Motivated by abstractions and a vision of a utopian

The Conservative Counter-Culture

by Nicholas Short

George Orwell wrote in his preface to Animal Farm that “Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban…At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question, anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness.” This prevailing orthodoxy defines the ideology of the contemporary Left of today.

Motivated by abstractions and a vision of a utopian future based upon that which has never existed but which they are convinced they can create, the Left is consumed by this belief as it strives towards an unattainable future. A future whose sole practical effect is to provide a measure by which it can condemn the present. The basic premise of their politics is that “forward” is necessarily a good direction, and that fundamental transformation of social relationships is both possible and desirable as they see themselves as apostles of “hope and change“.

David Horowitz elaborates, “as expression of its nihilism, the contemporary Left defines and organizes itself as a movement against rather than for. They are less concerned about creating the future than they are about their war against the present.” The Left provides no realistic answer to actual issues as they lack the moral clarity and outright intellectual ability to understand that their ideas are not rooted in reality. Their own rejection of America is “explained by their illusions of a worldview based on an imaginary future that has no anchor in any past or present human reality, and whose complaints, can never be assuaged or redressed”, writes Horowitz. Their influence has been unprecedented as those who ascribe to the belief in conservative values, such as millions like myself, are counter to today’s mainstream culture and politics. Anything and everything that is promoted by conservatives and happens to shine a positive light on America is censored, ostracized, attacked, and eventually silenced.

“Dissent from liberal orthodoxy is cast as racism, misogyny, bigotry, and phobia”, writes Kirsten Powers in her new book The Silencing. Powers notes that the “left believes that people who express ideological, philosophical, or political views that don’t line up with their preferences should be completely silenced. Instead of using persuasion and rhetoric to make a positive case for their causes and views, they work to delegitimize the person making the argument through character assassination, demonization, and dehumanizing tactics.” Powers, a liberal herself, goes on to make a damning indictment of the left in her book but she fails to point out the overall reason as to why the left wants those who oppose them silenced. That reason being that the left is virtually bankrupt of ideas. It has nothing more to say, nothing to add to the debate. It has, in the words of Ronald Reagan, “spent its intellectual capital”, and now it is on the move to all but silence the only real opposition it faces, conservatives.

We, as conservatives, represent the counter-culture today as the Left has gone on the offensive by putting the average American on the moral defensive. They have used a litany of issues to attack good, decent, and faithful Americans for holding beliefs and principles that the Left considers out of date and reactionary. If you want to invoke God in a National Day of Prayer address and you’re a U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen., you should be met with nothing less than a court-martial, says the Left. Such is the case surrounding U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Craig Olson who used the National Day of Prayer forum to share with the audience what he believes has been the guiding force throughout his career: God.

In their latest attempt to silence God and Christianity, Michael L. Weinstein, Founder and President of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, has led the charge calling for Olson’s court-martial. In his statement to the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, Weinstein demands that “Major General Craig S. Olson be immediately, aggressively and very visibly brought to justice for his unforgivable crimes and transgressions via trial by General Courts Martial and that any and all others who assisted him with his NDPTF speech of fundamentalist Christian supremacy be likewise investigated and punished to the full extent of military law.” Weinstein’s demands to make an example of Olson by punishing him and those like him for their belief in God and Christianity epitomizes the overall viewpoint, in regards to Christianity, of those on the Left. Your religion is primitive in their eyes for you dare invoke God and hold true to your “fundamentalist Christian supremacy”. Take a look at abortion and gay marriage to see other examples of where the Left is on the attack against Christians.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t end at religion, for the Left is relentless in its pursuit to silence the debate and inconvenient facts of climate change. Speaking to graduating cadets at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy last Wednesday, Barack Obama called out “climate change deniers” for being weak, going as far as to claim that “it is a dereliction of duty for the United States to ignore the national security implications of rising global temperatures.” To even debate the reality of the fact that scientific evidence shows that global temperatures are not on the rise, will result in the Left slandering you a “denier” as if you’re an idiot for even attempting to question such a benign thing as the climate. If you argue the factual evidence of what was once dubbed “global warming”, the president wants you called out for “blocking progress in the fight against climate change.” Take a look at Rep. Raul Grijalva and his seven different congressional witch-hunt investigations into the funding sources of scientists he derides as climate-change “deniers” to see other examples of where the Left is on the attack against dissent.

The smear campaign launched by the left isn’t solely reserved for Christians or those they deem as “climate-change deniers” as much as it is against all conservatives who adhere to our constitution. For instance, in response to Obama’s proposed nuclear detente with Tehran Sen. Tom Cotton penned an open letter, signed by 46 other Republicans, to Iran explaining Congress’ role in approving binding diplomatic agreements under our constitutional system. He was met collectively with a response by the left that labeled him and the other 46 Republicans as traitors.

The collective response by the left is best embodied by the following comments made by Sen. Debbie Stabenow. She stated the following; “When war hangs in the balance, and specifically nuclear war hangs in the balance, should members of the United States Senate be in the position of publicly undermining the United States president?” she asked. “It is shocking, dangerous, and deeply troubling to me that 47 members of this body decided … to stand on the side of the ayatollahs and the most extreme voices in Iran.”

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths that the left will go to not debate but destroy the voices of those that they oppose. Christians, conservatives, and ordinary Americans are those that are constantly ridiculed and attacked by not only the “fringe” elements of the Democratic party but the mainstream elements between both Democrats and Republicans. It has become evidently clear that as conservatives, as Christians, and as ordinary Americans we have become the counter-culture in a country that is predominantly ruled under the left’s orthodoxy. This is a point that is hard pressed to deny as each day we find ourselves on the defensive. With that in mind, to be conservative in this day in age is ultimately to be attacked, it matters little if you choose to remain complacent or fight, we are the counter-culture. So why not go on the offensive now before we are completely demoralized? We are the counter-revolutionaries of the 21st century and its time we begin to fight as such.