Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Never Complain, Never Explain
Rick Perlstein’s essay on the clash between conservative principle and some conservative's practice thereof is a longish complaint that conservatives are not always angels.
During the 1960's, liberals ran the country via their control of the then-three major news networks, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Hollywood, the Supreme Court and both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate.
Still, the “New Left” proudly rooted for America’s enemies (“Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh. The NLF is gonna win.”) SDS bombs and Black Panther Molotov cocktails were used to underscore their complaints that the United States was far too conservative.
How is this era remembered on the Left? Not with embarassed shame but with loving nostalgia. In Field of Dreams, we are reminded that: “[I]f you experienced even a little bit of the sixties, you would understand." In Running on Empty, we get to follow a lovable family on the run from the FBI for blowing up "a napalm lab to protest the war."
Unfortunately for Perlstein's thesis, there are no film tributes to conservatives who behave badly, like Tom Charles Huston, or, for that matter, film tributes to true conservative luminaries like William F. Buckley, Jr. or Paul Weyrich. Disgraced Congressman Duke Cunningham, a hero as a combat fighter pilot, will not grace the dais of a tribute dinner any time soon. Can the same be said of Jane Fonda?
The politics of personal destruction were grounded in the New Left’s credo of “by any means necessary.” Richard Nixon occupied the chair that beloved Bobby Kennedy deserved. So Nixon had to go. Now House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has proven he can tie the Democrats up in knots. Therefore he must be destroyed. Forgive conservatives for not racing to join the lynching party just yet.
|posted by Jim on 5:44 PM|
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