Clear as Mud

I recently read an op-ed column that began: “It is clear we have real racial problems in this country….”

Now, as a writer myself I understand that sometimes we begin with phrases like this, often called “throat clearing” phrases, that are simply a way to get us started.  But, that being said, my immediate reaction to this was “No, it is not clear and by the way, do we really have real racial problems in this country?” 

My next thought is, “No, I don’t think so.”  What we do have is a lot of people who don’t have the life that they would like to have and/or who are jealous of some of the lives of others.   We have people who like to blame others for their own discontent.  Those things are, of course, part of human nature.

But what we also have are people who use the discontent of others to agitate and create anger and hate which they then use not to remedy the discontented but to further their own gain.  Indeed, this is the classic tactic of Marxism and Socialism and even of community organizing. Rather than encouraging self-examination or reminding that life is not fair, they will encourage seeing individual dissatisfactions as resulting from a larger, group oppression of some sort. 

Find a common dissatisfaction, find someone to blame, agitate the dissatisfied to attack the one who has been assigned the blame.  The result may improve the lives of the dissatisfied temporarily, but its real goal is to make the dissatisfied indebted to the agitator.

The Democrats have become masters at this.  They create identity groups and then use them until they are no longer useful.  We had the pussy-hat marches a couple of years ago, we had the many LGBTQ protests and demands.  Now we have the BLM organization, pushed by progressives and other Leftists who, seeing an opportunity in George Floyd’s death, have fomented anti-white, anti-law enforcement, anti-rule of law and Constitution, anti-American sentiment, leading to the devastation of many cities in this country.  Their goal is not to end racism but to end the presidency of Donald Trump and to push this country ever closer to a complete restructuring into socialism.

This is not racism.  This is not a racial problem.  This is a political problem created by very skillful politicians.  Now before you come to send me to a reeducation camp, I am not saying that racism does not exist.  It does, it always has, and it always will.  It is human nature to be wary of those different from us, whether in behavior or skin color or dress or any number of things.  Sometimes that wariness will cross the line and become racist.  But that does not mean that the country has a racial problem. 

It does mean that we have fallen into the divisive tribalism of identity politics.  And, if the agitated identity group is a particular race, then that group will see its oppression as racist.  And if their blame target is a governmental system, then they will assert that the system is racist.  But that does not make it so. 

Racism is not just being aware that someone is in some way different from oneself.  Racism is “the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.”  There was a time in this country, as well as in much of the world, when Black people were considered in some way less than human or at least inferior enough to justify slave-holding.  There was a time when Blacks could not mix with Whites in any way, not even at the drinking fountain. 

In large part due to our form of democracy and our Constitution we were able to move through and forward from those times.  We acknowledged the errors and did what we could to make the way forward better.  We passed civil rights legislation.  We created things like affirmative action.  We integrated schools.  Some people did better with these new opportunities than did others.

But one group who has always found something to their own advantage in Black issues is the Democrats.  As the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s presented Blacks with opportunities to move forward, the Democrats also saw an opportunity to create a permanent underclass of supportive voters. 

By creating entitlements and encouraging Blacks to become permanently dependent on those entitlements the Democrats were able to keep them “in their place.”  That is, entitlement dependence has a way of destroying motivation and independence.  It becomes necessary to keep the benefactor in power so as not to lose one’s benefits.  And, coexistent with this loss of self is the belief that one is somehow “less than” and not able to do as well as others.  One comes to accept one’s fate as somehow second class.

With that second class feeling comes discontent.  Discontent that is ripe to be agitated into anger and a belief that one has been and is being discriminated against.  And that, I think, is what we are really seeing when we say that “it is clear we have racial problems.”

But that is not a racial problem.  Those who have been enticed into becoming an underclass are now grouped into an identity class and directed toward a target to blame for their discontent.  That target is “racism”, now asserted to be systemic and hence anything or anyone associated with or supportive of traditional American institutions.

This is false racism, and it is a problem.  Those who are against the traditional American system of government are using the cover of racism to further their own anti-American agenda.  “Racism” is the smoke screen; it is the weapon that is being aimed at America.  But America, while it does have racists, is not itself racist.  And, if anyone would read its history and the words of its founders (before those books are all burned along with the statues), they would see that this country’s founding ideals were not racist.  Even if the racism that accompanied the acceptance of slavery was once a part of the system, it is not now. 

I think the better statement would be, “It is clear we have a real anti-American problem within this country.”  That is, we have a significant group who do not believe in or support our form of government and our Constitution.  Their goal is to entirely dismantle it, in essence destroy the soul that is America, and then remake it into something else.  The “racial problems” are asserted and then encouraged; they are a part of the identity politics which are a key tool in the attacks designed to deconstruct America.

So, while there may be individual acts of racism against which we should all speak out, the bigger and more pervasive problem is the misuse of a manufactured and false “institutionalized” racism to attack America.  And, in a way, that is the real racism – the methods used by Democrats to first create a dependent underclass and then to agitate that group into an identity political battalion being used to further the Left’s quest for power and domination.

 

Happy New Year! What is Your Mission?

Happy New Year!

I am hoping for a new year in which everyone (including myself) becomes a bit more tolerant and that we are able to be thankful for what we each have and take joy simply in living without forever taking issue with those who have more, less, or are simply different in mind, body, or spirit than we are.

But, then, I read the morning news and learned that the Left has declared this the “year of resistance.”  (One wonders what the last 3 years have been?!)  The Left have vowed to double their efforts to remove President Trump from office, whether by the electoral process or by other means, they don’t really seem to care.

