Curtis Dahlgren
This ain't your daddy's Democrat Party anymore
By Curtis Dahlgren
"I have often thought and written that if the United States were ever to have a Caesar, a true subverter of the state, 1) he would attract to himself all the true believers, the extremists . . 2) he would oversimplify some difficult but vital issue . . . 3) he would not in the least resemble the folk idea of a dictator. He would not be a hysteric like Hitler . . . he is exactly the sort of man whom no one would suspect of Caesarism, least of all himself." — Gore Vidal (LIFE magazine, June 9, 1961; "A Liberal Meets Mr. Conservative")
VIDAL WAS WRITING AN ARTICLE ABOUT BARRY GOLDWATER — but could not those three points apply to another Barry you could call to mind? If Prez 44 had his wishes for his birthday, they might include another "crisis" (oversimplified), followed by an Executive Order raising the "debt ceiling" based on the 14th amendment to the Constitution. Your daddy's Democrat party has been out-flanked on the left!
Journalists and other pseudo-intellectuals have been on the "look out" for a Caesar from the so-called Right for so long that a Caesar from the Left would hit them upside the back of their heads (surpise, surprise).
The media have been focused like a laser on the "debt ceiling" for weeks, but pardon me if I'm not that "focused" today. Rather than make a few points about one topic, I'm going to make a point or two about many issues — because we have been so distracted from those other issues.
I've been reviewing Ann Coulter's latest book, plus a 1976 book by Barry Goldwater, "The Coming Breakpoint." We have literally come to that breakpoint 35 years later. The book's dust jacket says:
"We are standing at a place in our history where Rome stood before her collapse, and if we don't act now to prevent it, the glory that is America may go the way of the glory that was Rome."
It's not "cool" to talk like that anymore, of course, but the intervening years have validated the wisdom of Goldwater (by 1976 he was considered a statesman even by many Democrat senators). Quoting further:
"The United States, however, has survived crises in the past. Senator Goldwater believes we can weather this one as well — once we are made aware of what he sees as the main threat to our liberty: the concentration of power in the vast bureaucracy in Washington, the multiplicity of government bureaus that make and carry out regulations which impinge on every facet of our lives. What is most alarming is that the regulators are not elected by, nor are they responsible to the American people."
Although most people inside Washington's Beltway still don't get it, the Tea Party and its like-minded citizens have awakened like Gulliver in Lilliputialand. The Tea man cometh. The jig is up. You can't BS a BS-er anymore. Government-speak is not only cheap but is having counter-intuitive results. The Prez is in a hole, but he keeps digging.
It's time for a full-court press by the People. We have not yet begun to fully awaken. The mainstream news media don't have a monopoly anymore. We aren't obsessed with the issue du jour. As I say, there are many, many issues (different ones, but not unrelated).
While a Norwegian killed 80-some people, America's death toll reaches that high in a matter of a few summer weeks! Much of it black-on-black crime. All of it America-on-America crime, but who's counting that?
The column-of-the-week was by Ann Coulter ("New York Times reader kills dozens"). I expected the media to make even more hay on that story (OKC-type bomb, "fundamental Christian" [?], etc), but perhaps they were tipped off that another story was coming from Kileen, Texas (Islamist radical plot against U.S. solders). Can't stereotype TOO much!
As for that "OKC-type bomb," I call that a University of Wisconsin-type bomb. It was in Madison where that infamouse fertilizer-diesel bomb was proven, fatally so. Those three bombers got good press, and one was never captured.
By the way, the Norwegian killer admired Darwin, copied parts of the Unabomber's manifesto, and never claimed to be a Christian in the orthodox sense anymore than Timothy McVeigh did (though some conservatives had a semantical debate about that).
The bigger question is, "What took the police so long to stop the killing?" And didn't anyone on the island have a gun? Or a sling shot? One well-thrown stone might have saved dozens of lives. Where are the Palestinians when you need one? And was this a Reichstadt moment for the Left?
CONCLUSION
One of the points of Ann Coulter's well-timed "DEMONIC" is that almost all assassination attempts in the U.S. have been by Lefties. The news media were praying that the Tucson shooter would turn out to be a "right-winger," but it wasn't in the cards. Now a shooter in Norway has a mixed bag of a background, and an unambiguous Islamist comes along. RATS, say the mainstream media.
One thing for sure: the media have tied their own fate to the Oboma Administration. I have a new book to review next time: "A Slobbering Love Affair" (the story of the romancing of Barry Oboma, starring celebrity anchorpersons on TV), by Ben Stein.
So many books, so little time. So many issues — issues that TV news finds no time for!
P.S. Do you think the Nixon administration would have gotten away with a gun-running scheme to Mexico? Reagan was blasted for guns-for-hostages, but the Oboma DOJ was involved in a guns-for-the-heck-of-it scandal, but WHO CARES, eh?
The whole issue of illegal immigration hasn't been SETTLED, which is why Oboma is probably hoping there won't need to be an election in 2012. As Nancy Pelosi said:
"ELECTIONS SHOULDN'T MATTER AS MUCH AS THEY DO." When they lose.
As Gore Vidal wrote, a would-be dictator would be "just plain folks, Will Rogers or Arthur Godfrey, a regular guy, warm and sincere, and while he was amusing us on television the stormtroopers would gather in the streets."
