Posted on 08/06/2004 7:30:39 AM PDT by Tuscaloosa Goldfinch
America is Indeed Becoming Two Nations
Over the last few weeks I have come to realize that Democratic Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards is at least partially correct when he says there are two Americas. Unfortunately, his portrayal of the two Americas is nothing more than a recycling of the liberal political tactic of promoting class distinction and envy attempting to pit us against each other.
But a more serious analysis of the social, cultural and political forces presently vying for their place in our nation would show that there are, indeed, two Americas. One America is still trying to hold on to Christian values and apply them not only in their personal and family lives but also in how they engage as citizens and as community members. The other America is a secular America that is growing more openly and stridently anti-Christian day-by-day. This America is being taken over by secular extremists that now openly display their loathing of traditional values and of "fundamentalist" Christians with no concern that they will suffer any consequences for their words or actions.
For example, in a recent interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, singer Linda Ronstadt said, "It's a real conflict for me when I go to a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Republican or fundamental Christian. It can cloud my enjoyment," she said.
Perhaps if the attacks were only coming from entertainers like Ronstadt such meanness and rudeness could be dismissed. But these positions are not just arising from entertainers and their industry; they are being echoed and argued by respected and successful members of American political and social life.
In a column he wrote for American Prospect entitled "Bush's God," Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, denounced religious zealots that give greater allegiance to God than they do to the government and labeled them as a greater threat than terrorism.
Reich said, "The great conflict of the 21st century will not be between the West and terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic, not a belief. The true battle will be between modern civilization and anti-modernists; between those who believe in the primacy of the individual and those who believe that human beings owe their allegiance and identity to a higher authority; between those that give priority to life in this world and those who believe that human life is mere preparation for an existence beyond life; between those who believe in science, reason, and logic and those who believe truth is revealed through Scripture and religious dogma. Terrorism will disrupt and destroy lives. But terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face."
Reich is not alone in this belief. On March 6th of this year, Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, told an audience that the so-called "Religious Right" is more dangerous than Neo-Nazis and Muslim extremists.
In other words, to the Dees and Reiches of this land, if your allegiance is first and foremost to Almighty God and not to the almighty state, you are more dangerous than a terrorist. Reich takes great offense when right-wing fundamentalists criticize him and other secularists as being moral relativists. In so doing, he said, "they confuse politics with private morality." Reich continued, "For religious zealots, there is no distinction between the two realms. And that is precisely the problem."
As secularists like Reich see it, when Christians, as American citizens, speak out against abortion or homosexual marriage or presidents having sex with interns, such expressions represent a greater threat to the well being of the nation than terrorism.
Reich called on his fellow Democrats to "mount a firm and clear counter-assault" against the Religious Right during this election and hold them, he says, "…accountable for what they are trying to do in our nation's schools - promoting the teaching of creationism, demanding school prayer, pushing "abstinence until marriage" programs, and opposing sex education." "This," according to Reich, "is all about imposing their religious views on our children."
Frankly, most Christians have thought it was the other way around: that our children's Christian values have long been under assault by the secular public schools. In fact, the secular left has for years been engaged in ideological warfare against Christian values that is systematically purging our nation of the very basis of our democracy…the belief that our rights are from God and not conferred to us by a benevolent, secular government. And the federal courts have been their weapons of mass destruction.
Right now there are still two Americas, but if secular extremists such as Robert Reich, Morris Dees, Linda Ronstadt and their like have their way, someday there will only be one nation under their god of politically correct secularism.
Gary Palmer is president of the Alabama Policy Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit research and education organization dedicated to the preservation of free markets, limited government and strong families, which are indispensable to a prosperous society.
July 29, 2004
NOTE: This column is a copyrighted feature distributed free of charge by the Alabama Policy Institute. For information or comments contact: Gary Palmer, Alabama Policy Institute, 402 Office Park Drive, Suite 300, Birmingham, Alabama 35223, (205) 870-9900, e-mail garyp@alabamapolicy.org. To subscribe to this column, please go to www.alabamapolicyinstitute.org/subscribe. To unsubscribe, go to www.alabamapolicyinstitute.org/unsubscribe.
as Charlie Daniels once said....the south will rise again
Ah! In his tiny mind, government is the highest authority, above God and individual men.
In our LAWS, Divinity is the highest authority, with individual men second and government LAST.
Very, VERY big difference.
Why should they "suffer" any consequences for loathing another's belief system? This is America, after all...
"The great conflict of the 21st century will not be between the West and terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic, not a belief."
His premise is correct, his conclusion is not.
By abandoning our Judaeo-Christian base, and by institutionalizing atheism, and by allowing political correctness to continue to permit large numbers of Muslims into the West, we are setting the groundwork for the World triumph of Islam.
Unlike the Judaeo-Christian - secularized West, Muslims have no compuctions about proselytizing their religious beliefs, and using every option available to the human mind to compell adherence to their belief system. even to point of establlishing state theocracies.
By abandoning OUR beliefs, we are setting our children up as victims for THEIR beliefs and traditions. And I don't think that anyone viewing the Islamic World today can conclude that that is a positive thing.
Two Americas indeed!
Here's an article by B.H.Fitzpatrick found at the site in my tagline:
It's no great skill, but I work hard at listening to ranting liberals without interrupting. I suppress my urge to correct them. I clench my teeth and shut up. And it's harder than you might imagine. These people are my friends and sometimes my family, nice folks from whom I do not want to become estranged. But the stuff I hear shocks me.
One pal confides that he has evolved a hatred of the American flag, since 9/11. At first, he says, the overt flag waiving that popped up after the terrorist attack was merely annoying. It made him uncomfortable. So far so good.
When the initial burst of patriotism cooled down, after about six months, the "national zeitgeist" (his term) changed. The remaining flag waivers became obnoxious warmongers in his eyes. He speaks for many liberals. This I know.
Today, overt displays of flags on vehicles, on houses, flag pins, car decals; even patriotic messages on commercial vehicles enrage the Left. Truly. They see this new flag waiving as in-your-face mindless cheerleading for the Bush administration. You see, the flag has become a divisive symbol. A polarizing influence.
Dividing the Bush lovers from the Bush haters. Dividing the blame-America-first nation from the Support Iraqi War nation. Bush as Savior vs. Bush as Hitler. Left vs. Right.
Believe it or not, many Americans actually seethe in simmering rage at the sight of overt flag displays. It offends their personal politics, as if it were a direct insult.
And don't you DARE call these flag haters unpatriotic! They see themselves as merely exercising their constitutional right to criticize the White House. They are progressive. To them, blind patriotism is worse than socialism. Truth is, the two sides of this cultural struggle are heading in opposite directions.
The mushy gray middle is disappearing, and liberal moderates and conservative moderates are polarizing into Left and Right. The Right pushes the flag into the face of the Left and dares the Left to complain. But the Left will complain only in whispers, or to someone who will listen without interrupting or correcting.
The things I hear.
I think it is more complicated. Multiculturalism has lent itself to a country divided by several races, religions, and cultures. Not even mentioning politics. I believe we are going to end up like Europe, divided. I'm not exactly sure where, or when, but We are headed in that direction.
Also we are becoming a nation of illiterates. We are headed to another dark ages.
Good thing our side has the guns.
We are becoming more polarized, but I wonder if we haven't been in more polarized times in our history. What about the prohibition era? Were we more polarized then? How about vietnam? We may be less polarized than we have been in the past, this type of thing probably comes and goes in cycles.
You've nailed it.
Reich and his ilk believe in the primacy of the social order, not the individual.
I'm not so sure I agree. I was in science for a time, and found few scientists to be truly devout. Most would probably say they were atheists, although a large minority would lay claim to a religion. However, neither side was really passionate about it.
The thing is, science is tough. The folks who do it for a living - genius though they may be - don't have a lot of brainpower left over for anything else.
Drew Garrett
Looters versus the Providers.
You have hard working people on one side and tax and spend, welfare recipients on the other.
We're very close to what was warned democracy will fall when they vote out the treasury.
Well, Travis, it only took 19 posts, for someone to mention CW 2. Unfortunately, I believe it is coming. I have only recently come to realize, that these left wingers have no intention of ever letting up. I thought they would push only so far, and stop. I do no think they will.
The only question is how the present Cold Civil War will turn hot, and whether it will be a dirty war, or an all out civil war. I think it will drag on as a dirty war for years, once it begins.
With a comment like that about one of the most conservative, and patriotic parts of the country (i.e., Alabama), you gotta be a Damn Yankee.
It would be interesting to take a poll at FR and see what people think the country will look like in 10, 20, 50, 100 years. For me, I think that the inherent contradictions and cleavages discussed here and other ones (e.g. Mexican immigrants vs. anglos) will ultimately end up splitting the country in some way. I pray it doesn't happen, because I love this country, but I just don't see how fundamentally different world views, values, and allegences can peacefully co-exist, especially if we experience true economic or social disruption.
You may be right, but in many ways, it started a long time ago. Politics is dirty, but it may get a lot more dirty in the future.
Well that's yet another separation of the populace, I forgot.
This nation will never overcome the race card, nor the religion card. We are headed to a highly divided country separated by culture, race, religion, and political indecisiveness.
I have found that most scientists today who are not devout will not be remembered for much of anything. They may technically be talented, they may put on a good show but their efforts will not attain historical status.
Science is tough. The overwhelming behavioral response is to evade this toughness by publishing anything that purports to further science. That is fair. However, that which is published will most often report some sort of postive spin on essentially what are failed experiments. The failures do not get reported. That puts pressure on scientists to embellish minor results. These embellishments lead to a culture of tolerated deceit.
In my experience, seminal papers are written by persons that have a high standard for the truth and that standard is formed under a pious environment. If truth be a parameter, such pious persons aim for the greatest accuracy with the least deviancy.
Truly great works of science are achieved by persons that constantly pray for God's guidance in directing a noble cause.
The process of separation will be series of battles.
Nothing ever comes easy. Just separation by race, whites, blacks, asians, latinos, and the rest, will break it up small enough.
Then you are dealing with christian, muslim, hindu, buddhist, satanists, and your secular, athiest bunch. Then the gays and lesbians, straights, feminists, down trodden males. Literate, and illiterate.
How divided can you be?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.