LIBERALISM, YESTERDAY AND TODAY
The classical liberals of yesterday are the compassionate conservatives of today. Classical liberalism borrowed from what was called the social gospel and sought with a moral conscience to apply Biblical principles to grass roots society. They emphasized the philosophy of the Good Samaritan and what is called “the fruit of the Spirit” in the Bible; namely, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control.” They used this kind of motivation in helping the weak and helpless in the society in an effort to create a better world in America. As such, classical liberalism was a part of the original American tradition which had its roots in Judeo-Christian values and morality. It was patriotic in the sense that it was inexorably connected to America’s heritage and origins.
Classical liberalism, however, gradually began to be coopted toward the beginning of this century by a radical movement and vision, which gained power in the depression of the thirties and took over in the sixties. Some radicals use the designation “progressives,” which was the moniker of the classical liberal-conservative President Teddy Roosevelt. Radical liberalism, however, drew its ideas, its ethic, its purpose and its programs from Marxism, socialism, and secular humanism. As such it was a distinctly new movement, which was connected to America’s heritage and traditions only in name. In fact, it often divorced itself from our roots as a nation by means of either a revisionist history or a direct attack on the Founders and their philosophy. This actually threatens our original vision for a republican democracy and erases the original meanings of freedom and the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Radical liberals give lip service to the Constitution, but they have violated its plain text by blatant misinterpretations or additions which have been transparent efforts to actually change this culture by fiat. Radical legal theorists have enthusiastically recommended that the judiciary and sometimes the executive power be used to bypass the legislature, or “we the people,” and impose their new vision on America. Borrowing from the ethic of Communism, they believe that anything is right or moral which advances their agenda. Essentially, radical liberals want to transform America into an entirely different kind of society which is rooted in a practical atheism, a secular socialism, and a relativist ethic.
Much of this new radical philosophy for America began to be absorbed by the “boomers” in the sixties. Patriotism, or respect and love for one’s country, was only kept alive by the belief that we must save our country by changing it. As this extremist liberal movement has grown in power and influence it has more and more frequently shown its true dimensions. It is (1) intolerant to the point of being inflexibly authoritarian; (2) dictatorial to uncompromisingly despotic; (3) unreason- ing to stubbornly dogmatic; (4) unprincipled to unconscionably unethical; (5) arrogant to imperiously pig-headed; (6) conniving to treacherously machiavellian; (7) deceitful to destructively dishonest; and (8) mean to the point of becoming dangerously malicious. As the radical liberals run out of arguments and begin to lose the war for the soul of this nation because of the failure of their programs, they resort to ad hominem attacks on their opposition and unscrupulously fraudulent, lying assaults against conservative or classically liberal ideas and proposals. The movement imbibed many of its practices from the Marxist milieu out which it was born or which influenced it.
Radical liberalism has been espoused by a large number of extremist organizations in America which have sought to advance one or another of the liberal extremists’ objectives. The ACLU, which was originally founded and run by professed communists, has advanced, for example, an agenda which has undermined our nation’s religious roots in the cause of a libertine philosophy of liberty. They advance a libertarian view of the First Amendment and an extreme nontraditional interpretation of “the separation of church and state.” The People for the American Way have sought to loosen all the restraints on what Americans, including children, can see and experience with no regard for parental authority or responsi- bility. The National Education Association, the nation’s largest union, includes extremist educrats who have imbibed many radical agendas and seek to teach all of them in the public schools. These include undermining respect for our national and western heritage, weakening the authority of parents and the nuclear family, aggressively promoting sex education which fosters sexual promiscuity, encouraging pro-choice which leads to the killing of unwanted babies in the womb, accepting the homosexual lifestyle as equivalent to heterosexual relationships, including a new definition of the family which would permit same-sex marriages, and vehemently rejecting all references to God and any absolute standards of right and wrong, such as the Ten Commandments.
Cal Thomas wrote recently about the rising rebellion of the grass roots against this godless, secularized culture. He said that people are coming to realize that this radical, secularized culture “seems powerless to stem the Godforsaken tide of violence and corruption among us. For decades we have been told that the price we all must pay for a healthy First Amendment is the toleration of the most disgusting filth oozing through every pore of our society and culture. Creeps, louts, pornographers, blasphemers, alternative lifestylers, fornicators, adulterers, liars, slanderers and other forms of human rubbish enjoy the full protection of the law, but those who believe in God and order their lives accordingly, and who wish to participate in the pluralism and diversity which they hear so much about (but which never seems to apply to them) are increasingly losing their rights to be heard in the same public places occupied by those dedicated to tearing down, not building up, society.” (Conservative Chronicle, 6/16/99, p. 16)
Nowhere has the bankruptcy of radical liberalism been illustrated more than in the aftermath of the wanton killings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Columnist Paul Craig Roberts asked these questions, “Who drove God out of the public schools, thereby creating a vacuum to be filled by cults of evil and violence? Who made abortion a moral cause? If life is not sacred in a mother’s body, why is it sacred in a high school library? Who destroyed moral standards, and substituted government regulation? Who made it possible for rebellious children to preempt parental discipline by calling Child Protective Services and reporting their parents as child abusers? There is only one answer. It is spelled l-i-b-e-r-a-l. Columbine is the harvest of the seeds planted by the sophisticated elites. No country--not even the former Soviet Union--has been so badly betrayed by its governing class as the United States. But don’t expect any apology from liberals. They are blaming guns, video violence and parents.” (Human Events, 5/14/99, p. 9)
Radical liberalism has become a cancer in the body politic. If it is not neutralized or eliminated, it will destroy our nation and culture and all that we have worked for and believed in for over 200 years. There must be a return to compassionate conservatism and the principles upon which this nation was founded that established the original foundation which grew a truly great and good society.
REV. JAMES M. MURK
11818 Ferndale Road
New Auburn, WI, 54757
June 30, 1999