Topic: Liberal Fascism
Dissent was the highest form of patriotism until Barack Obama came along and the Left discovered that criticizing or opposing their Messiah-in-Chief constituted disloyalty, sedition and even treason. Let us leave that aside, however, and examine the premise on its merits: In view of the behavior of the Left from the Sixties to now, can it be said that dissent is patriotic?
Before going on I should probably note that the term Left, as used here, is meant to denote those individuals, groups, parties, movements, etc. that in one way or another consider themselves progressive. That is, they not only pledge their faith to the concept of history as progress but believe themselves to be on the right side of that historical process. In the United States this category encompasses orthodox communists and socialists, democratic socialists, progressives and liberals. As the recent ascent of Bernie Sanders demonstrates, there’s some confusion regarding these terms. Certainly Sanders is no socialist in the strict sense of the word. (But one thing to note about the American Left is its permissive use of words.) Very generally speaking, the Left in America embodies all those people who will vote for the Democratic candidate, whoever that turns out to be.
It was the Vietnam-era antiwar movement that supplied the founding myth of dissent as the highest form of patriotism. In the telling of the Left, saintly, peace-loving antiwar activists, appalled by American war crimes and genocide in Indochina, rose up in protest with one voice, appealing to the conscience of the nation, and finally bringing an end to a terrible war. But this pleasing picture was slapped together ex post facto, with the deliberate intention of suppressing some ugly truths.
First among those truths: the antiwar movement was anti-American from the start and it became more and more strident in its hatred of America as the years passed. One has only to peruse contemporary documents like the Port Huron Statement to see where the antiwar Left was coming from. Its puerile critique of America gradually congealed into a bitter hatred of “Amerikka,” as radical New Leftists were pleased to spell their country’s name. It was only a short step from there to active disloyalty, sedition and terrorism.
In a free country, dissent from the policies of the government is a citizen’s right. But the antiwar Left didn’t stop there. Having fashioned a narrative of imperialistic American evil they actively took the enemy’s side in the Vietnam War. Viet Cong flags were waved at antiwar demonstrations. The chant “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh/The NLF is Gonna Win!” was often heard. American military personnel were exhorted to desert and those who did enjoyed the aid and comfort of the Left. All in all, it was an odd way of exhibiting dissent as the highest form of patriotism.
Then the war ended and immediately all the horrific consequences predicted by those denounced by the Left as “warmongers” came to pass. In Vietnam, “liberation” arrived in the form of a ruthless totalitarianism. Hundreds of thousands were summarily executed, hundreds of thousands more were flung into concentration camps, hundreds of thousands more were driven out of their country. In Cambodia, the victorious communists killed two million people. And the Left’s response to this holocaust? Either silence or denial. True, there were some honorable exceptions. Joan Baez spoke out against the tyranny of the conquerors—for which she was roundly denounced by her comrades. There could be no second-guessing of the “national liberation” that had fallen with such a heavy hand on the people of South Vietnam.
The Left’s moral cowardliness, its willful blindness to the consequences of its actions, was in its way a worse crime than any of the terrorist actions undertaken by radical New Left groups like the Weather Underground. But it was necessary in an ideological sense. Forgetfulness enabled the Left to repeat its behavior in later years and particularly in the aftermath of 9/11.
For a brief moment it seemed that many on the Left had been so shocked by the fall of the Twin Towers that they’d support a forceful American response. But with a very few individual exceptions, people on the Left soon regained their ideological balance. Some, like the novelist Barbara Kingsolver, began to fret about displays of the American flag while the fires were still burning at Ground Zero. And when it realized that the Bush Administration actually proposed to take the war to the enemy, the Left chose sides—against America.
Of all the examples of disloyalty, bad faith and sedition on the part of the Left since 9/11, the one that I found most disgusting was its shameful treatment of the men and women who were called upon to bear the burden of the country’s wars. When the Left wasn’t denouncing them as war criminals akin to the Nazi SS, it was patronizing them as hapless, pathetic victims who only joined the service because they couldn’t cut it in civilian life. Even United States Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, stooped to the Nazi comparison. Nor did Democrats in Congress hesitate to denigrate and insult US military commanders, as when then-Senator Hillary Clinton sneered that to believe the General David Petraeus’ congressional testimony would requite “a willing suspension of disbelief.”
