find Rush kind of boring .

Now you know how we feel when you post the "Walls of Text"

 

[PJABBER]

Now you know how we feel when you post the "Walls of Text"

Go ahead, change the channel or switch me off. I don't mind.

 

[Red Dawn]

Go ahead, change the channel or switch me off. I don't mind.

Can't, I have to keep an eye on things here to make sure nobody threatens your life()

 

[PJABBER]

Can't, I have to keep an eye on things here to make sure nobody threatens your life()

You would do that for me? That is dedication in the face of real adversity!

 

[ericlp]

Sigh, the topic title interested me it wasn't until after I clicked on it that I realized who the auther was and stopped reading : (

Well, Like PJ, Ultra Right, Ultra Religious bush loving blow hard...

I stopped reading his posts long ago, but the replies is what is amusing!

I dunno how one can be so brain washed by the GOP to keep spewing the BS. While I don't agree with Obama 100%, I agree with him more then idiot bush. I think we need to get away from a 2 party system and get about 20 or so options. Tho, this country is so screwed that I doubt we will ever get away from the paper or plastic option.

Oh well, carry on. It's funny. :biggrin:

 

[alchemize]

I doubt that's the only thing of Rush's he would suck

Oh so witty and clever. Can I use that one?