Church Of The Poison Mind
February 29, 2008
Like the last two Presidential elections, the 2008 contest will be decided on “moral values”. The only question is, which “moral values” will go over?
The “progressive” website MediaMatters.org throws fits whenever reporters use the term “values voters” to describe social conservatives. The site’s operators argue that liberals vote their values just as much as conservatives do. They have a legitimate point.
For blue-state Americans, government-run health care is a “moral value”. So is leaving Iraq as soon as possible. Maintaining Roe v. Wade is also a “moral value” to some.
Right and left have fundamentally different definitions of morality, and every election is a contest to determine which form of morality will hold sway in Washington over the next four years. The problem for the right is that, as of now, there’s a seemingly strong belief that the moral vision of the past four years is unacceptable.
Usually, the right benefits from the moral tenor of the times. Those who loathed Carter’s morality embraced Reagan’s vision. Twenty years later, Americans disgusted by the moral vision of the Clinton-Gore years placed their faith in Bush’s view of the way things ought to be.
Fair or not, a sense of buyer’s remorse has swept the nation: a belief in the supposed perfidy of the Bush years is as strong as Barack Obama’s momentum. Americans are an anxious, unhappy lot these days, upset over gas prices too high, stock markets too volatile, wars too long. Americans demand comfort from Washington, and get very angry when they don’t receive it.
Remember how angry folks were in 1992? It seems as though we are witnessing history’s sequel, with a forty-something Democrat preaching hope and change once again facing off against a noble Republican who is nevertheless regarded as representing the retrograde. America bought the feel-good product before; it is likely to do so again.
Obama represents the moral left, just as Reagan and Bush represented the moral right. Not since Carter has the Democrat Party nominated someone who can so clearly link Christianity to progressivism in his rhetoric. Granted, his “moral vision” is predicated upon ignoring issues such as an unborn child’s right to live in favor of more pressing progressive proposals. Nevertheless, Obama’s “moral vision” has served as the centerpiece of his candidacy.
The religious overtones of the Obama campaign are not without accident. Obama has convinced legions of Americans that he is doing Jesus’ work, that Christ would endorse his progressive vision. He is no different from the Republicans of a generation ago, the ones who declared that God was a registered Republican. He has simply decided to change the Almighty’s party affiliation.
There is no doubt that Obama kneels to pray every night. He does not pray for the fetus about to be removed from the mother’s womb, nor does he pray for the businessman who is about to be put under by excessive taxation. Yet he does pray. He is a Christian. He has faith in God, and in the left.
This will be a difficult man for Republicans to defeat. Republicans are used to secular Democrats, ones who prattle on about their “faith tradition”, ones who take photo-ops with huge Bibles before committing adultery in the Oval Office. Obama is quite different. It appears that he has come along at the right place and time, with the right (left? wrong?) message.
Obama seems to be a perfect Messiah figure for this age. He promises to heal the gas prices, raise the taxes on the rich, cast neoconservatism out of the White House temple. It seems that no amount of scourging, no amount of political crucifixion, can prevent him from rising to the sky.
Republicans have to be wondering what manner of man this is. How could someone with such a vague message, such inexperience, such hard-left views, become the people’s savior? How did this happen?
The Church of Obama is certainly preaching a false gospel: this charismatic preacher’s sermons are filled with the same failed ideas that damaged America in the past. Yet American history is filled with stories of those who embraced leaders filled with charm, whose political visions ultimately caused harm. Republicans can sound the warning, but will America really hear the bell? Obama’s pews are filling up so quickly that there may not be enough time to create a culture of disbelief.
LIFE AFTER DEATH
February 27, 2008
Bill Buckley is dead only in theory.
Officially, he has passed on at the age of 82, but in reality, he has achieved immortality. His words will be read and re-read as much as William Shakespeare’s. In addition, he created a legion of devotees who will continue to maintain his conservative legacy.
Buckley was intellectually promiscuous, fathering scores of conservative sons and daughters who embraced his optimistic vision. There would be no Rush Limbaugh, no Laura Ingraham, no Sean Hannity, no Michelle Malkin without Buckley. He created an intellectual industry that still returns tremendous profits every single year.
Every conservative commentator, talk-radio host and newspaper owes Buckley a gigantic debt of gratitude, one that can never fully be repaid. He made conservatism fashionable and saved the Republican Party from falling into the ash heap of history.
