The Insatiable Demands of the Radical Left

Most protest movements begin as an organized expression of a legitimate grievance -- some perceived societal injustice, perhaps in response to actual governmental or judicial tyranny. If the timing is right and the issues resonate, successful protest movements can flourish and quickly grow into full-fledged revolutions, and revolutions can often degenerate into bloody civil wars. Is America presently in the midst of such a potentially explosive scenario? Unfortunately, the signs appear to be more and more ominous. Since those traumatic events of September 11, 2001, this nation has been resolutely dividing itself into two increasingly hostile and irreconcilable camps. That reasonable 'middle ground', traditionally amenable to compromise, has been steadily shrinking until it has become all but hypothetical. It has been argued, not unconvincingly, that not since those anxious years in the mid-Nineteenth Century, prior to our perhaps inevitable but monstrously destructive Civil War, has this great country been so split asunder. To acknowledge success is to admit defeat. As history has repeatedly proven, once a nascent protest movement begins to succeed and achieve a certain level of public acceptance and validation, it can easily devolve into an entrenched political entity, virtually indistinguishable from any other entrenched political entity, with its own newly-acquired set of selfish goals and objectives. This new political entity no longer has one single clear cut societal agenda (i.e. the Cause); their efforts now become divided. One of their most important goals inevitably becomes self-perpetuation -- often by even more ruthless means than the original tyranny against which they successfully battled. At some point, this political survivalist mentality can, and usually does, completely subsume the lofty goals of the original movement. Thus a new -- and perhaps even more dangerous tyranny is born. A tyranny, like all tyrannies, whose primary mission is to sustain itself at all costs. But what happens if the primary goals of the original protest movement are actually realized? Does the movement then merely melt away and quietly re-assimilate itself back into that society which it has successfully transformed? Hardly. The movement's leaders have too much invested in the Cause to simply disband their troops and ride off into the sunset. Through the Cause these leaders have achieved power, and power seldom voluntarily walks off the stage. With their original goals accomplished and their real or theoretical enemies defeated, what possible purpose can be served by their continuing existence? They have now essentially become Rebels Without a Cause. How, then, can they perpetuate their own legitimacy? The answer is twofold: One, create new enemies -- or somehow skillfully resurrect the old ones. Virtually every successful revolutionary movement which has morphed into a tyranny has sustained itself in this manner. The once fanatical revolutionaries are now battling counter-revolutionaries. Their entire raison d'etre has now become to prosecute this never-ending battle to purportedly protect the achievements of the Glorious Revolution from its innumerable reactionary enemies. This is an unalterable prerequisite to their survival; there can be no successful tyranny without enemies. Thus the Revolution becomes a perpetual 'work-in-progress', a never-ending war. Now, ironically, to admit success would be to admit defeat. They must continuously convince their followers, or subjects, that they are constantly under siege from these relentless counter revolutionary forces. The leaders are now to be viewed as society's protectors, protecting the helpless vulnerables from the predatory Enemy. And if perchance there is no viable predatory enemy, then they must create one. Two, When the original goals have been met, move the line forward and create new goals. To all but the most blind and biased leftists, the surprising victories of the Feminist and Civil Rights movements of the Sixties have been nothing short of astonishing. How anyone in today's America can watch television, go to a movie, listen to popular music, or read a national newspaper and come away feeling that either blacks or women are underrepresented is incomprehensible. Today there are women and blacks -- and, yes, lesbians and homosexuals and transgenders -- in every conceivable facet of American life -- in the military, the media, the business world, sports, entertainment, politics. Only those deeply invested in a contrarian agenda would be cynical enough to deny it.

The preservation of the Great Affront And so it goes. No matter how absurd or illogical the Great Affront must be preserved. The movement must go forward. What originally may have been a somewhat modest call for equal rights has now become something else, something much more grand. The irreconcilable victims now not only want a seat at the table, they demand a seat at the head of the table. Gays and Lesbians are no longer just willing to be accepted, they now must be honored. Blacks are no longer content with equal opportunities, they are now demanding special privileges and special recognition (re: Black History Month) -- and with this, of course, goes that never-ending promise of reparations. The invasion of the OBies One cannot watch television today without these all-too-obvious liberal messages being relentlessly stuffed down our throats. As an example of this incessant encroachment into our private space consider this recent Glade commercial: Mrs. All-American Housewife is having some girlfriends over for tea or lunch or whatever. There's a knock at the door, and here come her friends. Friend Number One, a cheery well-dressed middle-aged white woman comes through the door, immediately followed by another equally well-dressed and cheery middle-aged white woman. Now -- and here's the rub -- how much do you want to bet that the next woman who comes through that door is black? And of course, she is. In almost every scene in almost every program or commercial we are now being treated to these carefully placed Obligatory Blacks. And of course it's not just the Blacks. No matter how masculine the subject the chances are that the narrator will now be a woman. And I am just sexist enough to admit that listening to a woman narrating a brutal war documentary seems to me both absurd and incongruous. How stupid do they think we are? Do they honestly think that we just don't notice this steady drumbeat of liberal propaganda? Did I just recently read that some activist judge somewhere actually gave precedence to a gay couple in an adoption dispute? Unfortunately, these insatiable and relentless protest movements are apparently here to stay. Like governmental bureaucracies, once born they seldom die of natural causes. Indeed, one could say that with the results of our recent elections the left has already won: the protest movements of the sixties have become the government.

Note: Portions of this article have been quoted from a previous Radarsite essay Elect Obama, Destroy America.