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The Spectacle Blog
My latest at twelve23 at U. of Mobile.
A taste:
The culture warriors of the left are insidious, invidious, dishonest, ruthless, and very, very clever. As soon as they assert the absolute right to new ground they have never before held or even suggested acquiring, they then start accusing traditionalists of “rolling back” the “right” to the ground the left doesn’t yet actually hold.
…..
When the year 2012 dawned, it was true that never before in the history of the United States had the federal government required, as a cost of doing business, the provision of free contraception. Nor had the government ever before dared to so directly interfere with any churches’ doctrinal-related actions. The abortifacient mandate is thus a dual attack on free enterprise and free conscience, on ground that had never been fought over before.
Yet somehow, suddenly, the media is portraying this issue as if it is an “attack on a woman’s right to use contraception.” Never mind that not a soul has suggested that contraception be forbidden from those who want it; all anybody has done is resisted the notion that somebody else should be forced to pay for it. What was an assault from the left against the right, from libertines against traditionalists, from big-government against freedom, suddenly is portrayed as an attack from the latter groups against the former.
…. Thus do the victims become portrayed as the aggressors, while the despoilers are portrayed as defenders of all that is right and good. Discarded in the process of inverting the political looking glass are freedom, common culture, age-tested values, morals, and faith.
This is quite a battle we’re in.
View all comments (18) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/03/08/against-deceitful-leftist-cult
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Stan Redmond| 3.8.12 @ 4:13PM
I would say it's more of a blitzkrieg. The liberals rolled this out with everything they had. All the GOP can do is wait out the storm and slowly push back the invaders. I do cut some slack to the GOP. Who ever could have thought there was such a brewing united front to launch this assault? Stephenopoulis snuck this question under the radar at one of the debates and everyone missed what was going on. Then, the entire media and liberal democrat machine released this onslought, about birth control? Come on? Really? We are going to put the nation on hold for this? Apparently so.
I do have some faith though that this issue is their last big battle. They have nothing after this. Anything now will be so totally made up and phony I just don't see anyone buying it. There are the hopeless idiots that will always vote for liberals but I think a small majority of people realize just how little democrats have to run on.
Seek| 3.8.12 @ 5:34PM
How was it, then, that Obama was elected president four years ago? I work on a simple premise: Any man who can get himself elected to public office can get himself re-elected. Obama succeeded in 2008; he can do it again in 2012. Overconfidence on our side may be fatal.
LC JB | 3.8.12 @ 6:02PM
Entirely. As I wrote over at my site, we literally watched the left morph this issue and our side was utterly silent about it's phony message and then....actually taking the left's bait and engaging. The made-up issue was so specious that it deserved NOTHING more than a big yawn, yet here we are playing defense once again to lies.
RJ| 3.8.12 @ 4:18PM
The liberal strategy is to move into your house and claim you are throwing them out of "their" home when you ask them to leave.
We are really living in crazy, disturbing times. I recently saw a video clip of Senator Sessions questioning Defense Secretary Leon Panetta about the Obama Administration's view of the necessary legal authority to commit troops to battle. All Senator Sessions wanted was a commitment to obtain Congressional approval. He didn't get it. Panetta and the other witness stressed NATO and UN approval and that the administration would advise Congress, perhaps seeking its input. It was very disturbing to hear. When Congress is ignored over committing the military without a direct, imminent threat against the US, we really are talking about a dictatorship. America is in the middle of the Rubicon.
C Bowen | 3.8.12 @ 4:42PM
You have to admit, Quin, conservatives are being squeamish about being against the Pill.
Conservatives can be taken seriously (beyond just fighting a rearguard action, lost long ago) when they start reaching out to other groups. Say, reach out to Left-Environmentalists, and talk about what the Pill does to local water supplies and what it might be doing to ourselves.
Tap into the anti-Big Pharma streak the American people, Left and Right still possess (if not the DC crowd.)
