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Special Report
Climate Change
Restoring respect for law and order isn’t what the left has in mind.
The eruption of wild accusations after the shootings in Arizona illustrate once again that those who talk about civility the most practice it the least. Pious calls for the restoration of civility have come from a parade of pundits and pols famous for celebrating or rationalizing the most egregious violations of it.
Civility is a political, not moral concept, in the minds of many on the left. “Civility” means to them peaceful submission to liberalism and “incivility” means annoyingly effective opposition to liberalism. Were greater respect for human beings the meaning of the term, “civility” would require massive changes to their agenda, starting with their support for a right to abortion. Mother Teresa once pointed this out to the tony elite at a prayer breakfast in Washington, D.C. But they weren’t terribly interested in her definition of civic virtue. They want “civility” and a culture of death at the same time.
Moreover, it makes no sense that conservatives who called for a restoration of respect for the law in Arizona would receive the brunt of the criticism for a crazed gunman’s violation of it. Who has fed a “climate” in which violent crime occurs? The answer can’t be citizens who plead with the authorities to enforce the law. A climate of lawlessness has been fostered by those in authority deaf to those protests.
It was killings and kidnappings that led the Tea Partiers and conservatives to demand that authorities in Arizona take the law seriously again. Has any of that violence led the left to engage in soul-searching about its fashionable support for selective application of the law? The left prides itself on being “pro-government,” even as it shows no consistent respect for the rule of law underpinning government.
The “climate” change they have in mind in the wake of the shootings is not greater respect for the law but greater respect for “government,” which roughly translates as liberals in power. The left often glorifies rebels, revolutionaries, and lawbreakers. Its leading lights trot off to Cuba to pay their respects to a practitioner of political violence, Fidel Castro, and attend movies that cast defiant nonconformists like Che Guevara as heroes. One of the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh’s most vocal apologists was the left-wing writer Gore Vidal, whom the self-appointed guardians of civility have long indulged. Left-wing film director Oliver Stone has talked about making a movie that will soften the images of Adolph Hilter and Joseph Stalin.
Several networks have solemnly replayed clips of Bill Clinton’s remarks at the memorial of those who died in Oklahoma City bombing. “The words we use really do matter because there are, there’s this vast echo chamber. And they go across space and they fall on the serious and the delirious alike,” he said. Does the left really believe that? Left-wing Hollywood and left-wing academia would have to be shut down if it did. Children are fed a steady diet of violence from the music and movies that come out of Hollywood, before heading off to college where they hear tenured professors like Ward Churchill present academic justifications for nihilism.
The same politicians who appear on civility panels and commissions also pop up at ACLU events where money is raised to defend the vitriolic speech of open jihadists at Ivy League colleges. Barack Obama started his ascent to his higher politics from the living room of a domestic terrorist turned educator of youth, Bill Ayers, and honed his views of hope and unity under the tutelage of the “God Damn America” sermonist Jeremiah Wright.
This coalition of radical intellectuals, Alinskyites, Constitution scoffers, and 1960s nostalgists is the last group Americans should entrust with the task of purifying and elevating America’s political discourse.
About the Author
George Neumayr, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is co-author, with Phyllis Schlafly, of the new book, No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (27) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 1.13.11 @ 7:13AM
Anybody else still got a copy of The Greening of America? I got mine at a garage sale out of a bin of rejected copies, some time after Reagan had been resoundingly elected, and even then it was a sorry apology for the chaos that impeded my steps toward the first University degree in my family on either side -- but if you can find a copy of that book, you will find everything that is wrong with the country today worshipped and glorified therein by a man whose emblem of America was not our flag, but bell bottomed pants.
If you are under 40 and can read, find that book and read it. It will make you look at Congress, and your grandparents, in a whole new way.
Amber Lamps| 1.13.11 @ 1:00PM
I might also suggest "How I Joined the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (and Found Inner Peace)." From the perspective of a (recovering) liberal. Sorry, haven't looked at it in a long time and I am not near the bookshelves, can't give an author off the top of my head currently, but it's worth the read, especially for some younger person who is tottering on the edge of reform.
the permanent newbie| 1.13.11 @ 3:54PM
The author is the reliable Harry Stein. I can also recommend his sequel-of-sorts, "I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican." Good clean fun for the whole family!
smarteron the left| 1.17.11 @ 10:09PM
Only an idiot with an uneducated family background would refer to other uneducated idiots to read a book, that is in fact if there are any Republican's that can indeed read (your words, not mine). Oh, and by all means, this only refers to people under 40...WTF!?
George True| 1.13.11 @ 7:21AM
"Civility means to them peaceful submission to liberalism, and 'incivility' means annoyingly effective opposition to liberalism."
Indeed, Mr Neumayr. In this one sentence you have summed up what the left's current campaign is truly all about. It is an attempt to redefine the very concept of incivility to now mean opposition to leftist ideology.
saleboter| 1.13.11 @ 7:39AM
Bullets have no political affiliation.