© Curtis Dahlgren
July 31, 2011
"I have often thought and written that if the United States were ever to have a Caesar, a true subverter of the state, 1) he would attract to himself all the true believers, the extremists . . 2) he would oversimplify some difficult but vital issue . . . 3) he would not in the least resemble the folk idea of a dictator. He would not be a hysteric like Hitler . . . he is exactly the sort of man whom no one would suspect of Caesarism, least of all himself." — Gore Vidal (LIFE magazine, June 9, 1961; "A Liberal Meets Mr. Conservative")
VIDAL WAS WRITING AN ARTICLE ABOUT BARRY GOLDWATER — but could not those three points apply to another Barry you could call to mind? If Prez 44 had his wishes for his birthday, they might include another "crisis" (oversimplified), followed by an Executive Order raising the "debt ceiling" based on the 14th amendment to the Constitution. Your daddy's Democrat party has been out-flanked on the left!
Journalists and other pseudo-intellectuals have been on the "look out" for a Caesar from the so-called Right for so long that a Caesar from the Left would hit them upside the back of their heads (surpise, surprise).
The media have been focused like a laser on the "debt ceiling" for weeks, but pardon me if I'm not that "focused" today. Rather than make a few points about one topic, I'm going to make a point or two about many issues — because we have been so distracted from those other issues.
I've been reviewing Ann Coulter's latest book, plus a 1976 book by Barry Goldwater, "The Coming Breakpoint." We have literally come to that breakpoint 35 years later. The book's dust jacket says:
"We are standing at a place in our history where Rome stood before her collapse, and if we don't act now to prevent it, the glory that is America may go the way of the glory that was Rome."
It's not "cool" to talk like that anymore, of course, but the intervening years have validated the wisdom of Goldwater (by 1976 he was considered a statesman even by many Democrat senators). Quoting further:
"The United States, however, has survived crises in the past. Senator Goldwater believes we can weather this one as well — once we are made aware of what he sees as the main threat to our liberty: the concentration of power in the vast bureaucracy in Washington, the multiplicity of government bureaus that make and carry out regulations which impinge on every facet of our lives. What is most alarming is that the regulators are not elected by, nor are they responsible to the American people."
Although most people inside Washington's Beltway still don't get it, the Tea Party and its like-minded citizens have awakened like Gulliver in Lilliputialand. The Tea man cometh. The jig is up. You can't BS a BS-er anymore. Government-speak is not only cheap but is having counter-intuitive results. The Prez is in a hole, but he keeps digging.
It's time for a full-court press by the People. We have not yet begun to fully awaken. The mainstream news media don't have a monopoly anymore. We aren't obsessed with the issue du jour. As I say, there are many, many issues (different ones, but not unrelated).
While a Norwegian killed 80-some people, America's death toll reaches that high in a matter of a few summer weeks! Much of it black-on-black crime. All of it America-on-America crime, but who's counting that?
The column-of-the-week was by Ann Coulter ("New York Times reader kills dozens"). I expected the media to make even more hay on that story (OKC-type bomb, "fundamental Christian" [?], etc), but perhaps they were tipped off that another story was coming from Kileen, Texas (Islamist radical plot against U.S. solders). Can't stereotype TOO much!
As for that "OKC-type bomb," I call that a University of Wisconsin-type bomb. It was in Madison where that infamouse fertilizer-diesel bomb was proven, fatally so. Those three bombers got good press, and one was never captured.
By the way, the Norwegian killer admired Darwin, copied parts of the Unabomber's manifesto, and never claimed to be a Christian in the orthodox sense anymore than Timothy McVeigh did (though some conservatives had a semantical debate about that).
The bigger question is, "What took the police so long to stop the killing?" And didn't anyone on the island have a gun? Or a sling shot? One well-thrown stone might have saved dozens of lives. Where are the Palestinians when you need one? And was this a Reichstadt moment for the Left?
CONCLUSION
One of the points of Ann Coulter's well-timed "DEMONIC" is that almost all assassination attempts in the U.S. have been by Lefties. The news media were praying that the Tucson shooter would turn out to be a "right-winger," but it wasn't in the cards. Now a shooter in Norway has a mixed bag of a background, and an unambiguous Islamist comes along. RATS, say the mainstream media.
One thing for sure: the media have tied their own fate to the Oboma Administration. I have a new book to review next time: "A Slobbering Love Affair" (the story of the romancing of Barry Oboma, starring celebrity anchorpersons on TV), by Ben Stein.
So many books, so little time. So many issues — issues that TV news finds no time for!
P.S. Do you think the Nixon administration would have gotten away with a gun-running scheme to Mexico? Reagan was blasted for guns-for-hostages, but the Oboma DOJ was involved in a guns-for-the-heck-of-it scandal, but WHO CARES, eh?
The whole issue of illegal immigration hasn't been SETTLED, which is why Oboma is probably hoping there won't need to be an election in 2012. As Nancy Pelosi said:
"ELECTIONS SHOULDN'T MATTER AS MUCH AS THEY DO." When they lose.
As Gore Vidal wrote, a would-be dictator would be "just plain folks, Will Rogers or Arthur Godfrey, a regular guy, warm and sincere, and while he was amusing us on television the stormtroopers would gather in the streets."
© Curtis Dahlgren
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