THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 209, August 24, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
LIBERALS REDEFINE "EXTREMISM" & "POLITICAL CENTER"
By Christopher G. Adamo
THE LIBERAL LEFTIST PUBLIC POLICY AGENDA & THE PERVERSION OF POLITICAL DISCOURSE: LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
& THEIR ABSURD CLAIMS THAT EVERY NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCE OF THE REPREHENSIBLE U.S. DEBT INCREASE SOMEHOW
DOES NOT REDOUND TO THE POLICY ITSELF, BUT IS ENTIRELY THE FAULT OF THOSE WHO WARNED OF ITS PITFALLS --
LIBERALS REGULARLY DENIGRATING IN THE HARSHEST OF TERMS THE RELATIVELY FEW MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHO
SOUGHT TO HOLD THE LINE ON GOVERNMENT SPENDING -- THE BEHAVIOR PATTERN OF THE POLITICAL LEFT:
STARKLY REDEFINING ALL POLITICAL DEBATE TO THE POINT THAT ANYTHING WHICH DOES NOT CONFORM TO THE
LIBERAL POLICY AGENDA IS INSTANTLY CHARACTERIZED AS "RANCOR," "EXTREMISM," OR "HATE" -- THE REPUBLICAN
REACTION TO THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS' PROPAGANDA TACTICS & THE CONSEQUENCES OF THAT REACTION --
EMERGENCE OF THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT
FULL STORY:
Among the major factors inspiring the Conservative grassroots across America to take action is the seeming inability of
those in office to stand fast against the Liberal onslaught. And, while this has always been a problem for career politicians,
no matter how sincerely and idealistically they began their terms of office, the situation has clearly gotten worse in recent
years. With the recent raising of the debt ceiling, President Barack Obama was granted a veritable green light to shamelessly
continue his outlandish spending binge. Worse yet, those relative few in the Congress who sought to hold the line on
spending have since been essentially criminalized, and are regularly denigrated in the harshest of terms.
Meanwhile, Democrats continue spewing absurd claims that every negative consequence of the reprehensible debt
increase somehow does not redound to the deal itself, but is entirely the fault of those who warned of its pitfalls. It is as
if Standard and Poors, and every other bond rating service was indifferent to Washington’s intentions to relentlessly
borrow and spend the nation into oblivion, but got really concerned when those few principled members of Congress
dared to argue the point.
Of course, the perversion of political discourse is hardly confined to the government’s fiscal disasters. On every front,
the pattern in recent years has been for the political Left to starkly redefine all political debate to the point that anything
which does not conform to the Liberal agenda is instantly characterized as “rancor,” “extremism,” or “hate.” Even on such
seemingly oblique topics as “global climate change,” an issue about which it might once have seemed reasonable to
analyze and evaluate scientific data and arrive at objective conclusions, the Left dodges honest discussion and resorts to
invective and accusation. The field is sharply divided between those who suggest that recent temperature fluctuations be
considered in light of historical data, and apoplectic Liberals who assert that any doubt can only be the conspiratorial
sedition of “climate change deniers.”
While the American Left has engaged in such tactics since its inception, the degree to which it currently does so has
burgeoned in recent years. Though the practice was codified in Saul Alinsky’s 1971 publication Rules For
Radicals, it was in the wake of the 2000 presidential election debacle that the Democrat/Liberal political machine made
a determination to put the strategy into high gear.
Having failed to alter the outcome of the Florida recount, even after several attempts, and finally being thwarted by the
U.S. Supreme Court, Democrats were forced to concede the race. However, even though they were never able to
manufacture the votes necessary to change the outcome, they determined to thereafter use the close tally, and the
manner in which they were prevented from continuing their chicanery, as an excuse to incessantly assert that the race was
somehow “stolen” from them. To their surprise, weak kneed Republicans responded in a manner that conveyed
defensiveness and even conciliation. Thus they were emboldened to continue and even expand the practice.
