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« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2017, 06:57:48 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 12-11-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
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Half a century later, that original effort to “fundamentally transform the United States of America” still resonates. According to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s “Annual Report on U.S. Attitudes Toward Socialism,” 58% of Millennials would prefer27 living in a socialist, communist or fascist nation instead of a capitalist one.
That those same Millennials reject28 government control of the economy by a 2-1 margin is indicative of many things, but chief among them is that their understanding of the “enduring characteristics that make us unique” is virtually nil.
This is not surprising. While sexual freedom was the principal theme of the '60s reordering, embracing profanity, a.k.a. secularism, precipitated a paradigm shift in the way many Americans viewed the world. The belief in a higher power gave way to a glorification of the self, freed from the traditional understandings of right and wrong.
In turn, the moral underpinnings revealed by history became increasingly29 irrelevant, to the point where history itself required removal from the public square, lest it “offend” the egotists and the “superior” modernist morality they purport to represent — 58.5 million30 abortions since Roe v. Wade notwithstanding.
“Religiously unaffiliated people have been growing as a share of all Americans for some time,” Pew Research columnist Michael Lipka explained31 in 2015, citing Pew’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study32 that revealed religious “nones” now comprise 23% of the nation’s adult population.
In 2007, only 16% of Americans defined themselves as religiously unaffiliated. Moreover, the younger the demographic the less religious it is, with 35% of younger Millennials (born 1990-1996) defining themselves as nones, compared to only 11% of the Silent Generation (born 1928-1945) who identify as such.
Columnist John Hart asserts33 this decline may contribute to the nation’s political polarization, and he wonders if ideology has replaced religion altogether. “Many on the Left and Right are bowing to the same false god of state power from opposite sides of the altar,” he asserts. “The weirdness of today’s cult of personality politics didn’t happen by accident. Pew has identified a gap that ideology has rushed in to fill. The challenge for principled people on both sides is to put ideology back in its place. Ideology is a way to organize ideas and facilitate debate, not to provide meaning, purpose or answers to life’s transcendent and fundamental questions.”
Principled people? Principles do not occur in a vacuum, and while Hart would like to distribute equal blame to both sides of the ideological divide, it wasn’t the American Right who championed the ideas that “God is Dead,” all morality is “relative,” and everyone should “do their own thing” — absent the critical addendum that one should take responsibility for the consequences attendant to one’s choices.
Yet those on the Right are hardly blameless. They have their own share of fallen souls, and many have committed acts as egregious as their leftist counterparts, if not more so.
There is, however, a huge difference between a Right that fails to live up to the moral tenets institutionalized by our Judeo-Christian roots and our Founding documents, and an American Left that has largely abandoned those institutions and documents in favor of what Thornton calls the “liberation of the instincts.”
That liberation has engendered a plethora of social pathologies, including the destruction of the nuclear family, millions of abortions, the sexualization of children, high rates of divorce, and everything else attributable to the triumph of hedonism over virtue.
It is a liberation where people can discard religious notions of right and wrong, replacing them with “legal and illegal,” courtesy of attorneys, or “well and unwell,” courtesy of therapists. Moreover, as the current transgender movement demonstrates, the liberation of the instincts can liberate one from reality itself.
As a result, self-rationalization has become America’s most common moral currency.
Whether a sense of the sacred can be restored is anyone’s guess. But if one views the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as the respectively human-condition-defining and power-limiting contracts between a government and a free people they truly are, it is worth remembering that any contract is only as good as moral standards of those willing to abide by it.
In other words, it isn’t our institutions that are failing us. They are only as good — or as bad — as the people who inhabit them. Without a restored sense of the sacred, we will remain an exceptional nation in name only.
For many years, Americans have been led to believe liberation of the instincts, and the self-glorification it inevitably engenders, is the essence of enlightened thinking.
Pseudo-moralistic anarchy is more like it.
MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST
Wisconsin Is Also Swampland36 — As you read about the corruption in Wisconsin, note the parallels to the squalid activity we’re witnessing in DC.
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
Ryan Anderson: The Christian Baker Need Not Have Ended Up at the Supreme Court37
John Goodman: Why Liberal Democrats Ignored Sexual Harassment for So Many Years38
Kathryn Jean Lopez: Love, Motherhood and Tragedy39
Richard D. Kocur: Just What the Doctor Ordered40
Burt Prelutsky: Denzel Washington Speaks Out41
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion42.
OPINION IN BRIEF
John Goodman: “You might think that sexual harassment would be a rather straightforward issue for the party that claims to be the party of women. In the 1990s, liberal activist groups used the issue to almost derail the appointment of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas and to force the resignation of Sen. Bob Packwood. But the allegations against Thomas and Packwood seem almost trivial by today’s standards. Later, when Bill Clinton was accused of these far more serious transgressions, women’s groups associated with the Democratic Party defended him. Republicans called them 'hypocrites.’ But that misses the point. We now know that sexual harassment has been rampant for years in all the places where liberals congregated — on Capitol Hill, in the state legislatures, in Hollywood, in the mainstream media, at liberal opinion magazines, etc. If they cared about this behavior they could have said something. But they didn’t. I hope it is now clear to all that sexual harassment to the Democratic establishment was always about elections and achieving political goals. It was never about anything else.”
SHORT CUTS
The Gipper: “The Democrats may remember their lines, but how quickly they forget the lessons of the past.”
Alpha Jackass: “In this Pearl Harbor day, we should remember that the US refused to side with France and UK to confront fascist powers in 1930s.” —French Ambassador Gerard Araud
But the narrative! “If we’re going to go forward with impeachment, I want the American people clearly to understand why that is the case, why it makes sense, why it’s the right thing to do. I don’t think we’re there right now — that’s what the Mueller investigation is all about.” —Bernie Sanders
The BIG Lie: “The worst you can say about Democrats is that they’re too pure.” —Chris Matthews
Hypocrite: “Palestine is an innocent victim… As for Israel, it is a terrorist state.” —Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Just like we predicted: “I just watched Al Franken do the honorable thing and resign. My question is, why isn’t Donald Trump doing the same thing?” —Cory Booker
Cute spin: “U.S. job growth increased at a strong clip in November, painting a portrait of a healthy economy that analysts say does not require the kind of fiscal stimulus that President Donald Trump is proposing, even though wage gains remain moderate. … The fairly upbeat report underscored the economy’s strength and could fuel criticism of efforts by Trump and his fellow Republicans in the U.S. Congress to slash the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent.” —Reuters (Does it not occur to the MSM that employers are optimistic for once?)
Late-night humor: “Mark Zuckerberg announced that he is taking a leave from Facebook to spend more time with his daughters. Like everyone who says they’re leaving Facebook, he’ll come back every hour to see how many likes his announcement got.” —Jimmy Fallon
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families. We also humbly ask prayer for your Patriot team, that our mission would seed and encourage the spirit of Liberty in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Mark Alexander, Publisher |
