Dennis Prager has a great article titled “If On the Wrong Track, Why Go Left?” In this editorial, he postulates that since 81% of Americans allegedly believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, pundits assume this means that people want a leftist/socialist government but this may not be the case. As one of these 81% he desires the country not to take a hard left turn, nor continue the slow left turn is has been taking, but for America to become conservative.
The polls asking these questions stop at “Is the country headed in the right direction” and rarely ask the obvious follow-up: “where should we be heading?” As the answers might throw off the pollster’s desired outcome, I can see why they stop there.
Here is Prager’s Article in total.
Today’s most widely accepted political belief is that because an unprecedentedly high percentage of Americans — 81 percent — believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, the Republicans are headed for a major defeat this coming November.
If this is the case, it can only be because the American voter translates “headed in the wrong direction” as “because the Republicans have had their way, so it’s time to let the Democrats have theirs.”
That should not be the case. I count myself as one of the 81 percent who believes America is headed in the wrong direction, and that is precisely why I am voting Republican. Moreover, I suspect I am not alone among the 81 percent in ascribing the wrong track to the leftist, not the conservative, influence on American life.
But if “headed in the wrong direction” really does mean for most Americans that voting Democrat will put our country on the right track, it is hard not to conclude that America has begun the decline that has ended all great civilizations. For if the Democratic Party — given how far left it has become — comes to control Congress and the presidency, America’s values will soon stray so far from what they have been since its founding that it is difficult to imagine ever being able to undo the change.
Given that “on the wrong track” is defined as unhappiness with the economy, with President George W. Bush, and with the war in Iraq, let’s analyze all this.
First, are the 81 percent unhappy with their own economic status or with the economic direction of the country? They are obviously not the same things. But whichever it is — and it may well be both — why do most Americans believe the Democrats’ prescriptions are going to help? Why will a huge tax increase on all Americans earning over $200,000, on capital gains for all Americans and on social security (if Barack Obama is elected) help the economy?
When have tax increases ever helped an economy? Why will America almost alone among the industrialized democracies move in the direction of higher taxes? Are all these other countries that are lowering taxes harming their economies?
Furthermore, the economic plans of the Democrats to have the government take over health care and increase taxes will expand the power and reach of the state more than ever before, and will therefore make more Americans dependent upon the state than ever before. These are earthquakes in the American value system. If there are any values that can meaningfully be called “American,” self-reliance and limited government are among them. The movement from self-reliance to reliance on the state is truly “un-American.” For those who recoil at the use of this term, it must be noted that it in no way implies less love of America, let alone lack of patriotism. It simply states the obvious truth that self-reliance, individualism and limited government have been basic and distinguishing American values, and the Democrats and the left aim to undo those underpinnings of American civilization.
Second, regarding the unprecedentedly low popularity of President Bush, this, too, needs explaining and may not reflect well on the current state of Americans’ values.
George W. Bush has passed legislation — such as prescription drug benefits for the elderly — that Democrats would pass; he is a personally decent and honest man who has led perhaps the most scandal-free eight years in modern American history; he has kept America free from terror since 9-11 — something no one, left or right, expected; pro-American leaders have been elected in European countries most identified with anti-Americanism — Germany and France; and until the sub-prime loan-induced credit crisis, the economy has been among the most robust in American history.
Now, undoubtedly the left will respond that this man is neither scandal-free nor decent since, in its view, he is a liar. “Bush lied” has been repeated by Democrats and the liberal media so often that they have both come to believe it. But it is the charge that is the lie. President Bush’s claim that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was a mistake, not a lie. President Bill Clinton said the same thing when he was president, as did every major Western intelligence agency at the time of America’s invasion.
It is hard to believe that “Bush lied” is the primary reason for his low popularity ratings. If it is, we are in deep trouble. It means Americans have been irrationally influenced, almost brainwashed, by the media.
Assuming, then, that “Bush lied” is not a primary reason for the president’s unpopularity, the overwhelming explanation is presumably the Iraq War. But if so, that, too, represents an unfortunate decay in Americans’ values. Whatever misgivings an American has about invading Iraq and removing Hussein, the facts are that America is winning now; that Iraq is becoming the first free and democratic Arab country; that Islamists are losing what they themselves call their most important war; and that, as a result of their barbaric cruelty in Iraq and their losing the war now, their popularity among Muslims (except Palestinians) is in decline.
