Leftism - Part 2

By
   M. Richard Maxson

    

     Liberalism was once a philosophy based in Constitutional respect and American exceptionalism, but it’s been a long time since that was the case. Perhaps not since John Kennedy has there been a national Democrat who believed in this vision of America, one in which individual liberty and personal responsibility brought about collective greatness, not a partisan legislative agenda and the systematic silencing of dissent.
     The Democratic Party was infected by the progressive (Leftist) philosophy at the dawn of the 20^th century, as was the Republican Party and the world. Republicans largely rejected them, but they found a willing host with the Democrats. The concept sounds great – government can make things better. Soon, they had metastasized through the Democratic Party and won the White House with Woodrow Wilson. Wilson abused his power and sought to imprison opponents whose only crime was criticizing his administration. (On top of his rabid racism, another staple of the progressive movement no one likes to talk about.)
    The Leftist movement during the post WWII era tried again to gain control but were forced underground by the rabid Anti-Communism that had swept the country. The Cold War was upon us and only good Americans were required to fight this battle. The re-election of Harry Truman may have been the last election of a "true" Democrat. Some may say that it was John Kennedy and that topic is truly up for debate, but this was the time of the silent take-over of the Democratic Party (1946-1964).
    The election of 1960 brought huge numbers of Leftists into the party to fight the "establishment" Democrats behind a new younger leader, John F. Kennedy. Was Kennedy a Leftist? Far from it, but it was that huge influx of young Leftists into the party that sealed it's fate. Kennedy was not of their mindset but his campaign was a means to an end.
     The 1960s, became the decade liberals love to hate. Why? Because the path-breaking supply-side tax cuts of John F. Kennedy generated one of the greatest booms in economic history showing once again that left alone our system of economic freedom works!  Actually, it was two big tax cuts. The first was a business tax cut put in place in 1962, and the second was an across-the-board personal tax cut that began in early 1964. Kennedy cut the top tax rate from 91 percent to 70 percent, but all other tax rates were also reduced for top-to-bottom income earners. The result was an eight-year expansion from 1961 to 1969 saw growth of 48 percent -- a third more in an eight-year period than in the 16 years ending in 1960.
    Since that time, conveniently, John Kennedy’s powerful tax-cut slashing on business, individuals, and investors doesn’t exist in the Left’s post-war, economic narrative. It’s been rubbed out of history, replaced by a liberal vision of powerful unions and high tax rates on the rich, which is supposed to create growth.
     This was one of the most turbulent times in our nations history. War, riots in the street, and on our university campuses decided the election of 1968. Law and order and an end to the war won the day but something else was happening......... in our schools. Across the country the universities had a new generation of teachers who had other ideas of what the United States was going to be. Educating the masses in the ideology of the Left was the new way to power.
     The uprisings on our nations campuses was directly due to the anti-American ideals that were being ingrained from these new Leftist teachers into our youth to mold them for a new world. Reported as anti-war protests, when if fact, it was not only protests against the war but they were the beginning of anti-American protests from within our own country.
 

        America will never be destroyed from the outside.
                    If we falter and lose our freedoms, 
         it will be because we have destroyed ourselves.
                                                                                  - Abraham Lincoln


NEXT - Part 3 - New World Order
    
     

What America's Schools Should Be - An Announcement by the Principal

 

Guest Column  

By Dennis Prager 

To the students and faculty of our high school:

    I am your new principal, and honored to be so.
There is no greater calling than to teach young people.
I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against our country.
 
First , this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity.
     I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships. The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity -- your character, your scholarship, your humanity. The only national identity this school will care about is American.
    This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans. If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity, race and non-American nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America , one of its three central values -- epluribus Unum, "from many, one."  This school will be guided by America 's values. This includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in vogue in a society divided by political correctness.
    Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism -- an unhealthy preoccupation with the self -- while the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interested in are those based on ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests you.
 