President Bush’s misguided and insipid “new tone,” pursued on the heels of the election in naive and futile hopes of
“reaching across the aisle” and “ending the rancor,” only served to further motivate them. And, in the end, after a very
brief respite in the wake of 9-11 (during which they were compelled to act not as partisan Democrats but as patriotic
Americans), the venom and malevolence resumed and eventually reached unprecedented levels. In the process, the
“Center,” according to the movers and shakers, was shifted significantly to the Left.
Public disillusionment with a Republican Party that had largely accepted this premise led to the electoral disasters of 2006
(No, it was not the Iraq War) and eventually, 2008. GOP spending excesses (though they now seem minuscule), along with
a willingness to expand entitlements and encroach on freedoms, convinced America that the Republican Party lacked the
courage and resolve to steer the nation back to its proper course. In the wake of Barack Obama’s inauguration, the
revolting fawning and acquiescence to his agenda further solidified the notion in the minds of the American people that
the “inner circle” Republicans had indeed completely lost their way.
So it was that when the “Tea Party” arose from the ashes of the 2008 electoral debacle, political insiders from both sides of
the aisle perceived it as a mortal threat to the perks and benefits of their status quo. And, while some perceptive
Republican pragmatists, along with the relative handful of true Conservatives in the Congress, have recognized the
ultimate value and worthiness of truly committed and principled Conservatives at the grassroots, establishment politicians
from both parties are unrestrained in their contempt for the movement and attempts to disparage and trivialize it. Their
primary tactic is to portray it as hopelessly out on the extreme Right “fringe.”
Hence, devotion to fiscal sanity is “draconian” and “mean spirited.” Concern for the moral preservation and restoration of
the nation and its foundational institutions, including traditionally defined marriage, is “homophobic” and “hateful.”
Protection of the unborn is “sexist” and “anti-woman.” Recognition of the cultural and spiritual roots of the nation, and
their critical importance to its future are “religious intolerance” and “xenophobia.” And the list goes on. Yet,
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (Democrat - California) is dubbed “mainstream,” despite having ranted to an audience of
far Leftists that “The Tea Party can go straight to hell,” which she followed with the transparent threat: “And I intend to
help them get there!”
Undoubtedly, the most valuable collaborator of this abhorrent ruse is the all too common “Republican” who agrees with
such subversive premises. Senator John McCain (Republican - Arizona) once again proved his worth to the Left when he
derided the Tea Party as “Hobbits.” Former Senator and RINO extraordinaire Alan Simpson of Wyoming did likewise, while
proving just how out of the mainstream his version of a “Republican” is. In an April, 2011, interview, he ominously warned
MSNBC host Chris Matthews of GOP members who oppose the homosexual agenda and advocate traditional
morality.
Nevertheless, the voice of the American heartland, maligned and ridiculed though it may be among the “Ruling Class,”
constitutes an incredibly powerful stabilizing factor in the nation’s current discussions. Those who would reinvent “right”
and “wrong” along lines that serve their personal agendas, while perverting the foundational, cultural, and moral pillars on
which the nation was established, are finding, to their dismay, that Real America is no longer listening to them. With each
passing day, it is they who, despite their self-absorbed grandstanding and claims of birthright and pedigree, are further
relegated to rightful status as “the fringe.”
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, Marxists, & Other Leftists:
The Democratic Party, Academia, & the Mainstream Media
Liberalism Versus Conservatism in American Politics
-------------------------
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY & POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES:
COMPETING SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Conservatism
Traditional Conservatism: Questions & Answers
Conservatism: Attitudes, Types, & Present Status
Constitutional Conservatism: American & British
Liberalism
Classical Liberalism: Intellectual Foundations
Classical Liberalism: Conservative Liberalism
Manchester Liberalism & Social Darwinism
Modern Social "Liberalism": Statist "Liberalism"
Radical & Totalitarian Ideologies
Radicalism, Utopianism, & Totalitarianism
Christopher G. Adamo is a resident of southeastern Wyoming. He has been involved in politics at the local and state level
for many years. His contact information and article archives can be found at www.chrisadamo.com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity