Sunday, May 10, 2009

Liberals Arise! Take Back Your History.

Events have transpired recently that makes me feel that some sort of Orwellian rewriting of history is occurring, and most of the rewriting is taking place on the right.

I saw a bumpers sticker that joked about the founding fathers being an extreme right-wing organization. Just last week, I saw a political cartoon making fun of Homeland Security's latest gaffe about the threat of returning veterans joining right wing groups, and indirectly – or maybe well planned – that the signers of the Declaration of Independence were those self same right wing radicals. Mitt Romney with Jeb Bush along side referred to liberals as playing the role of monarchist in the revolutionary war. He specifically said Democrats but connecting them to those latte-drinking liberals as the bad guys in the Revolutionary War and the sons of political dynasties were with the good guys – the revolutionaries, if you can believe it.

Google "founding fathers" and any terms referring to the "right wing" and you'll get all kinds of hits in the web, blog, or even news search areas. This springs new fashioned "tea parties" that reference the Boston Tea Party, and somehow in their Orwellian minds, taxation with representation is the same as taxation without it. While that is a stretch, their attempt to take over early American history is not. Like liberal bias, taxation is the great bugaboo that has always worked for conservatives and maybe it will work now.

However, their attempt to seize the history of the American Revolution as conservative movement is a prime example of conservative bias: if the history doesn't fit, rewrite it.

Two great wars have been fought on the North American continent (let's exclude Canada here, I'm on a roll), and both were liberal wars. They were the American Revolution and the Civil War. Though not all the participants in these wars were liberals in today's terms, they would be judged liberal in their time, and certainly their cause was about as liberal as you could get. The Declaration of Independence is chocked full of liberal bias.

The Bill of Rights is liberal ideals become the law of the land. Mr. Peabody, have Sherman set the WayBack for the 18th century. While the ruling class had equality and protection, commoners did not. That the average citizen would have equal rights and protection under a new order called the "rule of law" was one hot liberal idea at the time. Freedom from government sponsored and enforced religion was – and still is – a liberal idea.

Oh how soon we forget. Liberals ideals become conservative bedrock over time.

We should appreciate and congratulate conservatives for highlighting our history, but let's not forget from whence it came. The Revolutionary War was pushed by liberals and after this country became independent of England, they changed a loose federation of states into single nation under a constitution. This was done by liberals. The Revolutionary War was the liberals' war. The transformation of a confederation of states into a federal republic under a constitution was a liberal plot.

At lease I have not heard of any on the extreme right claiming a kinship to the Civil War. While their party of choice was founded on the liberal concept of ending or at least stopping the spread of slavery, they have touched on this only lightly. "The party of Lincoln" is mentioned almost apologetically.

Seems the liberals have a great opportunity to plant an IED (improvised exploitive device), allowing those right wing nuts go on and on about their identity with the founding fathers, slowing entwining themselves and their cause in the birth pains of this nation, and BANG! It was the liberals' war! Oh, the horror.

But that won't happen. Liberals can no more exploit a political blunder by the right, than the right cannot when the situation is reversed.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home