7.  WE ARE ALL LIBERALS NOW
    by Doug Newman 
    Special to TLE      http://www.webleyweb.com/tle/>     Issue 223

Rush Limbaugh always tells us that two identifying characteristics of a liberal are:
- An emphasis on symbolism over substance.
- An emphasis on feeling rather than thinking.

If this is the case, we might as well face it: 96 percent of Americans are
liberals. A bill [House Bill 1368] currently going through the Colorado
State House of Representatives -- it may be law by the time you read this
-- will require students in public schools to recite the Pledge of
Allegiance every morning at the start of school.

The mentality behind this bill is highly simplistic: requiring recitation
of the Pledge will instill patriotism in the hearts and minds of Colorado's
children and teenagers. The rhetoric used against anyone who opposes this
bill will be similarly simplistic: if you oppose it, you are anti-flag and
just not a patriot.

I thought only liberals believed in superficial, quick fix, feel good
solutions to problems. The bill's sponsor is State Representative Bill
Crane, a Republican from Arvada, just northwest of Denver. Supporters of
this bill no doubt believe they are doing Colorado a favor. In reality,
forcing people to recite pledges no more instills patriotic fervor than
progressive income taxes instill compassion for the poor.

I thought only liberals condemned those who disagreed with them as evil.
Disagreeing with liberals meant that you, personally, are racist, sexist,
homophobic, etc. In the fall of 2001, Attorney General Ashcroft stated,
"To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty,
my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists." Today, when you
disagree with someone who calls himself a conservative, you are liberal,
anti-family, pro-drug, pro-terrorism and so forth.

I use the phrase "calls himself a conservative", as there are
very few Americans - let us just say four percent -- left who seriously
want to conserve those principles enshrined in the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution. Democrats are at least honest when they
say they believe that oppressive taxes and intrusive government are good
things. Republicans say they believe that oppressive taxes and intrusive
government are rotten things, unless they are in charge. Then, government
becomes the grooviest thing in the world.

There is no serious constituency for limited government and individual
freedom today in either government or the media. We have known for a long
time that the schools and universities are quagmires of socialism.
Government and media are about the same any longer. No matter who gets
elected, taxation remains oppressive and government grows larger and more
heavy-handed. When Bill Clinton was at the helm of the socialist
superstate, there were some folks on talk radio opposing and exposing the
advancement of tyranny in America. But now
that GWB is in charge, and tyrannizing us even more, these folks sing the
praises of every new encroachment upon our liberty.

The debate is no longer between big government and small government, but
rather who gets the credit for the latest tightening of the vise grip
around the American people. Recently, I said that politics should resemble
football, with one team moving the ball toward one end zone, and the other
team moving the ball toward the opposite end zone. Someone e-mailed me back
saying that contemporary politics is more like baseball, with both teams
working to advance across the same plate, but just earlier and more often.
The name-calling between the two factions of our ruling class is just about
as infantile as between two teams playing tee-ball in the local park. And
the stakes are frequently about as significant.

In 1969, President Nixon pronounced himself a Keynesian. It was newsworthy
at the time that a Republican president was adhering to the liberal
economic policies of John Maynard Keynes. Milton Friedman remarked,
"We are all Keynesians now."

We might as well admit it: we are all liberals now. There was a time when
liberals had all the new ideas for using the government to make the world a
better place, and conservatives opposed them with constitutional and
empirical arguments. Liberals relied on symbolism and conservatives relied
on substance. Liberals felt and conservatives thought.

Actually, there is a small remnant -- perhaps four percent of the American
people -- that are seriously committed to preserving America's Founding
principles. The rest would rather be fashionable and do what is trendy. And
this is where we get so messed up about this whole Pledge business.

Last summer, the Ninth Circuit Court declared that the phrase "under
God" in the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional. The outrage in
response to this was refreshing. How dare these secularists impose their
values on the rest of us! Mandatory pledges are similarly silly
impositions. We can make people say pledges, but we cannot instill in them
a love of liberty. Liberty means the absence of the initiation of force.
Initiation of force whether by compulsory attendance laws in schools or by
unprovoked invasions of foreign nations was an
anathema to the Founders.

(And how will we enforce such a law? With black helicopters hovering over
schools and dropping off brown-shirted, black ski-masked, machine gun
toting stormtroopers from the Pledge Enforcement Administration to arrest
teachers who do not lead their classes in the Pledge? Judging by the way
the authorities react to medical marijuana patients and six-year-olds
drawing crayon pictures of cowboys with guns, this may not be a stretch.
Will pledge crime mean hard time?)

I had sworn last summer, after writing twice on this subject
http://www.geocities.com/fountoftruth/pledge.html> that I would not
do so again. Well, take me to the woodshed. But I only do so because this
whole Pledge controversy illustrates so many points about how far we in
America have gone astray.

It is controversies such as this that prompt me to step outside at night,
gaze up at the stars, and repeat the recent words of an old friend back in
Arizona:

... Lord, when's the Big Rock gonna hit?!?!?!
- - -

If you wish to post this, please include a link to the original article
http://www.geocities.com/fountoftruth/libsnow.html>. Also, please
e-mail me and let me know, so I can give you an added link. How does that
sound?

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