Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
I heard a remarkable statement the other day, made by a young liberal, saying “We've dealt with LGBTQ rights, and now, they, (liberals,) needed to move forward to the next thing.” I’m surprised this individual didn't take credit for the civil rights movement, too. Why not the Alabama bus boycott of 1955. How about the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, long before they were born. As always, “Hindsight is 20/20.” Coming down on the right side of history, then, sure as hell isn't about agreeing with the past, decades after the battles have been fought, and long after the blood, sweat, and tears have been shed. But that, apparently, is how he and others view these issues. This tendency, increasingly, reflects the liberal mindset.
In the liberal mind, there are two paths. One path is about protecting minorities and providing for the poor and disenfranchised. Health-care for all, food enough, for all, a home and yard for the kids, regardless of gender, race or economic status. No war, a modest military, and abundance for everybody. Who could argue?
The answer; anyone who wasn’t a fool.
This tendency, to deal with the complexity of history, by reducing it to a story of good guys and bad guys, is what children do. The reality is far more complex.
In the decades of the 1950’s and sixties, it wasn’t Democrats who were on the right side of history. Democrats are the ones who stood in the schoolhouse door, blocking the entrance, so young African American children couldn’t enter. They were the ones who put up the signs in stores and restaurants that read “No Negroes, dogs or Jews allowed.” They were the Klan, burning crosses and hanging uppity Blacks for looking the wrong way at a White woman. They were the ones dressed in Grey, fighting on the side of Johnny Reb, during America’s civil war. That is the historical fact, and it is beyond dispute.
When confronted with that reality, the ploy is the same, claim; “That’s when Democrats were really Republicans, and Republicans were actually Democrats.” This excuse will suffice, for a child, maybe, but not an adult. It’s also why infantilizing the culture, so we become of nation of smugly ignorant and dependent children, tends to be a Democrat cause. Because dependency is a pathway to power for Democrats.
Let me be clear, even this last series of statements of mine, lack nuance. Not all Democrats were Klan members, and not all Republicans were Martin Luther King. Who was a Republican, as was Abraham Lincoln?
African Americans were overwhelmingly Republican, following the civil war, for obvious reasons. They began the change during FDR’s administration and continued the shift through the 1960’s to becoming Democrats. Lyndon Johnson’s presidency and the Great Society programs, won over Blacks, and new civil rights legislation continued that trend, even, though, more Republicans voted for the civil rights acts of 1964 and 1965 than Democrats. Nonetheless, these were seen as Democrat victories because of Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, was president. America was and is a sprawling country, with a diverse people, from diverse backgrounds. There is not now, nor has there ever been a single world-view, held by the hundreds of millions of people, living in this country—or, anywhere else, for that matter. For the child in all of us, however, there is only right and wrong. Nowhere, in the real world, does this tend to be true.
Most political change happens out of sight, as the result of grassroots movements. Technological innovation and economic shifts tend to have a much greater effect than politicians, or even, political movements. In the South, machines that picked cotton diminished the need for cheap labor, freeing up the movement of African Americans from the South to the North, where factory jobs were waiting. The industrial revolution and America’s own industrialization created the demand for labor, which was met by those who would work longest and hardest. This included Blacks, who benefited immeasurably, as the result. It was this wealth creation, as the result of jobs, jobs, and more jobs, that freed Black folk from the shackles of Southern, agrarian life. The civil rights movement came after this shift. In other words, the civil rights movement was the effect, not the cause. Today, we get this precisely backward.
No nation has ever advanced on the basis of giving special rights to protected groups, and certainly not as the result of a centralized control of industry and innovation. This was no less true of slavery. Such ideas are thoroughly un-American and result in the antithesis of freedom and prosperity. This is the purview of Democrats, primarily, but there are more than a few Republicans who are big-government interventionists, too. The unfortunate reality is Americans are generally becoming less American, due to massive government overreach. Brought about because Americans neither understand their history or their system of government. They are even more ignorant of even basic, economic principals, making them ripe for the picking by any silver tongued devil, offering what they have no right to offer, according to the Constitution. But the people don’t seem to know this, and that is why they consistently give up freedom for the illusion of security. The party or parties that offer these things are the enemies. The wolves in sheep’s clothing, as old as history—and as destructive as ever.
