Posted on 11/19/2016 2:00:41 PM PST by ReformationFan
The anti-Trump demonstrations we now see in the streets are not just examples of the immaturity of many modern secular liberals, who seem to think that everyone else is somehow obligated to agree with them. They’re also a symptom of the distorted influence politics now exercises over our culture.
But in addition to being a symptom of our culture, the dominance of politics in every aspect of life is also a consequence of liberalism itself.
The tendency of liberalism has always been to politicize everything. Thanks to liberalism, we have a politicized media that has abandoned journalistic standards in a misguided attempt to engineer who gets elected; a politicized education system in which whole disciplines—English, history, and even science—have been enrolled in the service of ideological goals; and even a government that, in addition to the politics already inherent in it, has been made subservient to special-interest politics.
Russell Kirk, the father of modern conservatism, had a name for it: ideology. Although we often use the word in a generic sense to refer to someone's specific political orientation, Kirk's definition was more specific (and useful).
An ideology, as Kirk defines it, is a political religion.
Ideology takes politics from its more natural subordinate position in cultural life and exalts it to the highest position. It redefines truth as political manipulation, it turns ethics into political utility, and it re-imagines political success as earthly salvation—and political failure as apocalypse.
The political philosopher Eric Voegelin called it "immanentizing the Eschaton," an exotic expression which, when properly parsed, just means viewing this world as all there is, and, therefore, the ultimate thing.
Liberals have always accused social conservatives of bringing religion into politics, but liberals have done something far worse, and far more radical: They have made politics their religion.
In this respect liberals have much in common with Muslims, who also conflate politics and religion. What they really want is liberal Sharia law, a secular theocracy.
The minimum wage, gender equality, nationalized health care, and global warming—whatever their practical virtues—are not just expedient policy prescriptions. They are essential aspects of the liberal fatwa. Feminism, deconstruction, and gender theory are not just academic abstractions up for discussion among liberal academics: They are articles of their religious creed. Question them and you are not just wrong—you are a heretic.
You wonder why the left is having a nervous breakdown in the wake of Trump's election? It is because, for them, politics is the means to secular salvation. This means that, to them, political failure is not just a setback on the road to a more stable society—it is a blow to their very worldview. Opposition to their program is not just wrong-headed, but evil.
This is why all of the excesses of these demonstrations—death threats, looting, violence—can be excused by CNN and MSNBC: They are the necessary extreme measures, justified in light of the threat to their ideology.
The challenge for conservatives is to avoid the kind of radicalism seen on the left, and to articulate a politics that is truly secular; that is to say, that does not usurp the place of religious faith. What is needed is a politics that takes religion into account in the practical dealings of life, but that does not make politics an idol.
Conservatives need to be clear about what they are fighting against: A political ideology that threatens our politics by worshiping it.
A decent analysis. But I’ll still be sitting back with popcorn watching the wailing and gnashing of teeth while muttering, “Get over it losers. The adults are in charge now.”
A very insightful article.
I was thinking it was George Soros’ money as the real reason for the demonstrations. A few hundred dollars is good reason to get out of bed and go make trouble.
Ping
Secondly, the utter paucity, hypocrisy, and extremism of the riots demonstrate that the Right was right to fear a liberal mindset. These whiny babies and arsonists show clearly that fascism is alive and well on the Left, and that all the jabber about "hate" and "retribution" laid at Trump's feet in fact belongs on the doorstep of the accusers.
And finally, the repeated tantrums and "safe-space" idiocy coming from the recalcitrant Left shows their patent unfitness to rule this country. They are either weaklings or tyrants, neither of which is palatable to voting Americans.
Every bit of that, every liberal "issue," comes back to the inherent foundational neurosis of liberal ideology. The Culture of Victimhood. Everyone is a victim and the government must help and protect them all. Now we have a newly minted class of victims the Victims of Election 2016. Colleges and public schools have already started providing for the Victims of Election 2016 with therapy sessions and safe spaces.
Liberalism isn't just a mental disorder of the individual liberal it's an organization established by and for neurotic "victims" in order to promote their mental disorder and spread it.
Connect the dots, people.
From the time they enter public school they are indoctrinated OUT of Mom and Dad's religion, conditioning and thought processes and filled wih socialist crap, cleverly delivered to fool Mom and Dad into thinking no real damage is being done when in fact, everything American is brain washed out of them.
Even the ones that don't riot, they're silent.
I firmly believe the left is fabricating a basis for the type of dissent they intend throughout the Trump tenure. Their goal is to create an atmosphere of negativity with these alleged “protests”, and rioting they can then attribute to “the American people”, and carry that theme in their minds to victory in hopefully 2020, or God forbid 2024.
It’s a typical scenario of the left in which they are creating a crisis, and then riding their white horses into the fray they created to seemingly win the day so we will reward them with the power to screw us again.
IOW same old, same old Democrats.
There are millions of communists in the USA!
Don’t forget gay rights and abortion as being sacraments of this new progressive religion.
New secular religion, meet the old religion, Baal worship.
Look at what got rejected in the election: Globalism. Higher taxes. Bigger government. Extremist social engineering. Open borders. Redistribution of wealth. Class warfare. All the cornerstones of communism. They lost. Bigly.
Of course, there's also the Sanders crowd, who are so stupid they're not only communists but have the temerity to admit it in public!
Are they still demonstrating? I lost interest.
....could be just a distraction of just how poorly Hilda did....no one wants to listen to her screech. Celebs made no impact. Media,as dishonest as they are,couldn’t carry her. Possibly 2 million
Illegal votes,no help. America just don’t like her
and her pedo husband
The Dem’s and Lib’s are best described as spoiled brats.
Most of the people that cared to vote voted for the ideals you say wereally rejected ...
Then how did Trump win? He was the candidate OPPOSED to all those things. The voters repudiated the Obama-Clinton-RINO globalist agenda, or we’d be talking about [shudder] president-elect Hillary.
Most voters voted for hrc.
Christmas money, expect more of it between Turkey day and December 22nd, Then it will die off when the druggies spend it on their drug of choice instead of present.
Because Soros is funding them. Period.
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