Frequent commenter “Joe” calls our attention to Patterico’s dig at Jeff Goldstein (and unnamed others) in which the prosecutor endeavors to play the Instapundit card:
Now that Glenn has said the same thing the “pragmatic” conservatives are saying, will the blogospheric demagogues who seek out Mark Levin’s favor put Glenn Reynolds on the list of “pragmatic” conservatives whom they bash on a regular basis? I boldly predict they will not. They need his traffic. So, even if he’s saying the exact same thing as I am, they won’t bash Instapundit. The demagogic bloggers on the right are happy to be pure when it comes to the fate of the country. But when it comes to their own self-interest, I suspect they will be a little more . . . pragmatic.
This is absurd. Professor Reynolds did not say “the same thing the ‘pragmatic’ conservatives are saying.” Professor Reynolds has been an out-front supporter of the Tea Party movement from Day One — which is certainly not what any soi-dissant “pragmatic” conservatives have ever said, or are saying now, or are ever likely to say in the future.
The Sanity Inspector captures an excellent thought regarding sectarian relations in the United States, emphasis mine:
Something is coalescing, taking root, something which may have repercussions centuries on down the road.
Americans are a kind, forbearing, humble, welcoming people, lefties’ incessant accusations otherwise notwithstanding. I have never had a negative personal experience with a Muslim and, SFAIK (anonymous internet flammage aside) no Muslim has ever had one with me. I suspect that that is true of most everyone reading this, left or right. In fact, I sometimes have occasion to help Muslims who are new to the area, or to America altogether. They just want to run their convenience stores, parking garages, and halal meat shops, and get on in life, same as everyone else.
And yet the Islamic terrorists, well-trained foreign agent or Sudden Jihad Syndrome flipout, are hiding among them, not us. And the alleged moderate Muslims who run interference for them are quick to scold us for noticing, as are the progressives who tend to make mascots of civilization’s enemies. And every snowflake in an avalanche can plead “who, me?”.
On the ground, under the news radar, most people get along fine much of the time, even in the world’s hot spots. Muslims will even visit Palestinian churches to receive The Virgin’s blessing, I’ve heard. And yet “My biking buddy is a Muslim, therefore Islam is a religion of peace” is as idiotically simplistic a statement as “I get along fine with all the black people at work, therefore there is no more racism in America.” Only difference is that the stakes are far higher with the former delusion.
The people who roll their eyes at the commotion over Park51 do not understand or appreciate the power of symbols–intended or unintended. They do not understand the power of memory, of grievances unassuaged, and how they can be passed along year to year, generation to generation, to unpredictably multiplying effect.
I think we do have an example of such in US History, starting with the 3/5 Compromise in the Constitution, running through the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Raaaaacism Industrial Complex, and, hopefully, more or less concluding at the Restoring Honor event.
We have to differentiate between forgiving those that undertake evil, to be free of bondage to the past, while retaining a dispassionate recollection of the events, to protect the future from repeats.
For radical Islam, one doesn’t see much hope outside of moderate Imams giving the radical nutjobs the Full Alinsky treatment of outing, personalizing, and ridiculing the notion that explosive garments and landscaping garner nothing in Eternity. How can any sane religion advocate mass murder as an active choice? *cough* Abortion *cough*, ye Christians *cough*.
Beside slavery, there is the more general issue of the Civil War. But the “South will rise again” meme is notional at best. Simply put, the US has no significant cultural memory in which to store resentment. Now, if our government were to remain Full Quisling with respect to radical Islam, things could change, and the gloomy futures come to pass.
However, I predict that in decades out that the leveling power of the Internet is going to dampen the power of radical Islam. If you read Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the current situation is built on enslaving the female half of the population in the Middle East. I submit that Stein’s Law applies. Applying it will take resolve, though. Which is why we must eject the Quislings in two months, and continue to reject Quislings when they run for office.
I feel ashamed to ask, but any donations you can make at this time would really really help my family out. And would of course replace any kind of July fundraiser.
Pro-capitalist bloggers should never be “ashamed to ask.” It’s fee-for-service and running a site as popular as Jeff’s is a tremendous service. Asking readers to support the site, especially at a time of personal crisis, is nothing to be ashamed of.
As a layman, I have little business wading into the intricacies of constitutional law
As a taxpayer, and therefore a member of We The People, you have every right to wade in. All non-sheep must wade in. I suppose you can be a sheep, if you want. “the intricacies of constitutional law,” while accurate, is also indicative of failure. Otherwise, the intricacy piles up, passes the Byzantine horizon, and is crushed under the weight of Orson Welles:
Furthermore, you don’t want your military officers to think themselves unqualified to wade into Constitutional questions. While I have no doubt that the current POTUS will uphold his oath fully and in all particulars, there are worrisome precedents being laid, at a medium pace. Who knows when the country could elect the American equivalent of Caligula?
When you attend Tea Parties, I think you note a healthy military presence. I can’t say that it exceeds the normal society/military ratio, but I’ll venture that those who’ve sworn to ‘support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic’ are deeply curious about this Progressivism that seems to have eaten much of the political vitality of the country.
It is very deeply offensive to have spent several years in uniform calmly defending the First Amendment rights of people to beclown themselves in all manner of ways, and then have spurious charges of raaaaacism thrown at me, yes me (!) by a despicable media. I was at the event, and can vouch for the spirited and friendly outpouring of political expression.
The Constitution (as amended) is something I hold several notches below the Bible itself in importance. Sure, I argue for a proper striking of the portions that have proven bad ideas, like the 16th and 17th Amendments, but don’t expect that to occur other than through Article 5.
The “intricacies” that have cropped up in Constitutional law, like dandelions in the lawn, need to be minimized. Complexity only helps the gatekeepers, not We The People. Complexities often represent a slow-motion hijacking of liberty by a pack of sophists. Goldstein concludes:
At this point, the best thing to do as a society looking to reground itself would be to hold another Constitutional convention. But I just don’t see that happening, what with all the cool HD channels that people now get as part of their basic cable or satellite packages — and what with all the “free” stuff we’re now asking our children and grandchilden to pay for…
Just as our false Moses is marching us from the Promised land to the Progressive Egypt, where everyone has a job on a BFD public works project awaiting them, a bottom-up distributed collection of Mosesses (?) can eventually make an Article 5 convention possible. We have to demand it.
The Progressive project has broken the country in a century. By the power of the Internet, I think we can un-break the country more quickly. But it will require much more ownership by We The People. The fact that you haven’t had 97 miles of sunshine blown up the fundament means that, rather than fannying about, you may add common sense to the discussion.
That progressivism…keeps failing as it runs into the realities of the market…seems never to trouble those like Surber; in fact, their idea of intellectualism, inasmuch as it brackets actual data in favor of privileging political and social desire, is not really intellectualism at all. Instead, it’s a rather wordy masturbation fantasy.