Second , I am uninterested in whether English is your native language. My only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has united America 's citizens for over 200 years, and it will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without excellent English language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be prepared to successfully compete in the American job market. We will learn other languages here -- it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English -- but if you want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.
 
Third , because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor , everything in this school will reflect learning's elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for Hollywood events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward. Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.
 
Fourth , no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school's property -- whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you can't speak without using the f -word, you can't speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission, plus epithets such as "Nigger," even when used by one black student to address another black, or "bitch," even when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend. It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the few your age to instinctively distinguish between the elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.
 
Fifth , we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way -- the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago -- by earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.
 
Sixth , and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will be devoted to scaring you about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or primarily a health issue... There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual or not Christian. We will have failed if any one of you graduates this school and does not consider him or herself inordinately fortunate -- to be alive and to be an American.
 
Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand them out to you.

Leftism - Part 1

by M. Richard Maxson

    The Constitutional Republic that was created after the Revolutionary War was fragile at the beginning, but it has prospered over the centuries beyond the founding generation’s wildest dreams. Our Founders developed an ingenious system of checks and balances, which George Washington described as, “though not absolutely perfect, it is one of the best in the world.” This government “by the people, for the people.” The primary architects of our constitutional republic understood that history teaches essential lessons. They meticulously studied history and comparative political systems in preparation for crafting a system of government likeliest to maximize liberty.

    Around the same time Socialism began to take hold in France. They were called "Leftists" due the fact that people with certain views sat on the left side of the National Assembly. The French Revolution was their chance to show what they could do when they got the power they sought. In contrast to what they promised -- "liberty, equality, fraternity" -- what they actually produced were food shortages, mob violence and dictatorial powers that included arbitrary executions, extending even to their own leaders.

    By the eve of World War I, poor working and living conditions in American cities helped clear the way for socialism.  In 1912, Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene Debs won 6 percent of the popular vote.  And there were hundreds of Socialist elected officials in cities and towns across the country. Terrorist bombings and assassinations of government officials that were happening in the United States were the seeds that sprouted agencies like the FBI. These governmental agencies were extremely anti-Communist and crusaded to hinder their spread. The party had other problems."The Socialists, who were a small third party, had very little to offer," says political scientist Gary Marks.  "What they could offer was ideological purity.  They could offer a beacon for a different society.  But the labor unions were rooted in the 'here and now.'"

    The economic upheaval of the 1930s gave many socialists hope that the time had come for a workers’ party in the United States.  But political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg says it was too late. "During the period of the Great Depression and economic downturn, there was more of a possibility for the creation of labor parties," says Ginsberg.  "But with the advent of Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition, labor became such a prominent force within the Democratic Party that most labor leaders could see no advantage to trying to go out on their own."

   Labor unions have been very active in promoting voter participation within the context of America's two-party system.  And since the Great Depression, organized labor generally has supported the Democratic Party, which has embraced many people on the left of the U.S. political spectrum.

     After the McCarthy hearings left them reeling they reinvented themselves as the "new" left. They threw out the concept of right and wrong for the ideal that it was a persons circumstance that caused all of societies problems. They struggled to avoid facing the plain fact of evil -- that some people simply choose to do things that they know to be wrong when they do them. Every kind of excuse, from poverty to an unhappy childhood, is used by the left to explain and excuse evil.

    Published in 1963, in the congressional records are the 45 goals of the Communist party. One of these is the take over of one of the political parties. The Democratic party was ripe for the taking. Since the Civil War, America's two major political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, have averaged between them about 95 percent of the popular vote in national elections. Essentially this means that third parties have no chance to gain representation at the national level in the United States.  So it's a logic where one has to try to create the broadest coalition that one can," says Marks. They began to infiltrate and mold the democratic party into their liking. "And to do that means that under normal circumstances, one has to downplay ideology and appeal to as many diverse groups as possible."

NEXT - Part 2 - The Last "Real" Democrat.