(more thoughts inspired from Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism)
"Today" writes Goldberg, liberalism depends almost entirely on "enlightened" judges who use Wilson's living constitution to defy popular will in the name of progress. All of this is traceable back to the Kennedy assassination, in which a deranged communist martyred a progressive icon. For more than a generation liberal politics in America has been premised on the politics of a ghost. The Jack Kennedy whom liberals remember never existed. Liberals believed that for a "brief, shining moment" that they could bring about their kingdom of heaven, their Camelot." Finally now, with the election of Barack Obama, they believe they have re-created that moment.
In 1983 Gary Hart, whose incredibly squishy hand I shook when he was campaigning in Durango, told Esquire that "If you rounded us (Democratic politicians) all up and asked, "Why did you get into politics, nine out of ten of us would say, John Kennedy." Goldberg writes, "Every Democrat says he wants to be JFK while insisting that he will do more or less what LBJ did. No Democrat would dream of saying he wanted to emulate Lyndon Johnson, because the myth is what matters most" (the myth that Camelot was a moment when liberals could have brought about the kingdom of God on earth).
5 comments:
I haven't read this book, just your posts, but it seems there is a lot wrong with the premise. The Words Liberal and Fascism would cancel each other out, as fascism has been historically been connected to conservative, autocratic ways.
Our society tends to put people on pedestals,and yes, Kennedy became more of a myth than reality. So were people like John Wayne, who was a coward and got several excuses to avoid fighting in WW11, as well as Ronald Reagan, who was a different man, not as consistently conservative as others have ascribed to him. That and he had one of the most corrupt administrations ever, with 138 people under indictment at one time...
yiquan,
Did you miss the Clinton years?
I spent most of them teasing my father. He was so disgusted by Bill Clinton's behavior with Monica Lewinsky, and I thought the whole thing was funny. With the pressures a President must face, you would want some way to keep him calmer, so a Presidential fluffer seemed like a good idea...
Actually, the President I have the most mixed feeling about, the one I would have loved to sit down with is Richard Nixon. I met Reagan briefly when he was Governor of California, but Nixon kept reinventing himself and popped back up to be the elder statesman before he died...
Yiquan, you making me laugh, thanks. We need to laugh more. As far as Nixon and Clinton, never are my choices to sit down and talk to. They were tricksters surrounded by those willing to trick the public. I personally think George Washington would be the most interesting to talk especially now.
Yes, Yiquan, I appreciate humor, too. Two of the authors you mention in your profile are among my favorites, too.
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