Liberal Fascism, Chapter 6 Review

A few weeks ago I mentioned that Red State was running a new book club. There are weekly discussions on each of the assigned chapters. The reading material so far has included A Message to Garcia and Liberal Fascism. I'm finding it pretty interesting, and I thought I would mention it on here one more time. The assignments each week have been about one chapter (around 40 pages). Participants are suppose to write a quick post about what they read for the group to discuss. My post for this week is below. On the other site, it's assumed you have read the chapter, but I think this post brings out some interesting points without a full reading of the chapter.

I hope you take a moment to check out Red State and the book club. Full details of their project can be found here. Let me know if I should explain anything from below.

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Liberal Fascism Chapter 6 and the Second Coming

I have thought for a while now that the left’s obsession with “man made global warming” looked much more like a religion than any sort of scientific debate. After reading Chapter 6 of Liberal Fascism, I understand that it’s not global warming that is the religion, it is the entire spectrum of hot button issues the left defends.

Mr. Goldberg argues throughout the chapter that there was a religious faith in the 60’s by radicals and liberals in the God state. Only through the state could man’s greatest potential be realized. This faith included their savior, JFK. I am young enough that I only know what I was taught in school about JFK. What I learned there was that he was assassinated in Dallas, and that the nation wept. In school I was never taught any of things he may have done as President to become a great figure. Just that he was, and that it was a national tragedy that he died.

…after Kennedy’s murder, Kennedy the nationalistic Third Wayer was replaced by Kennedy the fighting liberal. The JFK Camelot eclipsed the one who tried to assassinate Patrice Lumumba and Fidel Castro.

Woodrow Wilson’s grandson Dean Francis Sayre delivered a sermon at the Washington National Cathedral in homage to the fallen leader. “We have been present at a new crucifixion,” he told the assembled dignitaries. “All of us,” he explained, “have had a part in the slaying of our President. It was the good people who crucified our Lord, and not merely those who acted as executioners.”

Mr. Goldberg spends a significant amount of time comparing Kennedy’s actual presidency with what it is described as today by the left. Anytime people look back on history, there can be a desire to white wash events. The left seems to have forgotten the white wash and gone with a total re-write. But what struck me the most is the number of descriptions of Kennedy by the left that could equally be applied to President Obama by the liberal media today. For example:

In 1964 James Reston summarized the newly minted liberal nostalgia for America’s Greek god of a president. “He was a story-book President, younger and more handsome than mortal politicians, remote even from his friends, graceful, almost elegant with poetry on his tongue and a radiant young woman at his side.”

Or later on…

Recall the key themes to Mussolini’s cult of personality: youth, action, expertise, vigor, glamor, military service. Mussolini cast himself as the leader of a youth movement, a new generation empowered through intellect and expertise to break with the old categories of left and right. JFK’s stirring inaugural spoke of “a new generation of Americans –born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage.”

Both of these passages were describing JFK’s legacy, but they could equally describe President Obama’s current cult-like following. How many times have we heard about President Obama’s story book campaign? A political “outsider” who came out of nowhere. And keeping Michelle Obama in the back of your mind, do you think the press wouldn’t use the first passage to describe Obama today? Surely we can all agree that during the election, the “cult of personality” was in full effect on President Obama. We were told that the youth of the nation would carry Senator Obama to victory. And even though the youth turned out in very comparable numbers to previous elections, I have heard news stories just this week discussing what the youth will do in 2010 after getting their President elected last year.

So I ask, “Is President Obama the second coming in the religion of the left?” His polling numbers are continuing to drop. However, people seem to go out of their way to say, “I disagree with the President’s policies, and not with him.” When Rush Limbaugh said he hoped the President failed, the left went into a fury. Many of the bad decisions of this administration have been placed at the feet of Obama’s staff, and not the President. Have we really forgotten who runs the office, and who is ultimately responsible for their decisions? Or being the second coming of the liberal God-state, is it simply forbidden to dispute President Obama?