Posted on 03/10/2011 11:59:33 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Evil. It has always been there, pushed back in the United States by American exceptionalism and the Judeo Christian traditions of what Ronald Reagan famously called -- borrowing from the Bible -- a "shining City on a hill." "God bless America," Reagan would say, emphatically and often. But God is not in fashion among our political and media elites and, with the presidency of Barack Obama, the lights of the city are dimming and evil has been drawn from the shadows.
Now we have a leader in the vanguard of a malevolence pushing into the mainstream through a thousand barely perceptible actions and words. It is tiptoeing into our culture, permeating our homes and institutions, shaping lives and expectations and quietly remaking our worldview in the radical, leftist image favored by our educated elites. Such is the evil of Barack Obama, an incredibly soft evil that threatens the future of a nation that, for all of its existence, has led the world in freedom and opportunity.
Take that, Jews. Shut up, Christians. Move over, strivers. Give it up, tradition. Individual choice, responsibility, honor -- simply words in a dictionary. All are relative, says the professor in the White House, as are your rights. We know best how to do your lives, comes the voice from a thousand of his appointees in hundreds of federal agencies. American exceptionalism? Fugedaboutit!
It is a soft evil that comes from quietly abandoning the values and traditions that naturally follow from a nation founded on the fact that God created humanity with "unalienable rights" -- so said our founders. From this flows an exceptionally American and Biblical worldview that understands the need to "act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Bible stuff, sure; but also the Judeo-Christian virtues that have guided our national and private lives, lived much in the breach but nevertheless honored as worthy characteristics.
Theologians tell us that it is typical of humanity to create evil by "missing the mark" in daily living. We miss the target of godly or righteous behavior in our relationships in innumerable and often minor ways: snubbing a neighbor, parking illegally, etc. But our saving grace is that we acknowledge that these transgressions, however small, are still wrong. But when we don't, when we miss the mark deliberately and as a matter of policy, then soft sin builds toward hard evil. And that is where we are with our federal government. Obama and his fellow Democrats, for example, push our children into debt, a soft evil that will grow hard when the bill comes due and whole generations are yoked to government. He promotes publically subsidized, racially selective abortions that target African-American women at three times the rate of the rest of the population, a soft evil that becomes hard when, as has happened, babies are born and then murdered, their spines snapped with scissors by a doctor paid by taxpayers.
Ironically, it was the ancient Jews who first warned that the soft evil of "mark-missing" results in the same kind of evil produced by in-your-face sin such as murder or rape. Jews have always been the canary in the coal mine, the first to take it on the chin by assuming the unenviable task of reminding the powerful that there is, indeed, a higher power -- and that evil is the inevitable result of human arrogance. Hitler and his jack-booted hordes pursued power through a hard evil that began with the Jews and continued on to eliminate significant chunks of the human race; in the Arab world, Jews were the first murdered, but recent attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt remind us that it won't stop there.
Obama and his allies offer a softer version, one easier to ignore but heading in the same direction. The Obama leftists don't wear jackboots; instead, they shuffle in on slippers, using the power of government to softly challenge and redefine right thinking and behavior. This quiet evil is most apparent in his treatment of the Jews. As Jackie Mason put it, in this life "three things are certain: Death, taxes, and anti-Semitism." And so we have the soft anti-Semitism of Barack Obama, who says it is okay to not like the Jews...oh, I mean Israel. "Take the Jews -- please," says the Obama White House, putting a Henny Youngman face on the ugly façade of an ancient hate.
The symbolism is hard to miss. Quietly, surreptitiously, a hundred little acts of soft evil put us on the path to the hard evils of the tyrannies that plague other parts of the world. Palestinian government thugs murder both Jews and Arabs in territories littered with poverty and brutality. But it is Israel -- the prosperous and free Jewish state which welcomes Arabs -- that stands condemned as the administration unleashes what the New York Post called "a vile attack on Israel, using language far worse than anything" the notoriously anti-Semitic United Nations can dream up. At the same time, Obama ignores the vow of the Muslim Brotherhood to "kill the Jews -- to the very last one" and, instead of decrying their murderous intent, pronounces them worthy of friendship. Hard evil hates Jews; soft evil embraces their murderers.
Soft evil inevitably leaches into public life. Harvard Law professor and liberal icon Alan Dershowitz, a frequent speaker on university campuses, traces the growing hate directed at Jewish students and faculty to the willingness of Obama to embrace and thereby legitimize the hard evil of those who hate, "thus blurring the line between legitimate political criticism and illegitimate bigotry."
Such is the nature of soft evil. In international affairs, in abortion, in healthcare, in millions of new regulations and taxes, in a thousand ways and relationships the lines between unalienable rights and illegitimate policy are blurred. Soft evil whispers "power" and Obama smiles.
Take a look around this country. Outside the Beltway, we are all Jews now.
Thank you for this post.
“The Obama leftists don’t wear jackboots; instead, they shuffle in on slippers, using the power of government to softly challenge and redefine right thinking and behavior.”
Don’t forget the people in our country’s universities who are carrying out BO’s wishes.
bookmark
Puts everything back into a better sense of perspective.
These "educated, intellectual elite" only have power for as long as the debate remains largely hypothetical or philosophical. Once it crosses into an actionable milieu, their ability to hold any sway over the direction of coming events evaporates into the air as quickly as would a fine red mist.
;-\
“From time to time, especially during periods of great and growing national distress, it can be comfortingly instructive to be able, with quiet confidence, to remind those who would do away with our finest traditions, that we conservatives are the ones with all the guns.”
Havin’ ain’t usin’.
obama is as the black tsunami washing over everything in a constance advance, seeping its toxic bitterness and wreckage into everything in its path.
What Good Can a Handgun Do Against An Army?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/2312894/posts
“It remains to be seen whether the struggle of our generation against the tyrants of our day in the first decade of the 21st Century will bring a restoration of liberty and the rule of law or a dark and bloody descent into chaos and slavery.”
I typed a reply to your post, but didn’t know if posting it would get me banned or get me an unwelcome visit from federal bureaucrats. Either way, I’m not optimistic about avoiding that chaos and slavery thing.
Agree. It’s like a bad nightmare you can’t wake up from.
Psa 55:21 [The words] of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war [was] in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet [were] they drawn swords.
“Havin’ ain’t usin’”
Not yet! Not until they force us to use them.
Where on earth did the author get this idea? Evil doesn;t get a modifier. Evil is evil. And if the author thinks that Obama et al would stick at anything that he might call ‘hard’ evil he is sadly and seriously deluded.
Is it supposed to be this soft?
Not always. But not having ain't never usin'.
Emperor Hirohito, back during our armed conflict with Japan, was allegedly queried by a General why it was that he had no plans to invade America. It is reputed that his reply was something along the lines of, "One cannot invade America, there would be a gun behind every blade of grass."
Usin' ain't always necessary. Sometimes, but not always. Sometimes, just havin' does the trick. The difference is, your enemy has to believe that, if the ball goes up, you won't hesitate. Saves alot of time, powder, lead, and blood.
What it is that most drives our political nemeses to fits of hystrionic apoplecty is their absolute knowledge that, if push comes to shove, we won't be shoving back...
...if you follow my meanin'
:-|
Evil. It has always been there, pushed back in the United States by American exceptionalism and the Judeo Christian traditions of what Ronald Reagan famously called -- borrowing from the Bible -- a "shining City on a hill." "God bless America," Reagan would say, emphatically and often. But God is not in fashion among our political and media elites and, with the presidency of Barack Obama, the lights of the city are dimming and evil has been drawn from the shadows.
This is a very well written piece.
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"The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted."
Psalm 12:8
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