Posted on 05/14/2003 8:54:34 AM PDT by NietzschesJoker
How the Left Shoved Me to the Right
How much do I know To talk out of turn You might say that I'm young You might say I'm unlearned But there's one thing I know Though I'm younger than you Even Jesus would never Forgive what you do.
--Bob Dylan, Masters of War
Although the preceding excerpt is from a song that has been heard at countless war protests since 1963, when I listen to this particular verse I am prompted to think of those Americans who protested the war in Iraq. Those whose self-righteousness and yearning to see President Bush stumble were placed high above the welfare of our soldiers, the free world and 25 million Iraqi citizens. Watching and listening to the lies and hatred pour forth from the left these past few months has been a rude awakening for now-former moderate liberals such as myself. As the left revealed its grotesque will-to-communism-and-power lying behind the facade of peace and love, it did so next to a right that showed itself to stand for morality, equality, reason and, above all, a vision of an ideal world that is based on something that has no ostensible relevance to the left: reality.
When the Bush Administration began beating its war drum in the direction of Iraq last fall I, like most Americans with common sense (the first and last minority), thought that Bush and America were not only well within their right to demand that Saddam disarm, but brave and noble for doing so. In the post-9/11 world we should not and will not tolerate terrorism in any form. I applauded the administration. However, as the months passed and Saddam refused to show even the slightest bit of cooperation, war became inevitable—and I started to feel like I was the only one still clapping.
I exaggerate, of course, as the polls consistently illustrated that America was, for the most part, behind the President. However, as a 24-year-old college grad living in a liberal neighborhood (north side of Chicago) and working for a liberal arts organization, I soon learned to keep my mouth shut around friends and co-workers for fear of being ostracized and stigmatized as a conservative, which I have since learned makes me a gun-totting, God-fearing, abortion-loathing, war-mongering, Fox News-watching, fascist sheep. I thought the left was supposed to be the tolerant side?
When I first encountered some very hostile backlash after sharing my opinion with what I thought were sane, intelligent people, I gave my lefty friends and co-workers the benefit of the doubt for their ludicrous and emotional responses. Maybe they had a relative who was killed in Vietnam or the First Gulf War? Maybe they are ardent pacifists? Who knows why they aren’t thinking clearly—I’ll just be more selective with whom I share my opinions. So I shut my yap. And then the craziness began.
One co-worker, a friend, began to ignore me completely (called me an a**hole and hasn’t spoke to me since). My fellow city dwellers shut down Lake Shore Drive—and had the nerve to whine when they were arrested for civil disobedience. Dave Matthews, undoubtedly my favorite musician throughout college, wrote an absurd (and completely ignorant) letter to the President urging him not to go to war. Not only did Dave predict the ‘killing of hundreds of thousands’ of Iraqi citizens and that America would ‘bomb this great Iraqi culture out of existence,’ but he also called Hussein a ‘genocidal maniac’ and a ‘barbaric murderous dictator’ in the same letter—while advocating for him to stay in power!!! These aren’t the most egregious offenses from the left, but these were the most personal for me. They were what made me begin to question the left’s rationality, but it wouldn’t be long until the answer was provided like a smack across my logical brain.
Protests erupted throughout the country. People were obnoxiously and vehemently protesting the war and supporting Saddam Hussein! The Butcher of Baghdad! A man who is commonly likened to Hitler!!! But the left was likening our President to Hitler and our Administration to the Fourth Reich! Wha?! Try to argue it all you want, lefty, but if you didn’t support the war then you didn’t support the liberation of the Iraqi people, which means you would have preferred that they were still oppressed, i.e., starving, being tortured, raped, executed, etc. This made me sick. This made me sicker:
•Protestors carrying a sign that read “We support our troops when they shoot their officers.” Wait—so, to support liberation of the oppressed is wrong, and to wish death on fellow countrymen is right?
•The fact that many of these protests were organized and funded by International A.N.S.W.E.R., a front for the World Worker’s Party, a shamelessly communist organization with a long history of ties to fascist communist governments around the world, and the protestors didn’t seem to care about/ignored this.
•Columbia University Professor Nicholas De Genova publicly wishing “for a million Mogadishus to visit U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq,” and still having a job at Columbia to this day. Again, wishing death on our soldiers must be very chic in the leftist community.
•Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, the Dixie Chicks, Martin Sheen, Michael Moore, et al. the elitist snobs. The worst part of this is that after suffering a public backlash, these people are claiming that their first amendment right is being violated. Not only is this totally preposterous—choosing not to hand over our money to some jerks has nothing to do with free speech—but Sarandon had the gall to state this even though she has publicly called for Dr. Laura to be thrown off the air! Free speech for me but not for anyone who disagrees with me!