Buckley also helped the left as well. In response to his strong intellectual conservatism, the left was forced to refine its arguments, sharpen its own message and redouble its efforts to reshape the culture. The only reason George Soros and Moveon.org spend millions trying to get their message out is because of the effectiveness of the Buckley-amplified conservative voice.
It’s amazing that one man could have so much influence. Yet he had that much influence! There’d be no pro-life movement without him…no movement to limit taxation….no border-security movement…no center-right movement at all.
His ideological heirs will carry on his legacy. You can hear traces of Buckley in the monologues of Hugh Hewitt, in the writings of Jonah Goldberg, in the remarks of William Kristol. Buckley gave birth to talk radio, to the conservative blogosphere, to the center-right presence on television. Buckley was a tycoon of thought, the Founding Father of the “New Right”…he was the granddaddy of ‘em all.
He was so good on television. He was a rhetorical Tiger Woods, an intellectual Michael Jordan, an ideological Muhammad Ali. He was De Niro on the set, Marvin Gaye in the studio, Brando on the stage. He wasn’t just ahead of his time: he was the time.
Did he make some bad calls? Sure. So did Reagan. So did Goldwater. Buckley was human, and there were times when he didn’t get things right. Those times were few and far between. In certain obituaries, Buckley’s mainstream-media enemies are using the few times he was wrong to discredit the many times he was right. It’s a shame…but they can’t stop him from shining in history’s limelight.
He had so much influence. His reach extended to every aspect of American media. Buckley started when excellence was still embraced in American culture, and he kept going even after excellence became unpopular.
No one should cry now that he’s left his body. He still lives! Every time you pick up a copy of National Review or The Weekly Standard, you read him. Every time you listen to Dennis Prager or William Bennett, you hear him. Every time you watch Fred Barnes on Fox or Monica Crowley on The McLaughlin Group, you see him.
William Buckley is as vital as ever. Like Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, he will now become even more influential than he was during his years on this planet. The grown-up right will embrace him as firmly as the college left embraces Che Guevara.
Like Ronald Reagan, Buckley’s presence transcends death. He’ll always be there, watching over us as we discuss and defend our principles. He’ll always look over us like a saint as we confront obstacles and challenges to our vision. He cannot truly die. He will not truly die. In our hearts and minds, he will live on forever.
Oh, Behave!
February 26, 2008
Act Of Hate
February 26, 2008
Just Words
February 26, 2008
Stephen Hayes on the rhetorical power of Barack Obama.
UPDATE: More from the Washington Post and Washington Times.
Sleaze Patrol
February 25, 2008
Turn Of The Tide
February 25, 2008
Weekend Box Office: Point Taken
February 24, 2008
Do It Again
February 24, 2008
Take A Good Look
February 24, 2008
An interesting story in the Boston Globe about an effort by Robert Joyce, a Boston attorney and conservative activist, to prevent the distribution of the Boston Phoenix alternative weekly in the city’s West Roxbury neighborhood due to the paper’s adult personals. This is a fascinating story dealing with two equally compelling interests: traditional morality and the First Amendment.
Joyce has received some heat for his effort, with allegations that he is really attempting to have the Phoenix banned because the paper supported the 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling authorizing same-sex marriage. (Joyce was a vocal opponent of the ruling, and tried to defeat a state senator who supported the ruling in 2004.) I don’t buy the argument that he’s trying to retaliate against the Phoenix due to the paper’s progressive politics: if he opposed papers with progressive editorial views, he’d try to ban the Globe as well.
Joyce has a right to petition stores to stop distributing the Phoenix: contrary to some of his critics, he is not an extremist merely because he has some socially conservative views. Having said that, I don’t see his effort having any real long-term success, because West Roxbury is no longer a "conservative" community. For years the neighborhood was considered one of the more conservative areas of Boston, but the region has changed dramatically over the past decade or so. In the 2006 gubernatorial election, West Roxbury supported Deval Patrick by a huge margin! If West Roxbury’s residents were still hardcore right-wingers, they would have backed Kerry Healey in overwhelming numbers.
Even if one thinks Joyce’s effort is silly, one must concede that he has a right to be silly. He is right to be concerned about young children possibly being exposed to inappropriate content. His effort will likely fail, because most West Roxbury residents probably regard him as a crackpot crusader, but his concerns are not illegitimate.
The Last Word
February 24, 2008
Popular novelist Robin Moore passes away at 82.
End Of An Era
February 24, 2008
Veteran Boston talk-radio star Moe Lauzier is forced out of WRKO-AM. Lauzier is a class act, and it’s a shame that his nearly 25 years of service at WRKO has come to an end.