Do most Americans really prefer Obama’s and the Democrats’ pledge to leave Iraq to the Republicans’ pledge to win this war? No matter how horrific, even potentially genocidal, the consequences would be to Iraqis? No matter how adversely it would affect potential U.S. allies who will no longer trust our commitments to them? And no matter how much it would weaken America’s domestic security, given an Islamist victory in Iraq? If so, we are in deep trouble as a nation.
If the answers to all these questions are that, by “wrong direction,” Americans think we are too Republican and conservative and that a radically leftward turn — the Democrats never had a leftist (as opposed to liberal) candidate win the presidency — is what the country needs, we really are in decline.
On the other hand, perhaps most of the 81 percent think that “wrong direction” means, among many other things, the following:
— Forty years of left-wing control of the news media, of Hollywood, of the public schools, of the universities and of nearly every big city government have nearly ruined those institutions.
— Forty years of a litigation explosion has had terrible social and economic effects.
— Children are being prematurely sexualized through early sex education.
— A generation of children is being frightened about too much — from seesaws to dodgeball to ring-a-levio to secondhand smoke to the destruction of the world caused by global warming.
— The left’s war against Judeo-Christian values as the bases of American values is leaving us morally rudderless.
— Redefining marriage to include people of the same sex for the first time in history, while compassionate to gays, will be disorienting to young people when forming their sexual identities.
— Multiculturalism is destroying the concept of an American culture and people. Obama and the Democrats even opposed declaring English as America’s national language.
So 81 percent of Americans are right. We are on the wrong track. But the future of America entirely depends on what track it is most Americans think is wrong, and if they really believe that the radical “change” Obama and the Democrats advocate will be the right track. If so, it may mark the beginning of the end of the America that our parents and their parents and their parents back to America’s founding lived in. The left, given its demonization of America’s history, would welcome that. Would the American people?
I happen to agree with him. It is amazing that the left is so upset at President Bush who has aided almost every pet leftist program along while upsetting conservatives. Even now, no matter who wins the Democrat Primary, we will have a choice between a leftist Republican and the far left Democrats. In the end, I and others are forced to vote against the socialist Democrats without having someone conservative to vote “for”.
So we are given the choice in viable election outcomes. Neither of which are a conservative victory:
Republican win: Democrat programs push ahead as McCain, again, abandons conservatives and “reaches across the aisle” to compromise with the left. “Compromise” to a leftist seems to mean everyone else gets nothing while the leftist gets everything (or almost everything) they demand. On the positive side, America remains on the offensive against terrorism and dictators with increased chances of terror attacks not reaching the US itself. Thus the sheltered leftists can continue to live in blissful ignorance without getting “mugged” by reality.
Democrat win: Domestically, no real change from the above accept the ruinous leftist economic and government expansion plans increase ten fold and move ahead much faster. This will be especially true if the no longer conservative republicans lose votes again to conservatives boycotting the election out of disgust. If the democrats obtain their desired a super majority, the economic collapse and ruination of high taxes, burdensome and disgustingly inefficient socialized medicine, continued lack of natural resource expansion and refinement, and drastic increase in peoples’ dependence on government even as tax revenues fall will make the sub-prime loan mess look tame.
Foreign policy/defense wise: Well that matters which Democrat the super-delegates decide wins. (Leftists, you need to wake up and understand the previous sentence) If Hillary wins, we may, and I stress “may”, have a better chance at maintaining our offensive stance against terrorism and not return to the mid-late 1990s where we were attacked again and again and did nothing. If Obama wins, I hold no such optimism. So in the end, the US would withdrawal from Iraq and possibly Afghanistan, no matter the cost to the people there. US support for these governments may go the way US support for the South Vietnam government went. If so, both governments would fall to radicals and a genocidal war may erupt in Iraq. Iran’s star would rise and they would eagerly move ahead with their nuclear weapons program. This may prompt Israel to attack Iran as it did Syria and may also prompt an uneasy alliance between Israel and the Arab world vs the resurgent Persia.
Domestic security wise, the US, again, becomes a soft target and as attacks increase, the left’s response would be what it was after 9-11: Blame America and do nothing lest we “offend” those who demand our termination.