It was only a few months ago, conservatives were rationalizing forcing the tax payer to pay for venereal disease medication of 12 year old girls, when Gov. Perry was the Conservative of the Month.
qrstuv| 3.8.12 @ 9:19PM
"conservatives are being squeamish about being against the Pill."
I'm not.
Do you have any empirical evidence to prove this?
The left claims all kinds of stuff that wasn't true.
***
And I seem to recall that Gov. Perry received a huge amount of flak for that.
***
Two strikes. Try again?
C Bowen | 3.9.12 @ 6:37AM
Gov. Perry tried to force 12 year old girls to get venereal disease meds--he is nuttier then Fluke! and yet was once a frontrunner, and "pro-life."
Sure, he got flak--but there were plenty who were willing to rationalize it, which is why conservatives always lose.
spike59| 3.9.12 @ 6:39AM
nice 'narrative', CB, although utterly deviod of fact: conservatives are not 'against the Pill'...AND YOU KNOW IT. what we're against is the Catholic Church being forced by the State, against their faith, teachings, and doctrine, to PAY for them-that's not the same thing....but by presenting the false narrative, you attempt to sidestep the issue of the Obama administration violating the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment; but here's a news flash for you; Christians (Catholic and Protestant alike) aren't going to let you-there will be pushback-in the pulpits, in the courts, and in the polling places-this is going to blow up in the Democrats' faces in November
Paul McGrath| 3.8.12 @ 5:13PM
Very nice, Mr. Quin. You nailed it. This one goes into the archives.
Simon Templar| 3.8.12 @ 5:24PM
Yes, Quin it certainly is....
This why I so vehemently and repeatedly have been critical of those that unwittingly assist them in anyway with their narratives, repeat their talking points, use their political language to criticize other conservatives, accept their imposed double standards, and refuse to recognize that there is a war and they are not playing by your rules.
Quin, it has become very crystal clear that we can not use the old and tired political means, techniques, responses, and strategy we have used in the past.
These people have been at this game a long time. They were talking, among themselves, about the ideas of narratives back in the early nineties and well before that. They crafted many of these concepts of social change, dynamics, social movement theory, media manipulation and propaganda a long time ago.
I read and knew about Alinsky since the late seventies, a decade after Hillary studied under him. Where was our 'Rules for Conservatives?'
We not only have to get smart fast but we need to start writing and developing our own antidote to all of this..
Breitbart was the first in this attempt and is way ahead of most of us. We need to catch up.
Start by reading their books and their literature.
Know thy enemy.
One thing you must realize and it will be hard to accept as you are shocked already. These people are playing for keeps. They could give a rats ass about how they get to utopia, just that they do. They have no reservations in lying, cheating, misrepresenting, twisting, projecting, creating false premises, creating false moral equivalents, and killing you if they have to do so.
Do not think that those nice liberals you think you know have a clue even about their own liberalism. Remember, socialism and modern progressives coined the term useful idiots about their own followers. Dictatorship of the proletariat, vanguard of the revolution, and benevolent state are not just words. The basis of all this is the fundamental idea that a benevolent, idealistic, and competent elite should rule, direct, and define as this is the answer to mankinds problems.
Social justice is not the primary objective.
WL| 3.8.12 @ 6:08PM
Every word of that is 100% correct...
In addition to the things they will do, which you have listed, I also believe that these folks will purposefully destroy any remaining systems and instututions that provide our society with any order at all. Essentially, they are willing to take their chances with a collapsed society in which they will have a coercive advantage.
Paul McGrath| 3.8.12 @ 6:16PM
You are absolutely correct Simon, but it is a tough, uphill battle. The fact is, the majority of Americans pay no attention to this stuff. If they vote, they vote because they heard a soundbite somewhere which convinces them that some injustice has been done. "Santorum wants to ban contraceptives? Wow, that's outrageous." "They're against affirmative action? Gosh, what a bunch of racists."
