The decline and fall of the Left in America

The power of the Left as a political force has rested on a tripod of three Big Lies. They are, first, that liberal Western civilization can do no good and is to blame for all the world's evils, second, that Marxist Leninist states can do no wrong, and third, that the Left has the answers to the world's problems. The thing about Big Lies is they have a fatal weakness: they cannot survive exposure to unfiltered information. In the face of raw facts, all Big Lies crumble, and ultimately collapse.

The three Big Lies of the Left have been crumbling in America for quite some now. The problem for the Left is that we have an open society, where the flow of information can never be completely controlled. They have survived by seizing or influencing choke points - where the flow can be partially controlled, and where a sort of imperfect censorship can be attempted, and where that which can't be censored away can be spun beyond recognition. There have been four choke points used by the Left: the universities, the news media, popular entertainment, and the Democratic party. Despite what many on the right allege, the Left's control over these institutions has never been absolute. But at one time it was strong enough to do real damage. This control is slipping, and the Left in America is now facing the abyss.

The control in major universities has been direct. Paranoid Left wingers such as Ward Churchill have attained tenure, and until recently they could spew their poison unchallenged. Their grip is still very strong, because of the tenure system. But if this Churchill affair is any indicator, there are limits to what they can get away with.

The influence over the news media is by way of manipulation. The media love alarmism, scandal and spectacle, and Left provided all of these. Back in the days when TV news dominated public opinion, someone like Walter Cronkite could say "that's the way it is" and be believed without question. Those days are long gone. And now we have the Internet, and blogging. News reportage has been democratised. This choke point is evaporating.

Everyone knows Hollywood is full of "liberals" (squishy left, plus an occasional hard Leftist such as Michael Moore or Oliver Stone. There was a time when movie actors would be called to testify before Congress as expert witnesses simply because they had performed in a movie about the issue. It's been a long while since we took actor's opinions that seriously. Before much longer, I expect Barbra Streisand's ill informed opinions will be the stuff of supermarket tabloids. People are pissed off now, but when they simmer down, they'll stop shouting and start giggling. And that really is the correct reaction.

The control over the Democrat party is by proxy. The Democratic National Committee is dominated by those who call themsleves "liberals" although I prefer the more honest and descriptive term "squishy left." These are the useful idiots, the vain, self-flattering connoisseurs of intellectual fashion, whom the hard, freedom hating Left manipulate. (That goes for Hollyood, too.) They're still idiots, but it seems they're not so useful anymore.

The Left's power in America peaked in the 1970's. That was a crummy decade. All attempts at 70's nostalgia have failed, except the ironic versions that mock the era. Only in a time like that could the Left be ascendant in America. A low point for our civilization is a high point for its enemies, and vice versa. This was the era in which the Left, using the various chokepoints described above, caused the united States to betray South Vietnam and Cambodia to the mercies of their enemies. It was a shameful time.

Since then, it's been all downhill for the Left. America rallied behind Ronald Reagan, because we were ready to rally and he was handy. The terms of the debate were changed. Then the Soviet Union collapsed from our refusal to be its enabler anymore, and the debate was effectively won. But the Left did not humbly admit defeat. They were incapable of that. They were dead-enders, with no future, and no purpose for existence, outside of the sheer thirst for power which their increasingly threadbare ideology clothed.

Now the Left is near the end of its existence as a viable political force in the United States. As it loses control over its information chokepoints, its three Big Lies are becoming increasingly exposed. The Left is dying, and the Leftists know it. They are desperate. They are like a man on a cliff face hanging for dear life to four jutting branches that are about to come loose. He really doesn't care what happens to the branches. He only cares for himself. He can't save himself, but he has nothing to lose by trying.

Every one of these branches is at risk of falling into the abyss in the Left's grasp. These are the chokepoints - academic tenure, the mainstream news media, the Hollywood-based entertainment industry, and the Democratic party. It's all over for the Left. But what will happen to these handholds?

I have no idea what will happen to the tenure system. But it will get ever harder for these enthroned frauds to get the students to listen to them. There's no monopoly here. These kids have the Internet now. Tenured fossils will face a choice - either shut up, or endure the giggles and heckling of snot-nosed brats.

The mainstream media are fading anyway. This has little do with the Left, and a lot to do with technological changes. In the near future, we'll get most of our news from the Internet, and all our opinion and discussion from the blogs. Newspapers will cease to exist as such. Only their online presences will survive as vestiges. TV news will be replaced streaming multicast video. The closest thing to a traditional media chokepoint will be an ISP's gateway page. And Google will always be a click away. Talk radio as we know it will survive, until they invent a wireless broadband that works reliably in a moving car over long distances. Air America will continue to be lame.

Hollywood? They're already catering more to foreign audiences than to Americans. I hear Oliver Stone's Alexander is doing well overseas. But that's all right. We don't need them. Again, technology will democratise entertainment. Independent "cinema" will rule. We'll have to settle for lower production values, at least at first. But there will be more selection, and much better writing.

If Howard Dean becomes chairman of the Democratic party, it will be because the Left's grip on that branch is too strong to be broken. This branch will be torn loose. I believe our two party system will survive, but in altered form. The Democratic party as we have known it will cease to be a player. It may even cease to exist. But let's cross that bridge when we come to it.


Angelfire link (turn off Javascript to avoid popups)

Freenet: /SSK@jbf~W~x49RjZfyJwplqwurpNmg0PAgM/marlowe/20050106.html