One of the most striking things about this year’s political discourse (as if name-calling and wild accusations can be dignified with such a term) is that what used to be considered traditional and commonplace thinking is now labeled as extremism and bigotry. A few examples:
If you believe that the U.S. Constitution means only what it actually says, you are an extremist who ought to be wearing a powdered wig.
If you believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one man and one woman, you are a homophobe and a bigot.
All the King’s Men
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If you think people should not be allowed to break into our country illegally, then get free education, health care and jobs and to march in our streets to protest the violation of their "rights," you are a racist, a xenophobe, and your state should be boycotted.
If you have misgivings about the morality of abortion, or any doubts about the absolute right of a mother to kill her unborn child, you are a religious fanatic, an anti-feminist, and probably a right-wing Catholic.
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If you admit to having some queasy feeling when boarding an airplane with people dressed in Muslim garb – you are not only a bigot but you are FIRED – if you work for National Public Radio (or probably any other institution aligned with the cultural/political Left in this country.)
If you watch Fox News, you are a freakin’ @#XX!&**mf2!!!
If you doubt any of the above is true, a close look at the TV commercials being run by the likes of Sen. Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Patty Murray or many of the other endangered Democratic incumbents running scared this election year will prove my point. Anyone who does not totally buy into the "progressive" agenda and orthodoxy of politically correct, left-leaning Democratic Party is, by definition, "extreme" if not outright bigoted or "crazy" (as Reid has labeled his opponent, Sharron Angle).
The point of all this is not simply to bemoan what’s happened to political debate in this country, but to point out how successful the Left has been in redefining the terms of that debate. Over the last 30 years, liberals, through their dominance in the media, the universities, the public school systems and major cultural institutions, including television and Hollywood, have redefined what is acceptable and unacceptable in American society. And the docile, largely silent majority of ordinary Americans, who don’t relish confrontation and controversy, have allowed these institutional forces to have their way in changing American culture. Up to now.
October 27, 2010