•Tom Daschele, 2003: I'm saddened, saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war. Tom Daschele, 1998: Look, we have exhausted virtually all our diplomatic effort to get the Iraqis to comply with their own agreements and with international law. Given that, what other option is there but to force them to do so? The answer is, we don't have another option. We have got to force them to comply, and we are doing so militarily. ‘Nuff said.
•CNN’s Eason Jordan admitting that CNN hid facts about the brutality of the regime in order to retain access, uh, I mean to save lives, and no one seeming to care except for the right! Can you imagine the leftist whine if Fox News did this?!
Which brings me to the left estate. Never in my life did I realize how left the mainstream media is until it was made so painfully obvious during the war. I don’t think that Fox News leans as far right as the left would have us believe—even the Nature Channel looks right when compared to leftist minarets like CNN and the New York Times. On some days during the war, reading the front page of the Times left you thinking that you’d inadvertently picked up an issue from 1970, when the Vietnam War was raging.
Reporting was so skewed that I wasn’t even sure I was reading or watching the same war as the mainstream media. One or two days of being bogged down by a sandstorm and we were in a ‘quagmire’? Rummy and Frank’s plan was ‘seriously flawed’? Looting was the most awful thing to happen to Iraq, ever? All of humanity was forsaken when ‘tens of thousands’ of artifacts were looted from the Iraqi National Museum? When all was said and done, how many artifacts were unaccounted for? Thirty-nine, and we continue to locate more each day. If outlets like CNN weren’t so anxious to show a minute mistake by the Administration and had actually investigated the story first, this might never have been news in the first place.
And now, in the face of complete victory, even as the horror stories and the locating of mass graves pour out of Iraq almost daily, the left continues to whine, seemingly undaunted. No apologies whatsoever. Scheduled anti-war protests weren’t cancelled when the war ended abruptly—the theme was changed. Fellow commuters still sport ‘No War’ pins, although the war they are protesting is finished. Anti-war politicians and pundits have no shame or humility, just more questions and accusations: weapons of mass destruction must be located. As Dennis Miller said, “Let the people who think there are no WMD’s take a drink from the Tigris River.” You’d think they’d give America some credit by now, but nope—it’s all about their own agenda.
These few examples, and myriad other facts that I have learned about the left since, have thoroughly convinced me that the left cares about nothing and no one other than its own grotesque will-to-power, to the point of denying reality, advocating/hoping for the death of our own people and using propaganda to warp the rest of us. Who in their right mind would want to associate with these ostentatious jerks? Only a fool would take anything they say or do seriously. They don’t have political views—they have beliefs, and if you don’t like ‘em they’ll shove ‘em down your throat. Their leap of faith falls into an abyss of moral stupidity and ignorant conviction. If I wanted to join a cult, I’d at least pick one with hot girls, not wanna-be hipster rejects whose aesthetics alone are enough to explain why they are protesting.
Prior to the war, I was politically apathetic toward most leftist causes—some were good, others were wacked. But now that I’ve looked the green, fascist Medusa straight in the eye, I will never again feel the same, and I will always hesitate before I take anything they state as truth, no matter how pretty the package, even peace.
I should add that I’ve not yet stranded myself on the Isle of the Right Sirens, i.e. Rush, Hannity, O’Reilly, etc. Although I am appalled by the antics of the left, I’m still fearful of the right. However, speculation over his intelligence notwithstanding, President Bush is one helluva leader. I don’t care if he believes in voodoo and awards reconstruction contracts to Jeb as long as he keeps America free from terror and the oil flowing like water until alternative fuels can be developed. The right isn’t perfect, but at least I can cheerlead for it with dignity.
How naïve I once was. Never again. If scaring away votes for Dems and support for their causes was the left’s plan all along, congratulations on a job well done.
Decent writing, but learn to use about half as many words.
Owl_Eagle
”Unleash the Hogs of Peace.”
P.J. O'Rourke Parliament of Whores
speculation over his intelligence notwithstanding
It amazes me that people can continue to doubt Bush's intelligence when he has outsmarted them at every turn. But the key difference is not mere intelligence, but having a moral center, and the courage to stand your ground. He picked his direction and his fights not knowing the outcome, not knowing who would ultimately be with him or against him, not knowing which way the polls would go or if it would cost him his political career. Not knowing if the wars would go as cleanly as they did, or if they would turn out to be bloody messes. This is what I admire. You can hire smarts, and he has. You can't buy courage or conscience.
Not everyone has the grit to follow principle not knowing what the outcome will be.
I like Dennis Miller's line... for the left, everyone is Hitler, except for the guy with the mustache actually killing people. He's not Hitler.
Actually, they'd probably find that option less shocking.
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.