Appleby| 1.13.11 @ 11:20AM
Daddy used to say that it wasn't the bullet with his name on it that worried him; it was all those bullets labeled "To Whom It May Concern."
Buzzymuzzwelle| 1.13.11 @ 11:40AM
Bravo!! Buzzy
Waapiti| 1.13.11 @ 3:00PM
Wise statement. I'll have to remember that one.
Timothy L. Pennell| 1.13.11 @ 8:23AM
The part that I find DISGUSTING, was what our Muslim Boy King said at the Campaign Rally / Memorial. He lamented the "POLARIZATION" of our Country. The "POLARIZATION" of our Rhetoric.
"Polarization"? Who polarized it?
Rich vs. Poor. Black vs. White. People who want to ENFORCE our Immigration Laws vs. Hispanics. EVIL DOCTORS, cutting out Tonsils and cutting off Feet. A Justice Dept. that is only CONCERNED about cases if the Perpetrator is WHITE and the Victim is BLACK. Evil Insurance Companies. Evil Pharmaceutical Companies. FAT CAT BANKERS. Demonizing the Oil Companies.
These are people and organizations who SAVE OUR LIVES. Who give us JOBS. Who find, and retrieve, the ENERGY that powers our lives. They spend YEARS of man hours, and BILLIONS of Dollars, coming up with the DRUGS that extend our lives, and cure our diseases. (I'm talking to YOU, Mr. HIV / AIDS)
And they have been vilifies since DAY 1, by this man. Because that's who he is. He's an instigator. He's a troublemaker. He's just doing what he's always done. Fomenting CHAOS. Fomenting HATE and MISTRUST. That's what you learn from Saul Alinsky. That's what you learn from Frank Marshall Davis. That's what you become, sitting in the pews of Jeremiah Wright's HATE CHURCH for 20 YEARS.
The idea that this man could heal anything, or that he would even WANT to, is absurd.
He's a child of the LEFT. And to the LEFT, these situations are a Dream Come True. The LEFT lives for CRISES. And we all know that THIS WHITE HOUSE, never let's a CRISES GO TO WASTE.
Eddie| 1.13.11 @ 10:47AM
Great post. Great observations and too bad these gutless liberals will not recognize how bad they have erred (throughout American and world history). The history is there we must expose it to all who love our great country.
Eddie - The Sarge, USMC
Jan| 1.13.11 @ 3:59PM
Amen!
David W| 1.13.11 @ 8:46AM
here is a challenge to you conservatives who have any artistic ability (I know, it seems most of those with "talent" are non-conservatives). Take a video clip of Bill Clinton's remarks at the Oklahoma City memorial. Add that to a clip of what President Obama said at the Memorial Service in Arizona (I saw only a small clip of his plead for healing).
Then add clips of Obama's "knife vs gun" comment, plus "kicking someone's you-know what", and the "Hispanic enemies". Then add in clips from various liberal pundits and hollywood elites (e.g., Joy Behar talking about Ms. Palin) and disgusting anti conservative/Palin tweets from various elites (like Hanoi Jane). alternate between current [democratic] politicians saying how important words can be.
This video will provide the perfect juxtaposition(?) between what liberals say we should do and what they really do.
Bill| 1.13.11 @ 11:17AM
That would be "plea," not "plead," Einstein.
stmichrick| 1.13.11 @ 9:26AM
Last night, I think I read the Presidents lips as he was greeting Sheriff Dopenik.
'Atta boy, keep it up.'
Al Adab| 1.13.11 @ 10:20AM
To The Left, moral equivilance and moral relativism are matters of Faith- not to be questioned. It shapes their entire worldview and their perspective on every issue. Conservatives need to understand what we are conserving, 2500 years of Western Civilization and the search for Truth.
DatsunMark| 1.13.11 @ 11:13AM
I think the Democrats should apologize for the death of JFK since the guy who killed him was a left wing nutjob. Their voices pushed him over the edge and created an enviroment of hate.
Freddy| 1.13.11 @ 1:13PM
I admire George Neumayr's essays because he goes beyond surface phenomena – here, the uninteresting truism that right and left disagree – and seeks the philosophical underpinnings of an issue. Mr. Neumayr's essays typically culminate in a crystal sentence or two that captures a logical contradiction inherent in the liberal mind. After reading his essays, we are left to wonder why the possessors of such minds fail to see what he sees.
To hazard an answer to our puzzlement, let me repeat the often-made observation that liberalism is not a logical argument, nor is it capable of logical refutation. No overtly political doctrine ever is. At one time, Democrat Grover Cleveland denied any role for the government in the supporting the people while Republican Benjamin Harrison believed in activist government. At one time the fate of the Republic hung on the demonetization versus free coinage of silver. At another time one's stance on protective tariffs on tin defined whether one was liberal or conservative. Today, to pick one issue at random, the litmus test may be marginal tax rates, as if there were a single, immutable tax rate that could be logically derived from "liberalism" in distinction from a single, immutable tax rate that could be so derived from "conservatism." Indeed, if it were not for the need to hold the line at a few, absolutely fundamental, issues like respect for human life (as Mr. Neumayr often returns), one would be tempted to mutter the second verse of Ecclesiastes and walk away.