This caused me to again reflect upon what is “the Left” and why are they always so discontented and hateful?  We must begin with the understanding that, even though they both inhabit the Democrat Party, Leftists are not Liberals and that Leftism is not Liberalism.

While we often use the two terms interchangeably or think of Left as simply more extreme Liberalism, the reality is that the two have very different world views and each’s ideal includes very different Americas. 

Liberals essentially believe in American Democracy and Capitalism but understand its imperfections and would make changes to improve but not fundamentally change them.  Liberals would like to see more income equality, more affordable housing, better and more affordable health care, less discrimination, etc., but they would create these things within the capitalist structure of this country.  Their disagreements with the Right are more often on how to achieve these things within our governmental structure rather than with the governmental structure itself.   

The Right also has a number of conservative factions including fiscal, Christian, traditionalist, libertarian, moderate, as well as some extremists; but, for the most part the Right or Republicans all support the American capitalist form of government.   As such, when the two parties consisted mostly of conservatives and liberals, it was easier for the government to accomplish necessary changes as the two sides could more easily work toward successful compromises within the same fundamental government structure and ideals.

In contrast, the Left considers capitalism as something that should be done away with.  While they would like to see many results similar to those advocated by Liberals, their method of achieving those goals is to fundamentally change the governing structure of America.  While Liberals might want to see governmental structures change more quickly, the Left would like to see them change completely.  Ultimately, in their desire to create what they would see as a better incarnation, the Left would destroy everything that makes America what it is today. 

Hence the Left’s hatred of Trump, patriotism, and nationalism.  A note here:  nationalism is simply a support for one’s own nation.  While that nationalism can take a dark turn it is not in and of itself an evil; indeed, it is something that is necessary for the health and sustenance of any country or nation-state.  Similarly, patriotism is nothing more than support for one’s country along with a feeling of attachment to that country.  These are not negative things, but they become negative to a group that would completely destroy that country and rebuild it with something else.  This is what the Left would do.

The Left would completely restructure our economy, and in doing so would also completely restructure our democracy.  They cannot follow the Liberal approach of compromise or have patience for the slower path of change that occurs within our current systems because the Left does not believe in that system.  The Left wants not only immediate change but also change to a completely different system.  Their entire ideology is different.

The Left rejects the core ideologies of this country.  For example, Leftism is based on class solidarity, not national solidarity and not human solidarity.  The class – the identity group – is essential to a Left philosophy.  While America believes that the color of one’s skin should be insignificant (and despite history that contradicted that, our country has and continues to allow us to move past inequalities based upon race or other identifiable factors),  to the left, seeing race as insignificant is actually racist.  That is, the Left needs racial identity to build class or identity group solidarity.

The Left’s view toward free speech is entirely antithetical to that of traditional Liberals and to the core values of this country.  “I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it.”  That statement encapsulates the essence of our belief in free speech and the free and often passionate interchange of ideas along with the individual's right to hold and speak ideas with which others disagree.  This concept is essential to our democracy.  The Left, on the other hand, would ban all speech which they find offensive or which counters the speech necessary to their vision of what America should be. 

In this suppression of free speech and with it the freedom of individuality in speech, values, and ideas, the Left would eliminate the individual in furtherance of class solidarity.  The Left has contempt for all which does not further its goals.  Indeed, some would completely obliterate anything based on “Western Civilization” which does, indeed, hold most of the underlying principles of America:  morals, ethics, literature, artistic work, music, philosophy, religion.  These are all denounced in one way or another as the Left seeks to remake America.

To the Left, America is a capitalist horror filled only with people who are racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.  While Liberals acknowledge that such mindsets exist, they will work to remove the effects of such negative attitudes within our current Constitutional, legal, and capitalist system.  Economically, Liberals' work will be more towards equality of opportunity rather than equality of result.  While Liberals will use the current democratic and capitalist systems to eliminate such things as economic gaps, the Left will ignore individual enterprise and turn to such things as redistribution of income and/or property promulgated by government fiat.

The democratic system of this country will always recognize individuality and with it the unreality of total sameness.  The Left, on the other hand, would envision absolutely no differences in economic or other results; that is, the Left strives for one unified class supervised by a government that holds and enforces Leftist ideals. The individual is lost to the dictates of a large and controlling government who will create what the Leftists (but perhaps not the people) will determine to be good.

No, Liberalism is not Leftism.  While both philosophies currently inhabit the Democrat party, they actually have very little in common.  They do however, both want to take the power of the presidency back from Donald Trump.   Frighteningly, they have joined forces in this; however, the Liberals have, in so doing, forgotten their core belief in and allegiance to this country.  The Left could care less.

This country, while always holding a variety of beliefs, including political, has always been generally united in the core support for the fundamental structure of our government.  That is no longer true.  The Left has a different mission, one not to support and improve America, but to totally destroy it.  They hate not only President Trump, but also his supporters, and every traditional value upon which this country was built.  They will not give up until they have eradicated them all and remade this country into something no longer recognizable as the shining beacon of individual freedoms and democracy.

That is the mission of the Left.  I do not believe that is the mission of Liberals or Conservatives or most Americans.  The mission of the Left is filled with hate and nihilism.  As the rest of us consider our New Year’s resolutions, we can make them ones of respect and tolerance and inclusion.  Rather than discarding all that is good in America simply because it is not perfect, we can make resolutions that improve and strengthen the already greatness of this country and all that it stands for.  We can make that our mission.  I hope that we do.