“This is the network of the 21st century,” declared MSNBC’s Chris
Matthews. “This is the network that has opened its heart to
change.”
Matthews’ declaration of high and redemptive purpose didn’t stop
him from referring to the departing Bushes as the “Romanoffs,”
the last members of which were shot and bayoneted by Bolsheviks.
The broadcasting slobber of MSNBC was something to behold. As
George Bush Senior hobbled into the inaugural celebration,
Matthews shared that it was “the first time I have seen him
looking so old.” As a grim-faced Rosalynn Carter entered it,
Matthews resorted to flat-out heckling: “Come on, Rosalynn,
smile.”
Meanwhile, Matthews’ colleagues, gazing at George Bush Senior,
mused over Jeb Bush’s future. “It is the family business,” Rachel
Maddow chipped in. “There is no more Arbusto.”
Dick Cheney, reduced to a wheelchair after throwing out his back,
was a metaphor for the “lowness” of the Bush presidency, said
Matthews. I’m surprised the trio — Matthews, Maddox, and Keith
Olbermann — didn’t refer to the wheelchair-bound Cheney as Mr.
Potter.
Not long after this cheap gibbering, a “hey, hey, goodbye” chant
could be heard as George Bush Jr. walked onto the inaugural
stage. Olbermann and others thought that inappropriate and then
fell into a possibly guilty silence.
On Tuesday, D.C. celebrated the “end of an error” and the
beginning of a new one. The media strained hard to define the
epoch-making significance of it at all. Were Barack Obama a black
conservative, it is hard to imagine the same level of enthusiasm,
or any at all. Was Clarence Thomas a “step forward for humanity”
in their estimation? Had any of the black Republican presidential
candidates of the past ever won, they would have been dismayed.
The media purred over Obama’s summons to a new “era of
responsibility.” But responsibility implies an objective truth to
which one must respond. Under liberalism, no such truth
exists; right and wrong are subjective. Hence no need to be
responsible to anything outside of oneself.
This is the era of irresponsibility and it won’t be ending
anytime soon. The relativism that underpins it has never been
more well-fortified. If responding to something “greater than
oneself” means anything, it means accepting the Democratic
agenda. In the coming days, “sacrifice,” as one pundit
approvingly put it, will mean accepting reduced Social Security
and Medicare benefits.
Under Obama’s liberalism, “progress” is largely defined by
irresponsibility: not by a more perfect application of the
natural moral law but by a blithe and proud independence from it.
Old injustices are replaced by newer and more ambitious ones.
Over the inaugural weekend, Obama spoke more accurately than he
realized when he called for a “new” Declaration of Independence.
If the old one rested on objective morality, the new one rests on
its disappearance. It is that independence which makes abortion
and gay marriage liberalism’s chief marks of progress.
In his invocation, Rick Warren said that history is God’s story.
Not anymore. It is man’s; he calls the shots. Modern liberalism
is an emancipation proclamation from God. After all, man is
independent enough from God to kill unborn babies, and with gay
marriage modern man happily puts asunder what God has joined
together.
Obama made reference to the “blood” shed during previous
generations. What about ours? It is bathed in blood. He spoke of
hope, but what true hope exists in a nation if a person can’t be
born into it without an attempt on his life?
The moral philosophy behind his eloquent words render them at
best meaningless, at worst menacing: “peace” and “freedom” grow
atop graves of the unborn, “rights” devour each other, and
“unity” derives from the rejection of one truth.
Even what is good in his election is imperiled by the relativism
beneath it. The concept of civil rights is itself a reflection of
the natural moral law. But if no such law exists, what is to
prevent a return to racial injustice? America doesn’t need a
“new” Declaration of Independence,” but deeper respect for the
old one, which in its grounding in God provides the only
immutable index of hope.
