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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

It’s the Culture, Stupid


  

Blogger David Fischler posted the following comment on the StandFirm blog in response the question "OPEN THREAD: To what factors and large-scale trends do you attribute the loss of the elections?”  I couldn’t have said it better.  

So in response to Sarah Hey’s open thread question about the election, I said this:  I think what this election demonstrates,  more than anything else, is that we are finally and at the worst possible time reaping what we have sown over the past fifty years as cultural institutions from the public schools to the media to colleges and universities to entertainment have fallen into the hands of liberals, leftists, Marxists, secularists, and anti-religious activists. While religious, political, and cultural conservatives have been out making money or withdrawing into evangelical enclaves or bemoaning the decline in cultural standards, those who wish to fundamentally transform our society have stormed the ramparts and taken over every significant culture-forming institution. They have drilled their agenda into American heads virtually unchallenged, and now that agenda dominates the growing demographic sectors of our society, especially the young and racial/ethnic minorities.

Right under our noses, much of the population has been transformed into people who would vote for someone so completely out of touch with traditional American values as Obama, in part because they no longer know what those values are, in part because they positively reject them. Given that, it’s really no wonder they voted for him.

So, to correct James Carville, it’s been the culture, stupid, all along, not the economy after all. As people who reject Marx, we really ought to have known that.

I really hate being right sometimes: Glamour magazine has labeled the woman behind the controversial Obama campaign video equating first-time voting to losing your virginity the magazine’s “Woman of the Year.”  Glamour labels Lena Dunham, who appears on camera in the infamous video with sexual overtones, the Voice of a Generation.  Lena Dunham is a Woman of the Year because…“She’s incredibly brave, curious, and engaged…and she happened to hit on something universal. I will be tuning in forevermore,” says actress and friend Claire Danes.  Glamour, of course, is aimed at the same young women that Dunham’s ad targeted.

3 comments:

  1. This election was about identity rather than issues. The democrats succeeded in framing the debate in terms of "who will give you more of what you want at someone elses expense". A political philosopher said long ago that democracies last only until the voters figure out they can vote themselves more benefits.

    The non-productive segments of society came out in large numbers and voted overwhelmingly for Obama who promised to give more to those who don't produce and to take more from those who do. This is an economically unsustainable clone of failed European socialism.

    Obama won blacks, hispanics, Asians and adolescents (18 - and some up to 30). He won the female vote. In other words, he won the self interest and emotional vote. Who didn't he win? Whites, particularly white males, and church going Christians. What's the difference here? The constituencies he won are the self interest constituencies and the ones he lost are the issues constituencies.

    Two billion dollars was spent on the presidential race. 80% of that ($1.6 billion) was spent in nine swing states. While several of the swing states were close, none deviated from early opinion polls so all that money really didn't produce anything. Pennsylvania was dominated by Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as it always is. Huge numbers of blacks went to the polls in Philly (more than were actually registered and eligible by many accounts) and voted 98% for Obama. No racism here. 55 of the 67 counties in PA favored Romney on issues, the rest have the population and favored Obama on self interest. Same story in Ohio. In Virginia, the huge increase in Federal workers in the DC area voted overwhelmingly for their self interest and shoved normally issues based Virginia into the self interest column. Florida is always wacky and always subject to massive voter fraud questions but, in the end, Miami-Dade and the Florida State counties carried the state for self interest.

    The appeal for the women's vote was nothing short of disgusting. I doubt that the "lose your virginity for Obama" ad really by itself did much but it, and others like it pushing "lady parts" garbage, played to the emotionalism of women and the latent feminist gene in many well past child bearing age.

    So, bottom line is that I disagree with the author and his thesis about issues. It wasn't about Obama's stance on issues at all but rather the delineation between selfish interest and issues.

    Unless and until educated white males and church going Christians come out to vote in larger numbers, nothing will change. I hope we still have a country to save in 2016.

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  2. One of the members of our church asked me for some comments on the election and this is what I wrote:

    Been thinking about you today in light of our conversations in the past.

    Dn. Joe reminded me of something I said long ago… “Pray that we get the leaders we need not the ones we deserve.” I fear and am fairly certain we got the latter. We (America) have told God we don’t want Him or need Him in our public affairs and we don’t want His laws to cramp our style and I believe He has responded by taking His hand off this nation… letting us go our own way… letting us have what we want (Romans 1). Thus, we are getting what we deserve.

    When it comes to elections, I have said many times that Americans vote their wallets. Logic would say, if that is the case, Romney should have had an easy landslide victory, but it didn’t happen. Some say women wanting free contraception and access to abortion along with Hispanics wanting “free” immigration put Obama over the top. Given the state of the economy, I find that hard to believe. It occurred to me this morning that Americans still voted their wallets in this election. The difference is that for almost half of the people in this nation their wallet is the gov’t.

    Alexis de Tocqueville said, “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”

    Sadly, I believe things are going to get much worse before they get better. We can choose, however, to face it in despair and anger, or in a stronger, more committed discipleship to the One who is still King. No vote can remove Him from power!!!!

    Stay strong… He will get us through this!!!!

    Fr. Larry

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