Clinton’s insult came in the course of the Left’s attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory via its opposition to the Bush Administration’s surge strategy in Iraq. Once again the Left worked assiduously on many fronts to ensure America’s defeat. And as it tends to do, history repeated itself. Though the surge went forward and turned the war in Iraq around, the 2008 election brought Barack Obama to the White House—and he promptly threw away the victory that so much blood and effort had won. Then with typical impertinence he and the Left congratulated themselves for “ending a war.”
The sequel was eerily reminiscent of Vietnam. Once the Obama Administration had summarily withdrawn American forces from Iraq, thus renouncing all influence in that country, the inevitable happened. Iraq descended into chaos, with a puppet government in Baghdad under the thumb of the Iranian ayatollahs and vast swaths of its territory under the control of the murderous Islamofascist group that calls itself ISIS. And this time silence was not an option. But denial was still possible. It was piously and falsely asserted that Barack Obama and his cabal had nothing whatever to do with the matter. Instead the Left loudly blamed the whole mess on George W. Bush—six years after his departure from office.
The glee with which the Left points to the Iraq debacle—and the coming Afghanistan debacle—shows with crystal clarity where its heart lies: on the side of America’s enemies. Is there a foreign despot or potentate anywhere who is too gruesome for the Left to embrace, so long as he spouts anti-American rhetoric? It seems not. Venezuela’s execrable Hugo Chavez, the Mussolini of Latin America, a man whose depravity was plainly stamped on his face, attracted the plaudits of such luminaries of the Left as Sean Penn and Michael Moore. Even Islamofascist terrorism has its apologists on the Left, e.g. Ben Afflick. All that is necessary to make any foreigner a hero of the American Left is a pro forma denunciation of American “imperialism” or “aggression.” That he might be mustard-gassing his own people in large batches, executing and imprisoning political opponents, and funding terrorism doesn’t really matter.
Nor has the Left hesitated to embrace actual treason. Take the case of Bradley Manning, an American soldier who disgraced his uniform by purloining classified intelligence information and handing it over to the notorious anti-American organization, WikiLeaks. But of course—of course!—Manning is hailed by the Left as a “whistleblower and democracy advocate”! Here at last was someone in uniform whom the Left could respect. (The court was less impressed; in 2013 this miserable wretch was convicted of multiple violations of the Espionage Act and is currently serving a 35-year prison sentence.)
And dissent as the highest form of patriotism? Just try questioning or criticizing Obamacare, illegal immigrants, same-sex marriage, the nuclear deal with Iran, climate-change orthodoxy, etc., etc. You’re sure to be denounced by the Left as a fascist, a racist, a homophobe, an Islamophobe, a warmonger, the equivalent of a Holocaust denier. Point out, for example, that the “culture of rape” on America’s college campuses is a figment of the Left’s imagination and you’ll be reviled as a rapist yourself. Free speech for me but not for thee—that summarizes the American Left’s true position on the First Amendment. Shut up, they explain. And where it has power, for instance on college campuses, the Left makes sure that opponents do shut up.
The record of the Left from the Sixties to now is so thoroughly dishonest and dishonorable that its self-congratulation, its assumption of moral and intellectual superiority, is actually rather comical. There’s something pathetic, after all, about the elevation of a clown like Michael Moore to the pedestal on which the Left has placed him. There’s something funny in a way about the alacrity with which the Left rushes to excuse the most bare-faced Obama lies. There was even something grimly amusing about Jane Fonda’s treasonous jaunt to North Vietnam in 1972, during which she characterized US POWs in the enemy’s hands as “hypocrites and liars.” Yes, the whole thing’s rather laughable—or it would be if it wasn’t so disgusting.
But “dissent is the highest from of patriotism” the American Left insists, in defense of its deplorable behavior. Now there’s a bit of Newspeak to rival “Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc.”
