The Democratic Party used to be much closer to the center. But the party of John F. Kennedy and Harry S. Truman exists today only in name. Historically moderate, today’s Democratic Party lies in extremes, rendering it almost unrecognizable to those who supported it a few decades ago.
The modern left has ordained itself the oracle of progress, a bulwark against a new-age class struggle between white, middle-class America and minority groups who exist within a skewed power structure.
Recognizing and addressing inequities is a cause to be applauded. However, it is important to take a measured approach blind to political showmanship.
Instead, we’re seeing frequent calls for change by revolutionary decree, by abandoning the social fabric that permeates our country, which history has shown to generally create more problems than it solves.
Conservatives have become marginalized in critical institutions, especially academia and social work. The result is an America whose defining institutions are overwhelmingly skewed towards a new brand of leftism. America is undergoing its own 21st-century cultural revolution. The original “cultural revolution” of the 20th century took place during the 60’s in China after the socialists came to power and forced radical change upon society in the name of progress.
Loyalty to socialist ideology became the most important facet of policymaking, with little regard for the potential of those policies to negatively impact the country. Citizens were expected to declare their devotion to socialism and progress towards an equitable society. Dissent of any kind was silenced by force, with opposing voices labeled as “enemies of progress.” How could you, in good conscience, be against progress?
While you cannot openly use force as an operating principle here in the West, you can certainly adapt and incorporate facets of the cultural revolution to aid your cause. I draw these comparisons not to slander, but to shed light on the totalitarian tendencies that exist in human nature. It is important to recognize this fact, lest the free world lose its freedom.
Authoritarianism almost always arises from good intentions. Sometimes it happens gradually, one piece of legislation at a time.
If America is under threat today, what exactly is that threat?
Authoritarian threats can come from both sides of the political spectrum. On the Left, it’s Marxism: extreme socialism, an ideology that we deemed so antithetical to the American way of life that we fought a cold war to keep it at bay for over forty years, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear catastrophe in the process.
The core tenets of Marxist ideology have been unearthed from the graves of history and skillfully repackaged and sold to large portions of the American public, particularly young and impressionable Americans.
Once capitalism evolved past its infancy, eventually providing humane working conditions and fair wages to laborers, the economic narrative of oppressor and oppressed could no longer be sold to the working class as a means of obtaining political agency. However, ideologies adapt and evolve over time; and so, the original working-class narrative was substituted for one that prioritizes social struggles instead.
Today, this ideology ironically scorns segments of the working class, deeming their status in society as “bourgeois,” a term originally used in early Marxist thought to describe the well-to-do status of the capitalist oppressor class.
The values and culture that America was founded on, that have held this country together for over 247 years, are under siege. The cultural revolution seeks to denounce America’s rich history and achievements wherever it can, labeling them not as things to celebrate, but things to be ashamed of and consigned to the ash heap of history.
While many artists will admit to flaws in some of their best works, those flaws hardly warrant the disposal of their paintings altogether. If we dispose of our values, culture and history, then what are we left with other than a hollow shell, the word “virtue” written as a facade on the outside?
Both conservatives and progressives, the right and the left have important insights to give us. It’s a tragedy when either collapses into extremism.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author.