'Dad, Rush Limbaugh and Me'

An interesting op-ed from Madeline Janis, at the Los Angeles Times.

Read it all. She admits to being a stereotypical leftist and she harangued her father for listening to Rush Limbaugh. (One of her biggest peeves is that he received government benefits --- the GI Bill, Social Security and Medicare --- but was still conservative, as if conservatives don't support any government role in social welfare, health and education, a common leftist fallacy.) But the conclusion caught my eye:

I suspect that our family dynamic wasn't unique, and that across America fathers and daughters and sons and mothers have learned to accommodate political differences and respect one another across the gulf. Our love for each other and our family helped my father and me transcend the enormous ideological divide between us.

It makes me wonder if there isn't something in these experiences that might help us, as Americans, transcend our political differences. Even if we don't have the same closeness as a family, Americans of all political stripes do share a love of country. And that could be a start, at least, at reaching across the gulf of ideology to work cooperatively and respectfully to solve the challenges facing the nation.

And that's another leftist fallacy, which ends up being a pernicious leftist lie, that "Americans of all political stripes share a love of country."

Leftists do not actually love this country. The left --- and that includes this presidential administration and the congressional Democrat Party --- are Democrat-Socialists marinated in class warfare rhetoric and Marxist welfare redistributionism. They don't love this country. They love what they think this country could be if they were able to fully impose their socialist program on Americans without opposition.

And that's the basis of our political differences, which are irreconcilable. That some people agree to go along to get along is a testament to our national attributes of decency and pragmatism. But America as a nation will continue to stagnate as long as people remain ignorant to the true nature of leftism. The next two elections are crucial in this regard. And the GOP needs to have candidates who aren't afraid to call it like it is, people like Michele Bachmann and Allen West. And when more people like this win office and implement basic policies of decency, probity, and prudence, we'll start to turn things around.

In any case, more at the letters to the editor, "More on 'Dad, Rush Limbaugh and Me'."