TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Divided We Fall

ADVERTISEMENT

John Reiniers, Special to Hernando Today

Published: November 21, 2007

Updated: 11/20/2007 06:44 pm

America has clearly undergone a cultural identity change since World War ll. It continues. Having lived through that period, I now realize it was amazing that such an ethnically diverse and geographically separated population pulled together for a common purpose. If you didn't experience those determined years of a "melting pot" going to war, these printed words won't help you understand those times.

The media and Democrats have redefined our nation as a large number of fragmented - not assimilated - interest groups - each niche being polled, isolated, counted and courted by those seeking power - a seeming triumph of individual identity. National cohesion - even in a time of war - is considered politically irrelevant.

Democrats are philosophically inclined to celebrate that which makes us differ, rather than that which unites us. Iraq is a good example. The media and the liberals repeatedly reminded Americans of Bush's "wildly unpopular" war. A majority of Americans and the military are now beaten down, and polls show it. We've won the war, but need to win a peace. The latest "bumper sticker" describing our troops pejoratively as "killers in uniform" has legs. It's catchy here with liberals, on the Arab street and in "old Europe." If the media and the left had the same attitude during World War II and believe it, our Marines, soldiers, sailors and aviators were popular killers in uniform then - it would not have been a stretch for that war to have been seen as Roosevelt's "wildly unpopular" war.

It is not comforting to recall that our government targeted nonmilitary sites to bomb which resulted in hundreds of thousand of civilians being killed. That was war then. The dovish mindset of the media and liberals today would have made a victory then unthinkable - if they had been in power. Their thought leaders would have excoriated Roosevelt and our Secretary of War for their military strategies.

War then was a hell defined by the standards of that time. While still being a hell in 2007 for our combat troops, it is now nothing more than a negative intellectual exercise for its critics - the "pacifist at any cost; even defeat" - media and liberals.

An example: Prior to MoveOn.org's N.Y. Times' "General Petraeus or General Betray Us" advertisement, 61 percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of the general, who by all accounts is doing a decent job. The ad is "wildly popular" with its membership. MoveOn's executive director told the media that its membership increased after the ad was published; and its fundraising skyrocketed. This is the same guy that bragged MoveOn had "bought the Democratic party" given MoveOn's prodigious fundraising abilities. This is but one example of a self-interested, sub-group thinking nothing of attacking our troops and the unblemished reputation of a combat general; dividing the country in the process.

Historically, the U.S. has been a culture of disparate interest groups somehow assimilating as Americans first and miraculously coming together for a common purpose. It was always messy. Differing opinions made for heated debate. Our system of checks and balances would slow down the locomotive before there was a train wreck and finally a consensus would be reached.

The strategy of the modern liberal is to keep the nation divided by preaching to the many choirs of niche interests - reminding them of their special identity as victims. America as a melting pot is history. Democrats divide and rule. Moderates and conservatives are Main Street and becoming a minority. Today's liberals are a city of side streets.

It's the little things as well as the many things. Barrack Obama no longer wears an American flag lapel pin. It is a matter of pride for the "blame America" niche. He reinforces their identity as internationalists first; Democrats second, and perhaps as Americans.

Another little thing; Democrats appeal specifically for the "felon" vote, identifying them as such, Gays too are identified by sexual preference rather than as us; the same with any ethnic group which can be isolated and wooed for its votes. The list is endless. The strategy is for every niche to be identified as a special victim, then polled and courted.

Latino influence has not gone unnoticed by either party. The difference is that Democrats cater to their ethnicity, not their legality. On a similar note, Hillary Clinton proposes $5,000 be given to every child born in the U.S. It's bad enough that we encourage illegal immigration by paying for prenatal care for illegal Mexicans, but $5000 a pop will make her a hero in Mexico, where their babies don't even get a peso. A double whammy, given the overall increase in the number of out of wedlock mothers across the board. Government becomes a surrogate father, giving its baby a $5000 bond.

In 1954, Dorothy Thompson observed in the Ladies Home Journal that "The United States...is the only world power whose people are not cemented by ties of blood, race, or original language... It... recognizes but one nationality of it citizens - American - while lacking the ties of blood, tribal kinship, original language, long established culture which contribute so much to national cohesion. How can such a union be maintained except through some idea which involves loyalty?"

Loyalty to what? That which sets us apart - or America?

John Reiniers writes regularly for Hernando Today. He lives in Spring Hill.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT