Monday, September 26, 2011

Tirade IV


 In American symbolism the wings of the eagle represent the two competing views of government: the right wing (hence the term right-wing) represents a laissez-faire, minimalist approach to government; the left wing a more controlling, more government-heavy view. (Skousen). For 200 years we’ve been able to find a balance between the two, but lately our eagle is getting yanked so hard to the left, the only thing that can be done to hold her upright is to pull extra hard the other way.


The Wings of the Eagle

A nation divided against itself cannot stand.  Abraham Lincoln

We’re frozen, you know.  We have chosen up sides, crossed to our respective corners, grabbed our rackets and stomped off to our own side of the net.  We can’t even start the contest because we’re not playing the same game; the  rules we are willing to play by are diametrically opposed.
·      The left “wing” thinks truth is that which is repeated often enough to stick in a fuzzy mind; the right expects facts and truth to be equivalent.
·      The right loves logic; the left loves emotion.
·      The left believes that their ends justify their means; the right believes that a good thing done in a wrong way is wrong.
·      The left sees man as perfect, and society as flawed; the right recognizes our human propensity for sin – both individual and collective.

To listen to our national dialogue today you’d hardly believe that the two wings are attached to the same bird, that we even live in the same country. 
·      The left comes from a place where having is key; the right lives where accomplishment rides point. 
·      The left is sure that nothing is sure; the right, that the most important things are absolute.
·      The left still lives where who’s rich and who’s poor is determined by the state; the right recalls the revolution that left all that behind in Europe. In America, who’s rich and who’s poor is determined by the grit, determination, and inventiveness of each individual.
·      The left sees a god of their own making, undemanding, uncertain, and malleable; the right sees the God that Is. 
·      In America/Left few show interest in either the immediate details or the long term generalities; America/Right likes to look human nature straight in the face and deal with the details; it likes to look to the big picture – the what-will-happen-if? the where-will-the-money-come-from?
·      Where the left wing lives “facts” are flexible, useful only when they support the left, Where the right resides, facts are facts and should be reported that way.
·      In Leftville economic ideals are grounded in envy.  The ideals of the right are grounded in the hope that we can all be prosperous.

Both sides claim patriotism, but the left loves a Constitution-less, equality-driven mega-state, where freedom means life without responsibility.

The right loves the America originally conceived by the founding fathers, an America where laws are few and simple, where our personal flaws are something we struggle to overcome, and where freedom is the result of responsibility.  The last 200 years have demonstrated that the latter formula allows for the greatest prosperity and successful pursuit of happiness the world has ever known.  The last 100 years have shown decisively that the left’s approach is, and always will be, a dismal, violent failure. 

I don’t think there are any longer any binding ligaments between those extremes.  Twenty years ago I could easily play along with the “agree to disagree” paradox, but I can’t anymore; the consequences for entertaining the wrong ideas are too dire and too immenent.

My prayer for this country is that God will help us heal our thinking – that He will open both sides to His truth, that the light will once again shine upon this nation.  What I have to remember is that healing is often as painful as the truth, and as expensive as a lifetime.   Let us all pray.




Skousen, Cleon.  The Five-Thousand Year Leap.  The National Center for Constitutional
            Studies. 2009.

3 comments:

  1. Dee, great post. But your Walk, Walk, Walk story is chilling. At your first mention of the year, I immediately thought of Starkweather. Reading this made me angry and Dad, angry at your teacher, but grateful that God was with you.

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  2. Thanks again for reading and responding. Yes - sometimes I'm angry at Dad about this, but I really don't think people thought realistically about those dangers then. I think somebody should do a doctoral dissertation on the whole serial killer thing -- before Starkweather, we never heard of them. What happened?

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  3. Dee, not to sound like Mike, but ah wow! Your Walk, walk, walk is rather scary. We are very happy that God has a plan for you. Someone has to be the EF Hutton for this group! LOL.

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