Well, it’s done. Messianic “change” is in the air. This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius—this time for real. The Counter-Culture is all set to become the System. Or more precisely: the System is all set to become counter-cultural.
I’ve already exhaustively detailed in a previous essay here the bad things that portend an Obama Presidency. But there are two good things that might well result as well.
First, this is obviously and palpably a turning point, a new era, in the sociopolitical culture of America. And since this new era is the fervently fulfilled fruit of millions of Leftists throughout America, it should put an end to the profoundly toxic vituperation that has infected the Body Politic through eight solid years of Bushbashing that too often went wildly beyond reasonable partisan criticism into the realm of unhinged hysterical raving against all Conservatives, against all fellow “red state” Americans, against America itself. As a friend remarked last night (and he’s a Democrat supporter of Obama), when Democrats and the broader Left indulge in partisan bashing of an incumbent President of the opposing party, their bashing tends to expand beyond that into the darker realm of anti-Americanism, even extending into the dangerously ludicrous territory of 911 conspiracy theories glibly flowing from the lips of mainstream Leftists; whereas, when Republicans bash their equivalent (e.g., Clinton during the Clinton years), their bashing tends to remain reasonably within the realms of partisanship, without veering off into anti-Americanism.
This is because the sociopolitical culture of the Democratic Party has deep and central roots in Leftism, and Leftism itself has deeper roots in pathologies that have afflicted and convulsed the West for over two centuries now, beginning with the French Revolution and its Napoleonic aftermath; continuing in the irresponsibly idealistic revolutions, utopianisms and pseudo-philosophical spiritualisms throughout the 19th century; erupting in the horrible climax of those revolutionary, utopianist and pseudo-philosophically spiritualist ideals in the Communist Revolution, the Nazi Revolution and the Fascisms of the 20th century; and continuing after the 1960s to percolate in the bloodstream of the West as more or less underground movements resentful of their defeats and nursing their diseased dreams unrepetantly. Out of this latter stew has emerged the mainstream dominance of politically correct multi-culturalism (PC MC) over the past 50 years or so, which has been able to infect even the majority of those on the Right and Center with certain axioms that emanate out of the Left. Obama’s Revolution represents not a victory for PC MC—that victory already happened decades ago—: it represents a profound and powerful charging of the batteries of PC MC with the juice of radical Leftism. Indeed, it is a revival of the radical-Leftist dream of the 60s, packaged rather masterfully by Obama in the deceptively smooth talking ambiance of moderation and Centrism.
At any rate, at the very least, we have every right to expect that the morbidly excessive harping and bashing and gnawing away at America that has polluted the sociopolitical atmosphere these past eight years—not only here in America, but amplified around the world as foreign America-haters seemed to ramp up their normative America-bashing to even higher decibels—should calm down, if not cease, under an Obama Presidency.
Secondly, if and when one or more jihad attacks on America—likely more horrific than 911—occur during the coming eight years of a two-term Obama Presidency, Leftists will no longer be able to blame Bush and “neo-cons”. While the shock of this cognitive dissonance by itself will probably not be able to completely shake up the mainstream dominance of the PC MC paradigm, it would deal it a tremendous blow, and may well serve to be the catalyst for its eventual dismantling. This would be of enormous significance, since that paradigm remains the single most important obstacle preventing us from dealing rationally with the global danger of Islam.
These two things, at any rate, represent the kind of “change” I’m hoping for.
Good post.
ReplyDeleteI certainly hope you are right about the lessening of the bitterness of the Left during an Obama reign.
I still have to wonder if the Left would still find a way, through their usual bizarre contortions of reason and logic, to blame even out-of-office Republicans and conservatives in the event of some crisis.
For example, if there was another large-scale terror attack on our soil, I can easily imagine that they would blame Bush's evil aggressions against the Moslem world for any such attack. Remember their constant harping on ''root causes'' after 9/11? Such as: "If we hadn't made them hate us with our imperialist policies, they wouldn't become violent."
I've found that the Leftists are capable of incredible mental contortions in order to rationalize their belief that all evil in the world is due to 'right-wingers', even when Democrats and leftists are in control.
I do hope you are right, and that some of the extremes of insanity on the Left may lessen.
You're right in one sense. I didn't fine-tune my prediction. If an attack (or attacks) happened early in Obama's Presidency, the Leftists would more likely do what you say. But I think, say, into the second year of his SECOND TERM -- most Leftists I think are not so far gone that this wouldn't shake up their minds a bit in the right direction.
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