Can you close your eyes and picture a scarier, more dangerous America? An America in which the ideas of The Nation or Marx’s Kapital had won the day, a world in which leftism had gone so far, become so extreme, that electing even a moderate conservative to national office proved impossible?
Close your eyes and imagine a two-man race for president: one a snarky, out-of-touch intellectual, and the other a down-to-earth businessman with real solutions. The national media, so enamored with liberal academia and so anti-business, promotes the academic, leaving the businessman out to dry, except for the occasional bad press. Would that be fair? Or even democratic? What if a Republican presidential hopeful were so in touch with international affairs that he had regular contact with U.N. Chief Kofi Annan, were so caring he’d been voted the most compassionate representative, yet the media didn’t give him a single cover story because he was too conservative?
Keep those eyes closed and consider a place where, with only a very brief exception in the early ‘60s, left-wing Democrats and centrist Republicans have had a kung-fu grip on the presidency, disregarding conservative interests at the executive level for decades. Can you imagine how persecuted the conservatives might feel? What would be the fate of the traditional family values and freedoms from government that conservatives so value? Would they dry up and die in this society? What if not only the president, but the Supreme Court, both houses of Congress, nine out of the 14 leading nationally syndicated columnists and a vast majority of federal bureaucratic appointees were all in the pockets of the Democratic party? Even for moderate liberals, isn’t that gross lack of parity scary?
Picture a place in which the president had appointed former hippies and environmental terrorists to positions of power in the Environmental Protection Agency. Eyes closed, can you imagine how business would gradually grind to a halt, how nothing short of complete natural overgrowth would be tolerated by the left-wingers and their Sierra Club interests in DC? All business, all progress, all day-to-day life would stop.
What if this extreme shift in the national political arena didn’t represent the national consciousness at all, but indicated the disgust and disenchantment the right felt with the process and, as such, that none of them voted? What if, because of this apathy, those in power had stripped our military every year until all that remained was a nominal army, hardly more effective than some local militia? What if, as happened in Allende’s Chile, the idealistic and unrealistic commitment to peace-at-all-costs enabled a foreign power to join forces with a rebel group and install a dictator in power? What if, in this slashing-and-burning of our military, the liberals in control effectively cost us our position as a world power? Keep those eyes closed. It gets worse.
Imagine a place where political correctness became such a powerful social force that no one could say anything meaningful or controversial. A place where the liberals actually feared violent uprising (because no one can be expected to endure imposed silence for too long), and records of where conservatives had been, what they’d read, and whom they had spoken with were now property of the government. Or what if, even worse, the leftist commitment to separation of church and state became out-and-out war on religion? What if, more to the point, being the wrong religion meant detainment? What if these detentions happened on military bases and in other locations to which the press had no access, and there were no charges filed against the alleged criminals, and they were allowed to wither away in prison?
If this is frightening to you, as it is to me, then I offer my second question.
For the first question, you closed your eyes and imagined. For the second, open them and observe. Can you see? All one has to do is flip. Flip the words “liberal” and “left” and “Democrat” for their conservative counterparts. What about now? Do you see yet? Hovering just before you, the frightening truth that this current administration does not speak for you, that your love of moderation-that same love possessed by your moderate liberal counterparts-has been manipulated by a right-wing government? Is it there for you to grasp, like a dream realized, or is it just another example of liberal politics? Ultimately, if your eyes really are open, you will have to decide for yourselves. This is the first time in U.S. history that if every university student votes, we will decide the president. If my depiction of the ultra-left governing our society scares you, then, at least, consider what it means to live in a society ruled by the extreme right. Is your vote yours alone, or will it be stolen from you by arbitrary party affiliation?
And, to wit, there have been ultra-conservative governments in world history before; perhaps that really is our destiny. Change, however, is a fundamental part of progress, and vigilance is the cornerstone of democracy. A little of both, from people of both parties, both ideologies, is overdue. As the late Native American activist, Ruben Snake, used to quip, “If we don’t change our direction, we’re likely to end up where we’re headed.” Better than any Fox News soundbite or ninety-minute speech our president could give, this proverb sums up the state of the union.
