Geoffrey Nunberg has written a book entitled (get ready) “Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism Into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show.”
Whew. What a title.
The premise of the book is that the Democrats are victims of having themselves or allowing themselves to be defined by those hooligans on the Right. Nunberg bemoans that “liberal” is now associated with “malevolence, anarchy, elitism and irresponsibility.” Liberals, in turn, have seemingly disassociated themselves from the word and now tend to embrace “progressive.”
That part I know to be true; how many times has a conservative talk show host, most specifically Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved and Dennis Prager, attempted to get a liberal guest to admit that they are the “L” Word and that guest has refused? Many times. They’ll now admit to “progressive” but not to “liberal.” I find that most odd. If you’re in fact a liberal then stand up and admit it. You’re not a “progressive” — “progressive” is for rock music like Magna Carta, King Crimson and Porcupine Tree.
Enough of the book review; I simply want to respond to the above paragraph. Nunberg writes the obvious.
To begin, Liberalism does consist of tax raisers, latte drinkers, sushi-eaters, Volvo drivers, NY Times readers, those with body piercings, lovers of Hollywood and yes, the Left is a Freak Show.
Like the cat with its head in a glass, no one put the Left there but themselves. And the Left’s reaction, poor poor poor people, is merely a response to the Right’s deciding that they were going to find their voice.
I’ve written this once but shall emphasize it again: the so-called culture and political “wars” in America only started when the Right decided to voice its stance. The Left had their voice carried for them in the Mainstream Media for years and, as the Left leaned farther left, the Right became increasingly frustrated. The true breakthrough did in fact come via AM radio when a little fuzzball was given a chair at KFBK in 1984 Sacramento. Oooh, 1984 — chilling!
Rush Limbaugh provided the voice and the venue for those of a conservative bent and a movement was started. There are those who would credit the political process itself for the Right finding its voice — and certainly the Ronald Reagan years should not be discounted as it was during the temper of these times that RL worked his way to syndication in 1988.
From there the wars began. After literally decades of ruling all forms of media and, moreover, its content, liberals were most chagrined to discover AM radio shortly became the bastion of conservatives. It took literally years for the Left to even attempt inroads to AM radio via Air America — and we all know how solvent and powerful AA is currently.
From there, the internet blossomed. Conservatives took to the net like fish to water. This in turn led to various conservative magazines with links to the internet, Fox News and, most recently, to my venue — the blog. Conservatives are big in the Blogosphere.
As grew the voice of Conservatives, so the Left and liberals felt (because, let’s face it, they were) more challenged. Not everything they said and espoused was accepted by rote. Persons actually had, egads, the temerity to speak up and attempt to refute what the MSM said and wrote. And, egads, it was proven time and again that the MSM occasionally seemed to omit some very salient things from their stories — some people call them facts.
Liberals then, during that transition and now (witness this book and others) feature themselves the victims in this heinous and oppressive power grab by the Right.
What happened is this: common people found a voice. They found an outlet for their frustrations. People from the heartland. People from the working class who wanted to get ahead and didn’t want the government to do it for them. People who wanted to be left alone to prosper. People who believe in Capitalism and believe that hard work should yield benefits. People who believe in a higher being as did our Founding Fathers, who believed in justice, in ethics and morals.
So in truth, Conservatives haven’t “fought back” — they just had the gall to voice their beliefs and concerns in a way they never had before.
And that’s what’s threatening to liberals.
Make no mistake: Leftist dogma is every bit a religion; Leftists believe the greatest enemy is the United States, the epitome of Capitalism. Capitalism by its nature must exploit people, so a major country like America, as a capitalistic leader, must be overthrown just as any capitalist oppressor must be overthrown. Anti-big, anti-corporate. Anti-capitalist. Anti-success.
And one step beyond equality of opportunity — the Left wants a guaranteed equality of outcome. And that’s just not feasible or realistic. Lazy and stupid people simply exist. Life itself tends to thin the herd and frequently that’s a good thing.
When there are bad days and blank days and times when I don’t feel like blogging — well, those are the days I have to continue making my little teeny mark on the Blogosphere and why I simply mustn’t quit. Conservatives must never quit.
“Poor kitty! Who put his head in the glass? — for surely he couldn’t be responsible!”
BZ