But because it's an uphill battle does not mean it can't be done, but the thing is, it must be done from the top. Romney, Gingrich, Santorum and Paul (in fairness, Paul has stuck to the script), must stay focused on the economy. Forget everything else. Please do not get entangled in moral issues, not because you are not right, but because these issues give the left home field advantage. Talk about unemployment, the debt, the no-growth economy, government regulation, and taxes. Those are the winning issues.
It is astonishing to me that a mere year ago, all political discussion flowed around the debt and government spending. Now, it's all about the rich not paying their fair share. It started with the administration, it was spread by their lieutienants, it was picked up by the media, and now is espoused by college students, college dropouts, illiterates, and the morons of the Occupy Movement.
We must stay on message. And it starts at the top.
RJ| 3.8.12 @ 10:08PM
Good points, Simon. The change in America over the last 20 or so years is absolutely shocking. When Pat Buchanan said we were in a cultural war in 1992, I thought he was being a bit extreme. I have since learned that he was right.
A staffer in the State Department proudly told me that he learned during his 30 years in government that it does whatever it damn well wants to do. Then, he viewed me as an extremist for agreeing with him and saying I have a problem with unlimited power in government. I wouldn't have believed it possible, but the US is quickly turning into a corrupt dictatorship. We must turn things around.
MikeBee| 3.8.12 @ 5:59PM
Simple. Conservative response should be: "Contrary to a host of other liberal causes, like free education, free money to poor people, free health insurance, and on and on, we are the party which advocates paying for WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS. There is a failure rate for the Pill which is, on the low side, about 10 - 20%. We wholeheartedly support, and will pay for, contraception which has a much lower failure rate: Abstinence. For those women who wish to take their risks and use methods with a far higher failure rate, we acknowledge their freedom as women to do so, and do not stand in their way. For those women who can't afford it, the Pill is available for free at any Planned Parenthood clinic, and, for those who can afford, it's available at nominal fees at local pharmacies. Next question?"
C Bowen | 3.8.12 @ 6:11PM
The US taxpayer subsidizes Planned Parenthood--been doing so for decades; I don't want to pay for anyone's birth control or venereal disease medication--let alone the Pill which pollutes the drinking and fishing waters.
And so I get this straight, conservatives are okay with women freely choosing to buy drugs (or get them free at Planned Parenthood) that could potentially flush a life down the toilet, but one will go to jail if they try to purchase pot to deal with pain?
qrstuv| 3.8.12 @ 9:20PM
I'm pretty sure that most conservatives are against abortefactants.
Strike three on your honesty count.
C Bowen | 3.9.12 @ 6:35AM
Newt and Rick Santorum, George W and the gang...all voted to fund Planned Parenthood year after year yet DC Conservatives called them, even still call them, Pro-Life, even though, according to you, they were subsidizing abortion.
I keep reading that the only issue is making someone pay (in this case the Church) then whine about "freedom" as if the taxpayer shouldn't have a say either. As for "birth control", rather than being clear on a stance regarding the Pill and its like, and the remainder of the 'birth control' thing, conservatives look squeamish.
Purple Lips| 3.9.12 @ 8:36AM
The Left's biggest problem is that at some point in time they do run out of other people's money. The MSM or financial reporting bureaus have remained quiet regarding the massive debt our federal government has built and continues to nurture. But one does get the feeling of the Progressives being in a hurry. It's as if they realize that the gig is about to be up - perhaps as early as late this year. Watch the bond market. Watch our banks; watch Europe. German bondholders were forced to eat hundreds of billions of Euros worth of Greek debt. Before the ink was dry on the contracts, billions of dollars of wealth suddenly went up in smoke. And just think, our debt holdings tower over that of Greece. And you can't expect trillions of dollars of US debt to be written off without a global meltdown. If you wish to know why oil sells at $108/barrel in the face of anemic global demand, or why tens of millions remain unemployed depsite the infusion of $5 trillion of borrowed money - look no further than our debt.
Now we can return to Sandra Fluke, Peyton Manning, and Obama's handicap.