Redneck Review!!
5/31/15
It may be hard to believe, but facts dictate that it's true! And what is that? That the word "liberal" has taken on a whole new meaning in the past ten years!! Not so long ago, the word described a person or party that looked to the future, that was willing to break away from the past, and in doing so, was totally open to new ideas and suggestions. A "liberal," as defined in a dictionary, is "one free from restraint, is free in speech or action". Or, from the same source, "tolerant, not narrow in one's views and ideas."  Traditionally, a "liberal" was one who was "free" to propose new ideas, to break away from the past, as opposed to a "conservative" who was more inclined to do things the old way, to cling to traditional ways of doing things. 
So what meaning should be associated with a political "liberal" that one finds in our political arena today? Here we need to be careful. What is often associated with the word liberal today is really not the old notion of that word. Rather, according to Kirsten Powers, author of the recent best seller THE SILENCING, it is not the true liberal who is a threat to our country today, but a powerful group that has big control in our government and in our press. She chooses to call them ILLIBERALS.
Who is Kirsten Powers? She "grew up in the 1970's with a feminist mother...," a Democrat from the very beginning, a believer in diversity of thought and belief, one who today favors pro-choice for women, marriage of gay individuals, equal pay for women, the Obama presidency, and other typical Democratic and liberal ideas.
But what she does not accept are the methods used continuously today by those she calls ILLIBERALS, those who are totally intolerant of views other than their own, and who resort to name calling and vicious slandering of those who dare to differ with them.
In fact, she bluntly adds the following subtitle to her THE SILENCING book, "How the Left is killing free speech.
Every concerned American who loves their country should read this book. Though a well-known liberal herself, Powers cites chapter after chapter, and documented case after case of the illiberal attack on all and everyone who dares to differ with them. And insidiously, dozens of these cases involve students on our college campuses today, who are ridiculed, flunked out, demoted, shut up, and in other ways, totally intimidated if they choose to defend what has always been our traditional American and Christian values. And repeatedly, more conservative speakers who have been invited to speak at college and university graduations have been "disinvited," or heckled by the very individuals who claim to be "liberal," once defined as above, "tolerant, not narrow in ones's views and ideas." And, in many cases, so-called "Christian" institutions have smugly welcomed speakers who fall into Powers "Illiberal" category.
Powers quotes Michael Wear, who worked on Obama's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns as saying "One of the saddest times of my political life" occurred between the two inaugurals. He said. "We went from diversity being the reason for inclusion to diversity being the reason for exclusion." In other words, from being a true liberal to a modern Illiberal. And Powers herself adds this statement; "That is where the Illiberal left's silencing of opponents is taking us: to the end of freedom of speech, thought, and debate, to uniformity--all in the name of diversity."
Have we not seen the same tactics locally? I cite the following from a M.T. editorial in the Tribune in early May: "The Idaho House committee 'impulsively' killed the (SB1067) bill, relying on 'xenophobic fantasies' and 'right-wing alarmists.' " And the Washington Post said that Idaho surrendered to a "wall of bluster and misinformation" and reacted to "fear-mongering about opening the door to...Sharia law." ILLIBERAL, or not????
Jake Wren

Home

Classified Ads