Conservatives who follow closely contemporary American history and its politics wonder why the country’s voting population is so allergic to knowing the causes of America’s cultural collapse. We do know we have long been demonized by the Establishment Left, primarily those who control the country’s education and communications industries.
No one of notice since Ronald Reagan has described and advertised American values to help its people understand an American conservative’s look toward life, culture, and government.
For forty or more years the United States of America has been in cultural decay. Most of this decay has risen from the growing threat of Marxism, the marriage between atheists and intellectuals in their drive to build their dictatorship of the equal. Most of these malcontents have found a home in the Demcrat Party, in our universities, and therefore our schools and many churches, the New York Times, Hollywood, and Big Business.
During these 40 years of decay Republicans have NEVER controlled the federal government. They occasionally reached the presidency. Some have led a Congress or two. The Earl Warren Supreme Court club has been leftist until the present 5-4 makeup of the present group depending on what mood Anthony Kennedy is in. Earl had been a Republican governor of California.
I think it is safe to say that almost all of these folks in any corner of government or private life, whether leftwing or conservative, have been subjected almost exclusively to university leftist dogma throughout their educational lives. To be a leftist was to be progressive, the caring people, as Howard Dean put it….the people who didn’t believe “children should go to bed hungry at night”…..like those evil people, Republicans, but only the conservative ones. “Good” Republicans programmed into the national culture,are the Olympia Snows, the Arlen Specters, the Jim Ramstads, the ones who vote with Liberals especially on social issues. Not those mean old conservatives good people should want to send to oblivion.
All the time the country and the American Way were falling into cultural and moral decay. Drugs, crime, open borders, foreign attacks, the collapse of Christian ethics, the rise of leftwing chaos and its moral confusion all led to the Obama adminstration which included Anita Dunn, Van Jones, and so many other Mao ZeDong type admirers.
With the single exception of the Ronald Reagan intrusion into this American collapse, where have the Republicans been? Among the Democrats and with the Democrats ignoring for selfish reasons the rot they were creating.
Who was campaigning and passing legislation based on what is good for the country? Certainly not the Democrat Party. It was cooking up a cauldron of hate building its new constituency, a collection of the victimhoods…blacks, gays, lesbians, feminists, Latinos, unionists, as many young a possible…anyone who could learn to be a victim of Christianity, a victim of America.
Where were Republicans? Where was anyone to represent and defend traditional American values?
With the exception of that brief light from Ronald Reagan, Republicans have been Republicans….invisible.
Like the American family, the country became fatherless.
I met Erik Paulsen a year ago this past summer. I was a conservative, a Prager one at that. I had become active in my local Republican Party, an organization that had closed shop intellectually decades ago. Nice people perpetuating habit, not thought. My experience there was very painful.
But duty called me. Marxism was on the march with or without Barack Hussein Obama.
I cornered Erik at a Republican election center in Eden Prairie where I had hoped to volunteer. There were about twenty people in the campaign center at the time. Most were working the telephones calling past Republican voters. The talking points suggested from State Republican headquarters were from over a generation ago.
I had no confidence from any Republican gathering I had attended either through duty or by volunteering that anyone there had heard of Sol Alinsky or Bill Ayers. I had no confidence these well intentioned people could explain Marxism or articulate the many strengths of American conservative values which are at the base of its democracy.
They knew things weren’t going well in the country especially within the spiritual culture. They saw America as becoming rather violent, coarse and vulgar, and greedy, a country drifting, shorn of the joys of the America these Republicans remembered from their past.
Most were aware the educational systems which housed their children during the school day were foreign, taught by teachers and books which were also foreign to their world.
No one had ever heard of Howard Zin or Noam Chomsky either.
Erik was on the run, about to rush off to another demand. But, I introduced myself and asked him to stop for a moment and hear complaints. I really wanted to know who this person was, particularly if he might be a thinking conservative, not just a Republican running for office to satisfy his ambition.
He sat down to listen. He revealed nothing, but he listened. I gave him a list of criticisms I had gathered from my two hours observing at the election center. He responded to my criticisms that his campaign was simply following advice from State Republican Headquarters. I reminded him that He, Erik Paulsen, was the person ultimately in charge of this campaign, not Republican headquarters. He wanted to please. He seemed likeable and probably bright, but seemed like a bureaucrat looking for a career in government.
My pleas included the hope that should he win, Erik could become a teacher of conservative ideas in Minnesota. Republicans, I emphasized, have to reeducate citizens about conservative values, and his district would be a great base for such teachings to occur. “I learned my American values in school and in Church and from the books I read”, I told him. “Where do young Americans learn to be conservative in their approach to life?” He visibly warmed to the question accepting its message.
I later attended a number of debates Erik participated in and learned he was probably a loyal fiscal conservative…but otherwise a vague candidate. I felt certain his lifestyle was conservative and was really quick on his feet about fiscal issues. Silent otherwise.
Conservatives over the past 40 years or so have been programmed to hide their views on religious values and ethics. Especially those from suburban and urban school districts. Like all students of the establishment, they learn to follow the herd.
The American herd was stampeding toward Marxism….tribal diversity, forced equality, and atheism especially in its public schools and universities.
When Erik went to Washington, he joined his lefty associates to support Obama’s threat to tax corporate executives 90% of the bonuses they had received.
He assured his reading public on his website that he had up-to-date awareness of the Honduras coup and wanted to restore democracy to that country by returning Manuel Zelaya, a stooge of Hugo Chavez, by the way, as the nation’s president, despite the fact the country had legally removed Zelaya from office to save its democracy.
The third Paulsen sin in Washington was his support for a bill which included Hate Crimes legislation.
A statesman would have voted against such vile legislation under any and all circumstances no matter what sweetness it was attached to. Such tricks designed to sneak stench into otherwise noteworthy legislation are CORRUPT in a democratic society, yet Republicans and Democrats readily engage in this deceitful practice.
Erik Paulsen had a teachable moment with the Hate Crimes Legislation, yet he wound up voting for it instead. Of course he could have simply been pandering for a bit of the gay vote! I personally thought he had.
Mr. Erik Paulsen was obviously not going to become a statesman…After all, whom could he emulate? Arlen Specter, Dick Durbin, Barney Frank, Charles Schumer, Barack, Hillary, Bill, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Al Franken?
American conservatives pray for any signs of national revival from the dark recesses of Washington. Something, anything, even some sign of hope, that single grace left in Pandora’s age-old box to help mankind fight life’s ravages….hope.
Is there hope for America? Consider the following and answer for yourselves. The MINNESOTA INDEPENDENT reported the following saga staged at St. Olaf College:
“The choice of Rep. Erik Paulsen as commencement speaker at St. Olaf College in Northfield has prompted students there to engage in a silent demonstration against the freshman House member. Paulsen, a St. Olaf alum and a Republican representing suburban Hennepin County, recently voted against the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in federal hate crimes law. Students say the vote doesn’t reflect the values of the college.
When Benjamin Refling, a transgender man, learned of the vote, he contacted college president David R. Anderson.
“I told him I did not think that the choice of a politician with such divisive views would be conducive to the spirit of commencement, which should be a celebration of all the diverse talents and experiences of the class of ‘09,” Refling said. “And that many LGBT students would be alienated by Paulsen’s refusal to support the recent hate crimes bill.”
The hate crimes bill, which passed the U.S. House, would add sexual orientation and gender identity to U.S. hate crimes law, which currently only covers crimes on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin.
The religious right, including Paulsen’s colleague Rep. Michele Bachmann, has argued against such inclusions by conflating sexual orientation with crimes such as pedophilia. James Dobson, the former head of Focus on the Family, lent his organization’s support to Paulsen in a letter to voters last fall.
Refling said he wasn’t expecting the college to cancel Paulsen’s speech but rather to issue an understanding response; that wasn’t what he got. “[Anderson] wrote to me that any commencement speaker would have to offend someone in the audience, and essentially, it was my bad luck that I just happened to be that ‘1 out of 5,000.’”
So Refling posted the exchange to his Facebook page and found that many students shared his concerns.
“The issue of LGBT rights is a sensitive one to St. Olaf students, some of whom have known victims of anti-LGBT violence in addition to being allies themselves, and the discussion that followed seems to have swept the entire campus,” he said.
The students are holding a demonstration by pinning gold ribbons to their graduation gowns as a symbol of inclusion. They also sent an email to the entire campus urging others to support the gold ribbon campaign. They wrote:
Inclusiveness is a definitive value at our institution. It guides St. Olaf through divisiveness and keeps our community relevant, diverse and cohesive. This year the commencement speaker, Representative Erik Paulsen ‘87 (R-MN), is a member of our St. Olaf family, and brings his own unique voice to local and national politics. His beliefs are not singularly representative of St. Olaf, but rather constitute one part of the sum of our diverse family. While we welcome his voice, a group of St. Olaf students with their own voices do not share his views on many social issues.
Just as Erik Paulsen will share his viewpoint at commencement, those in the St. Olaf community who respectfully disagree with Representative Paulsen will also express themselves. A group of students from all different backgrounds have organized and is proposing the following, under the theme: “Celebrating the Class of 2009 as They Are – Created Equally.
Paulsen’s office didn’t respond to a weekend request for comment, but Refling said that another student contacted the office and was told the commencement address would not be political in nature.
Wade Hauser, president of student government, said he didn’t think the college would change the speaker. “Paulsen was picked quite a while ago,” he said. “Some people were unhappy with that, but he’s an alum and I think people understood.”
“More recently, because of that specific vote, people have started paying attention to his past record.”
Hauser said it could be an effective demonstration. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that took off,” he said, referring to the golden ribbons…..”
Minnesota Independent reporter Chris Steller contributed to this report.
Filed under: Local Politics
