But there are other strange reversals too....
The First Amendment is now by some accounts a
Right-wing issue. This strangely has an air of truth to it as the Left is
becoming increasingly intolerant of free speech. The ACLU is practically in
state of civil war. That said, Right-wing appeals to free speech concerns are
disingenuous. They've always been the party of censorship. This is in part why
some of the older generation of Leftists are reeling at present by both the
Right's new narrative and legal strategy and the direction the Millennial
Generation is taking First Amendment jurisprudence.
The Right has for the moment attempted to
appropriate the argument and is using the First Amendment for their legal
crusades and activism. Again it's a tactic for the present, because if you peel
back or layer or two within the various frameworks of Right-wing philosophy,
the old censorship and basic hostility to Classical Liberalism isn't too hard
to find.
This type of 1960's revision-reversal is related
to attempts by figures like Glenn Beck to 'claim' the legacy of Martin Luther
King. An utterly bizarre and confounding distortion of history and ideology
such propaganda campaigns will only work on the ignorant masses, especially those
who have forgotten fairly recent history and have already been propagandised to
a considerable degree.
Large sectors of the Right wing now distrust the
primary military-intelligence agencies, the CIA, FBI etc... This too is quite
the reversal as during the Cold War it was the Right that always defended these
Establishment pillars while the Left harboured deep distrust of them.
Additionally the many scandals which were revealed in the 1970's painted these
agencies as dark, deceptive, criminal and by some standards treasonous. It was
the Right which continued to defend them and whitewash their deeds as
'necessary' to defend the nation and combat the existential communist threat.
Strangely the Democrats (who have shifted far to
the Right on foreign policy) are now the ones defending these Establishment
agencies while Trump's GOP is in a state of flux. There are older activists
that are sputtering right now as the Democrats champion the CIA, militarism and
US imperialism. Clearly these folks are not (or no longer) the political
descendants of Adlai Stevenson, Eugene McCarthy or George McGovern. Today's
Democrats are more like the GOP of Nixon, Ford and Rockefeller. Sanders, the
so-called Socialist who praises warmonger figures like McCain and American
foreign policy is really no further Left than someone like LBJ. Johnson of
course was despised by the Right during his day but he was also the great
villain to the activists of the Left.
That said there are many illusions about the
Democratic Party. In addition to giving the nation warmongers like Truman and
LBJ, both John F Kennedy and Robert Kennedy have rather mixed records when it
comes to militarism. In their cases a strong argument can be made that the
brothers changed during their careers. Both had supported Joseph McCarthy and
during the 1960 campaign JFK ran to the right of Nixon on foreign policy and
military matters.
JFK underwent a transformation during his final
year in office and RFK (while affected by this) did not really undergo a
significant shift until the last year or so of his life. It was then that he
began to turn against Vietnam in earnest and begin to seriously question the
nature of the American system.
In many ways the Democratic Party has long been
a party of Wall Street and the Pentagon and some have pointed out it's the
party in which activist movements go to die. It swallows them up and
regurgitates them into the mainstream. In many ways this is the tale of 1960's
activism and figures like the Clintons, Obama and Bernie Sanders. Labour in the
UK has functioned in a similar way. The Blairite factions represent just such
an example.
We live in a time of confusion and transition.
The average person has little in the way of historical memory and little
knowledge of history, geography, let alone a basic grasp of concepts touching
on law and government. It is in this environment (coupled with the insanity of
social media) that has given rise to populism, or rather it has allowed it to
return in earnest. Again, this has happened before and it's a signal of pending
danger and volatility. There are lessons that can be learned from past episodes
and yet one thing is almost certain.... the lessons will not be learned.
I expect more from Christians and the so-called
leaders of Conservative Protestantism. But alas, they too are afflicted by the
deceit of riches, avarice and dreams of power and the supposed 'good' they
could do if it were granted to them. As a consequence they destroy themselves,
they lay waste to the integrity and testimony of the Church and lead a great
many souls into the abyss.
Humanly speaking there are also consequences as
wars are generated and people die. In some cases the name of Christ is
tarnished and forever associated with some of these agendas and their dreams of
empire and 'victory'.
Many of the so-called stalwarts, many of the
leaders that are elevated by Christians and revered as wise, as teachers of
Christian 'worldview' and the like are in fact both deceived and deceivers. In
many ways they are the enemies that the Church needs to oppose.
Christians must return to Scripture and
establish a proper devotion to truth and the ideology that governs Christ's
Kingdom. Only then can we hope to re-engage history and the world around us
with a modicum of discernment. Such a quest will dash the dreams and
aspirations of many. It is a cross bearing and often lonely road and there are
many questions unanswered, or rather they will only find their answer in the
eschaton. It is a perilous path and one hated by the world as the road rejects
and bypasses all their cities and splendoured gates. And yet the path is
liberating for it is a path of truth.
See also: