What makes America exceptional? In today’s political lexicon it is the conviction that liberal democracy, free market capitalism, the Bill of Rights, and America’s historical fight for freedom and liberty. In more popular terms it is our unique blend of Hollywood fantasy, Las Vegas glitz, frontier justice, big tent revivalism, exuberant commercialism, and snake oil opportunism.
Recently such native exuberance has been forced underground. Censorious morality has replaced individualism. The brawling, bare-knuckles, winner-take-all virility at the core of America shows up only in Louisiana duck blinds and the oil fields of North Dakota. Most of the rest of the country has been corralled, tamed, harnessed and whipped into submissiveness.
Many of us have heard Bill Maher rant about our feminized society. His stand-up routine on HBO was hilarious.
As paraphrased by Dana Antiochus, Maher believes that
“The inversion of nature that we have experienced as a culture, and the subversive aspect of flipping traditional roles, with its subsequent destruction of society, serves as a signal that we live in a dying system. It has led to a pussified, sissy, pathetic, lovey-dovey/touchy-feely country of wimps, who put emotion over logic, feeling over reason, in our nurture-heavy/nature-deprived, culture” (Renegade Tribune)Christina Hoff Summers has been even more explicit:
Sommers is much more precise and targeted in writing about the feminist hijacking of primary education and thus comes closer to Maher in his allegation that feminism’s reach is extensive and pernicious. Sommers argues that the zero tolerance policy – i.e. stifling any suggestion of male aggression in schools – is a wrongheaded attempt to subjugate boys and deny their natural male exuberance.
Across the country, schools are policing and punishing the distinctive, assertive sociability of boys. Many much-loved games have vanished from school playgrounds. At some schools, tug of war has been replaced with “tug of peace” Since the 1990s, elimination games like dodge ball, red rover and tag have been under a cloud — too damaging to self-esteem and too violent, say certain experts. Young boys, with few exceptions, love action narratives. These usually involve heroes, bad guys, rescues and shoot-ups. As boys’ play proceeds, plots become more elaborate and the boys more transfixed. When researchers ask boys why they do it, the standard reply is, “Because it’s fun.” (Time Magazine, 9.19.13)Maher and Sommers only scratch the surface of the emasculation of American society. Radical misandry is only one aspect of a progressivism which intends to change the social dynamic of the country devalue individualism, disassemble a unified republic and reconstruct it with racial, ethnic, and gender separatism; and re-interpret the Constitution’s defense of free speech to mean only that which promotes inclusivity, does not offend, and which promotes acceptable social ends.
Progressives, however, are selective in their definition of inclusivity. Pro-life, Creationist, devoutly heterosexual, non-Southern, gun-owning and church-going Americans in nuclear family unions are excluded.
Government is promoted as the unique arbiter of social values. Yet Congress is the most venal, least trusted, and self-serving institution in Washington. Alexander Hamilton warned against populist government, and Jefferson’s legacy is alive and well today.
The Supreme Court is arrogated absolute and final authority for social issues; and is no different from the Pope’s ex cathedra pre-eminence. Yet the Supreme Court is isolated, intellectual, and narrowly political; and many if not most of its decisions should be left in the hands of the electorate.
It is no wonder, then, that many Americans are resentful and angry. Their brief is not so much with Obama, Democrats, progressive academics, Congress or the Supreme Court per se but with the purposeful erosion of American traditions, values, and institutions.
Americans have no problem with ethnic diversity, only the championing of it at the expense of union and national solidarity. They have no argument with gender issues, but resent the imposition of alternative gender policies by government. They do not harbor the inherent racism that progressives claim, but a reasonable skepticism of radical black activism which without subscription to the social, moral, and ethical values of the majority, which will always be suspect.
Donald Trump has finally given voice to all this frustration, resentment, and anger. Most importantly he has not done so in the language of the oppressor – the Eastern Establishment, politically careful and opportunistic politicians of both parties – but in an explosive and unapologetic language that marginalized Americans can understand.
www.birtherreport.com
The Left howls at Trump’s statements. In their opinion he is the worst kind of racist, homophobe, and misogynist. His statements about Mexicans, Muslims, women, and illegal immigrants are taken at face value and indicative of the political and moral corruption of the man.
Yet Trump is never apologetic because he is expressing the very valid concerns and considerations of his supporters. Yes, it is reasonable to assume that a first-generation Mexican American judge might be unfavorable to his proposed measures to build a wall to keep Mexicans out. It is reasonable to assume that Hillary Clinton is indeed playing ‘the woman card’ and gender entitlement. It is correct to criticize the press, liberals, and black activists for taking sides against the police and for ignoring the Ferguson effect.
Donald Trump is indeed outrageous, but only so because of the stifling tenor of the times. In a less politically correct and censorious times, he would simply be a politician on the stump
www.rortybomb.wordpress.com
Americans like Trump are not racist, homophobic, misogynist, and xenophobic at heart. Of course in a complex, increasingly diverse society sub-groups will always be protective of and defensive about their own interests; and will perhaps unfairly but naturally tar all members of competing groups with the same brush. Yet the levels of hostility that have built up and have finally burst into the open can only be explained by the enforced acceptance of ‘We Are The World’ radical progressivism.
Pop psychology alone warns that the more one’s opinions are suppressed, the more nasty and corrosive they become. Free speech is not simply a civil right but a psychological safety valve.
Americans need Trump’s outrageousness because of decades of progressive cloture of arguments, dismissiveness of opposing opinions, and an arrogant and supercilious conviction of absolute rightness.
Why has there been so little focus on the economy or foreign affairs so far? Because such moderate consideration of the issues is not what this campaign is all about.
Win or lose Donald Trump has begun a political and social revolution, and America will never be the same again.
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