Mark Magula
I heard a remarkable statement the other day, made by a young liberal, saying “We've dealt with LGBTQ rights, and now, they, (liberals,) needed to move forward to the next thing.” I’m surprised this individual didn't take credit for the civil rights movement, too. Why not the Alabama bus boycott of 1955. How about the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, long before they were born. As always, “Hindsight is 20/20.” Coming down on the right side of history, then, sure as hell isn't about agreeing with the past, decades after the battles have been fought, and long after the blood, sweat, and tears have been shed. But that, apparently, is how he and others view these issues. This tendency, increasingly, reflects the liberal mindset.
In the liberal mind, there are two paths. One path is about protecting minorities and providing for the poor and disenfranchised. Health-care for all, food enough, for all, a home and yard for the kids, regardless of gender, race or economic status. No war, a modest military, and abundance for everybody. Who could argue?
The answer; anyone who wasn’t a fool.
This tendency, to deal with the complexity of history, by reducing it to a story of good guys and bad guys, is what children do. The reality is far more complex.
In the decades of the 1950’s and sixties, it wasn’t Democrats who were on the right side of history. Democrats are the ones who stood in the schoolhouse door, blocking the entrance, so young African American children couldn’t enter. They were the ones who put up the signs in stores and restaurants that read “No Negroes, dogs or Jews allowed.” They were the Klan, burning crosses and hanging uppity Blacks for looking the wrong way at a White woman. They were the ones dressed in Grey, fighting on the side of Johnny Reb, during America’s civil war. That is the historical fact, and it is beyond dispute.
When confronted with that reality, the ploy is the same, claim; “That’s when Democrats were really Republicans, and Republicans were actually Democrats.” This excuse will suffice, for a child, maybe, but not an adult. It’s also why infantilizing the culture, so we become of nation of smugly ignorant and dependent children, tends to be a Democrat cause. Because dependency is a pathway to power for Democrats.
Let me be clear, even this last series of statements of mine, lack nuance. Not all Democrats were Klan members, and not all Republicans were Martin Luther King. Who was a Republican, as was Abraham Lincoln?
African Americans were overwhelmingly Republican, following the civil war, for obvious reasons. They began the change during FDR’s administration and continued the shift through the 1960’s to becoming Democrats. Lyndon Johnson’s presidency and the Great Society programs, won over Blacks, and new civil rights legislation continued that trend, even, though, more Republicans voted for the civil rights acts of 1964 and 1965 than Democrats. Nonetheless, these were seen as Democrat victories because of Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, was president. America was and is a sprawling country, with a diverse people, from diverse backgrounds. There is not now, nor has there ever been a single world-view, held by the hundreds of millions of people, living in this country—or, anywhere else, for that matter. For the child in all of us, however, there is only right and wrong. Nowhere, in the real world, does this tend to be true.
Most political change happens out of sight, as the result of grassroots movements. Technological innovation and economic shifts tend to have a much greater effect than politicians, or even, political movements. In the South, machines that picked cotton diminished the need for cheap labor, freeing up the movement of African Americans from the South to the North, where factory jobs were waiting. The industrial revolution and America’s own industrialization created the demand for labor, which was met by those who would work longest and hardest. This included Blacks, who benefited immeasurably, as the result. It was this wealth creation, as the result of jobs, jobs, and more jobs, that freed Black folk from the shackles of Southern, agrarian life. The civil rights movement came after this shift. In other words, the civil rights movement was the effect, not the cause. Today, we get this precisely backward.
No nation has ever advanced on the basis of giving special rights to protected groups, and certainly not as the result of a centralized control of industry and innovation. This was no less true of slavery. Such ideas are thoroughly un-American and result in the antithesis of freedom and prosperity. This is the purview of Democrats, primarily, but there are more than a few Republicans who are big-government interventionists, too. The unfortunate reality is Americans are generally becoming less American, due to massive government overreach. Brought about because Americans neither understand their history or their system of government. They are even more ignorant of even basic, economic principals, making them ripe for the picking by any silver tongued devil, offering what they have no right to offer, according to the Constitution. But the people don’t seem to know this, and that is why they consistently give up freedom for the illusion of security. The party or parties that offer these things are the enemies. The wolves in sheep’s clothing, as old as history—and as destructive as ever.
Mark Magula