Liberalism is best understood not with logic but through a kindly eye toward human nature. Identifying as liberal (not liberalism itself but identifying as liberal) can be deeply satisfying. It promises intellectual certainty that a list of political preferences is inherently true (whatever those preferences happen to be in a given era) and, probably more importantly, validates the conclusion that anyone not adhering to such preferences is ignorant, perverse or both. We will likely never be able to win the day with logic until we find a way to talk liberals down from the sugar high of their man-made religion. But, to Mr. Neumayr, don't stop trying.
proreason| 1.13.11 @ 1:35PM
People need to understand that leftists have no limits to what they will do. History proves this to be an absolute fact.
The soothing words, the feigned sympathy, the furrowed brows (how long did little lenin practice in a mirror before he picked up his t-shir souvenir at the memorial service last night) are just a part of their conscience dreaming.
They see no truth. The books and documents are failed artifacts of more primitive cultures. Their only reality is that truth and beauty will only occur when they are in total control. Much the same way Stalin thought about his workmanlike efforts to improve the fate of the Russian people; over the insane objections of many who disagreed with him and had to be dealt with appropriately.
anon Ymus| 1.13.11 @ 11:06PM
---Looking more and more like a set-up by the hour.
Distractions aside, WHY is no one bringing in a discussion of the VERY REAL role of Freemasonic-linked Luciferian occultism
in all this?
Freemasons dominate and control law enforcement, upper level government, the
entire NEA, and, via the Rockefeller Foundation
founded 'Council of Churches' our ENTIRE
religious establishment.
Freemasonry IS, avowedly not just a religion
---BUT a Luciferian cult.
DO look into the background of their capstone
ranks and one Albert Pike. GO ----check it out!
FACT IS capstone 'charitable' foundations are
the very instigators and engineers of globalism,
economic and cultural collpase and, most horrifying, a century-long agenda of MASS
eugenics and extermination.
AGAIN, by ANY definition the 'repectable' Freemasons
ARE not only a relgion, but, in its captsone,
self-avowedly Luciferian.
THEY direct and wield VAST power within our
republic, IN FACT, it's no stretch to see this
'parallel government' as THE gnovernment.
CHECK OUT Rockefeller et al involvements
with Bolshevism, WWI, Stalin, MASS sterilization
and lethal 'tainted' vaccines and influenzas,
Hitler, and, MOST chilling, Mao Tse Tung's
MASS genoide campaigns ---and, these days,
VAST coompulsory extermination of the
unborn ----with 'experiments'...
UNTIL these organizations are oened, audited,
investigated, dismantled and ----their responsible
directors fearlessly and unflinchingly prosecuted
for crimes, not only against the republic, but
against humanity at large ------nothing will change...
Filofox| 1.13.11 @ 11:43PM
anon Ymous:
Quoting Daffy Duck, "that's just plain ol' silly."
Not Perfect | 1.16.11 @ 4:00PM
The enemy within just like he said " I invented the internet" quote Al Gore! He invented Climate Change, Global Warming, but wanted ALL those that provide jobs REGULATED! He never said a thing when HE inherited 100,000 shares of Occidental Oil. He invented a LARGE BANK ACCOUNT! What's next? Oh I know the invention of FAMINE, PESTILENCES, EARTHQUAKES! He is NOT GOD! He's the enemy within! BEWARE!
John| 1.19.11 @ 1:29AM
Does anyone have the latest status of the Landscheidt Grand Minimum and its impact manifested as this winter's weather anomalies and how this it might affect spring planting and summer crop production?
p| 1.19.11 @ 4:42AM
oh, come on, don't be shy. Why be modest? Haven't you learned anything from your paymasters yet? If you want to get payed more don't just accuse your opponents of 'nihilism'. Besides, it conjures associations with modesty in the minds of the folks hoppering concepts into at ease posishies, but what's worse, falls way short of your enormous reach. Use it!! You thinks demons in Dimona are working for Piet Snot???? Claim you are threatened with ANnihilism, on the double!!!!! You know, like Ward did, he wants the US 'off the map'. Now, just do what you are accusing him off as follows: left hook: accuse him of the plans which in reality we harbour, unload our own designs to begin bombing campaigns on him, then, much later, come back with a right handed grateful borrowing for having familiarized and spooked the public to the point of agreeing with pre-emptives etcetera.
So censor any reference Ward might have been talking about treaties contracts and laws, you know, the stuff gullible people manage to believe that very flimsy and flammable dead cellulose can represent and be trusted with. Him being a big man, the asssociation with violence is easily made and helps displace and/or overlook the massive smoking and sadness complex immobilizing him.
Have a good day.
Adidas | 8.11.11 @ 5:40AM
is good
العاب | 4.10.12 @ 12:50PM
last night, I think I read the Presidents lips as he was greeting Sheriff Dopenik
thanx