JFK Conservative

Below I discuss a friend's comments comparing Rush Limbaugh to Michael Moore. This same person later wrote something that has me thinking.

He wrote "I have utter contempt for Rush. I think he is a hate monger that, frankly, has done more to polarize America than anyone".

Of course, he couldn't actually articulate to whom Rush is fomenting hate, just as he earlier could not give a single issue that Rush was 'extreme'. Conservative? Yes. Extreme in the Michael Moore sense? No.

But he is correct that American political discourse is more polarized. Why?

I believe it is from several factors.

One factor is the rise of alternative media. Not so long ago, virtually everyone who got their news from television had 3 choices, ABC, CBS or NBC. The networks in turn got their news from the NY Times, along with the rest of the print media, so it follows that discourse would seem more civil. Everyone in the media thought the same - Democrats good. Republicans bad (or greedy or mean-spirited or evil). No disagreement, no asperity.

Another factor is the fact that the Democrats have lost the House and the Senate for the first time in some 40 odd years. Throw in the Presidency and you've got a group that is desperate to regain power - or as Rush would put it "restore the natural order of things".

The third reason has to do with why the Democrats have lost both houses of congress and the presidency - Democrat politicians are out of touch with their democratic voters. Since the Democrats went so long unchallenged by the liberal media they have elected politicians that are far left of the average democrat. That's why Democrat politicians run from the label of "liberal". Many such as Cynthia McKinney, Barbara Lee, Sheila Jackson Lee, Maxine Watters are not "liberal" but radical.

Conservatives in turn have been largely successful in purging from their ranks the anti-Semitic, racists and other kooks who once found a home. Let's face it - there are no elected Republican Nazi's, but there are numerous socialists and even the occasional anti-Semite Democrat congressman. As you go down to local politicians, it gets exponentially kookier. The kooks can remain due in part to the double-standard of the press.

Illustrating how far left the Democrats have become it is helpful to take a close look at their icon, John F. Kennedy. You tell me which party would give his inaugural address today:

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

In addition, consider that during his tragically shortened 3 years in office JFK:

Cut taxes
Intervened in Vietnam
Attacked Cuba
Was a fervent anti-Communist
Believed in a color-blind society

What was liberal is now conservative. What was left is now liberal.

What we are witnessing is a very liberal Democrat Party supported by a very liberal media that is being forced to portray a comparatively mainstream Republican party evermore radical just to make themselves appear more centrist.