1/24/2017 -
Dennis Prager Townhall.com
It is time for our society to acknowledge a sad truth: America is
currently fighting its second Civil War.
In fact, with the obvious and enormous exception of attitudes
toward slavery, Americans are more divided morally, ideologically and
politically today than they were during the Civil War. For that reason, just as
the Great War came to be known as World War I once there was World War II, the
Civil War will become known as the First Civil War when more Americans come to
regard the current battle as the Second Civil War.
This Second Civil War, fortunately, differs in another critically
important way: It has thus far been largely nonviolent. But given increasing
left-wing violence, such as riots, the taking over of college presidents'
offices and the illegal occupation of state capitols, nonviolence is not
guaranteed to be a permanent characteristic of the Second Civil War.
There are those on both the left and right who call for American
unity. But these calls are either naive or disingenuous. Unity was possible
between the right and liberals, but not between the right and the left.
Liberalism -- which was anti-left, pro-American and deeply
committed to the Judeo-Christian foundations of America; and which regarded the
melting pot as the American ideal, fought for free speech for its opponents,
regarded Western civilization as the greatest moral and artistic human
achievement and viewed the celebration of racial identity as racism -- is now
affirmed almost exclusively on the right and among a handful of people who
don't call themselves conservative.
The left, however, is opposed to every one of those core principles
of liberalism.
Like the left in every other country, the left in America
essentially sees America as a racist, xenophobic, colonialist, imperialist,
warmongering, money-worshipping, moronically religious nation.
Just as in Western Europe, the left in America seeks to erase
America's Judeo-Christian foundations. The melting pot is regarded as nothing
more than an anti-black, anti-Muslim, anti-Hispanic meme. The left suppresses
free speech wherever possible for those who oppose it, labeling all non-left
speech "hate speech." To cite only one example, if you think
Shakespeare is the greatest playwright or Bach is the greatest composer, you
are a proponent of dead white European males and therefore racist.
Without any important value held in common, how can there be unity
between left and non-left? Obviously, there cannot.
There will be unity only when the left vanquishes the right or the
right vanquishes the left. Using the First Civil War analogy, American unity
was achieved only after the South was vanquished and slavery was abolished.
How are those of us who oppose left-wing nihilism -- there is no
other word for an ideology that holds Western civilization and America's core
values in contempt -- supposed to unite with "educators" who instruct
elementary school teachers to cease calling their students "boys" and
"girls" because that implies gender identity? With English
departments that don't require reading Shakespeare in order to receive a degree
in English? With those who regard virtually every war America has fought as
imperialist and immoral? With those who regard the free market as a form of
oppression? With those who want the state to control as much of American life
as possible? With those who repeatedly tell America and its black minority that
the greatest problems afflicting black Americans are caused by white racism,
"white privilege" and "systemic racism"? With those who
think that the nuclear family ideal is inherently misogynistic and homophobic?
With those who hold that Israel is the villain in the Middle East? With those
who claim that the term "Islamic terrorist" is an expression of
religious bigotry?
The third significant difference between the First and Second
Civil Wars is that in the Second Civil war, one side has been doing nearly all
the fighting. That is how it has been able to take over schools -- from
elementary schools, to high schools, to universities -- and indoctrinate
America's young people; how it has taken over nearly all the news media; and
how it has taken over entertainment media.
The conservative side has lost on every one of these fronts
because it has rarely fought back with anything near the ferocity with which
the left fights. Name a Republican politician who has run against the left as
opposed to running solely against his or her Democratic opponent. And nearly
all American conservatives, people who are proud of America and affirm its
basic tenets, readily send their children to schools that indoctrinate their
children against everything the parents hold precious. A mere handful protest
when their child's teacher ceases calling their son a boy or their daughter a
girl, or makes "slave owner" the defining characteristic of the
Founding Fathers.
With the defeat of the left in the last
presidential election, the defeat of the left in two-thirds of the
gubernatorial elections and the defeat of the left in a majority of House and
Senate elections, this is likely the last chance liberals, conservatives and
the right have to defeat the American left. But it will not happen until these
groups understand that we are fighting for the survival of America no less than
the Union troops were in the First Civil War.
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