The good intentions of bad people
A debate has been raging in my email forum about America’s true enemy: Is it Islamism abroad or Obamism at home? In some of the emails exchanged, people have drawn very bright lines, arguing that we are wasting energy that should be focused on fighting the “real” enemy (Islamism or Obamism), because we’re spending all our time focused on fighting an illusory enemy (that would be Islamism or Obamism). In other words, once again, internal schisms amongst conservatives dilute our fire power because we’re aiming at different targets (and, often, those targets are each other).
Two of the email exchanges interested me a great deal. As part of an email acknowledging (correctly) that it is possible for a nation to have more than one enemy, one of my email friends said “The problem that many are having dealing with Obama is their assumption that at some level he wants to make something good happen in the United States.”
I agree with my friend completely that what Obama is doing is bad for the U.S. Where I part ways with my friend is his assumption that Obama, and his ugly crew of Wrights, Ayers and others, actually want something bad to happen in the U.S. In that regard my friend, who probably did not grow up with a communist dad, might be missing something.
You see, Obama thinks it would be good for the U.S. to be cleansed of capitalism, which is the root of all evil. Obama thinks it would be good for the U.S. if the Great Purification — that is socialism — was imposed on our greed, our imperialism, our Gaia abuse, etc. In his own mind, he is not a traitor, nor is he someone who hates the U.S. He is a reformer, who loves the U.S. enough to force upon it a painful purging process. Sometimes, he would say, you’ve got to be cruel to be kind.
I’m not just spouting piffle here. As I mentioned above, my father was still deeply imbued with communist thought in the early 1970s. (He redeemed himself politically by voting for Reagan in 1980.) He would have agreed with every single thing I said in the above paragraph. America is a great country, slowly being destroyed by capitalistic greed. Communism is the answer. Yes, communism hasn’t worked in any other place it’s been tried (Russia, China, Cuba, etc.), but that’s just because they’ve been doing it wrong. Do it right, and you’ll have a paradise on earth.
The Taliban and Al Qaeda, and their ilk, would also say that what they’re doing is good for the U.S. We’re decadent, greedy, domineering, corrupt and foul minded because we don’t practice Sharia law. We need to be cleansed of everything that isn’t Islamic. Islam is the answer. (And here’s a video proving precisely that mindset.) Yes, Islamism hasn’t worked in any other place it’s been tried (Saudi Arabia with its corrupt ruling class, Afghanistan with its warloads and dying women, etc.), but that’s just because they’ve been doing it wrong. Once the crescent flag flies over the White House and every capital nation on earth, you’ll have a paradise on earth.
As conservatives, we have to recognize that things will go well in the U.S. only if we can convince people to abandon a foolish moral relativism that holds that, because the Communists and Islamists are well intentioned (they want what’s best for us), they therefore cannot actually be enemies. After all, an enemy want to destroy you, not to improve you.
Abandoning this a moral relativism that focuses on good intentions and ignores bad ideas would force Americans to admit that Communism is not good for the U.S., even if some communists are well intentioned and only want to achieve a paradise on earth. Likewise, Islamism is not good for the U.S., even if some Islamists are well intentioned and only want to achieve a paradise on earth.
There is no paradise on earth and there never will be. There is a “pretty damn good” on earth — and that is the American way of life. Further, the only way to maintain that American way of life is to fight actively against “well-intentioned” people, both at home and abroad.
As for the “at home and abroad” part, I’d like to quote at length (with permission) from an email Steven Schippert sent regarding the dual threat we currently face. (Steve blogs at ThreatsWatch.org and The Tank.)
I’ve been questioning in my mind for at least a full year whether or not I have been doing the right thing with the right focus for the better part of the past decade. Driven by an overriding concern for security and defense against threats external (something which starts, not concludes, with public awareness to drive the right fight(s)) I have come to wonder precisely what it is that we defend.
Because it is what we defend which drives us and motivates us to sacrifice in order to defend it. It is not, as popularly sold by an ignorant media, poverty or homelessness or the absence of options or even “just wanted college tuition money” that drives military recruiting. It is most often a deep and often not quite yet consciously acknowledged (at 18-22 yrs old) sense of obligation to preserve and defend liberty.
Someone wrote: “If Obama and his minions are not the enemies of America, then who is?”
That question sets up responses that are more narrow than reality.
And [one of our friends] retorts, on cue: “Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, Mullah Krekkar, etc.”
Both are correct. But both have to exist together. It’s not one or the other. Nor are they the same.
We can fight both enemies at the same time – the external states and groups seeking our physical destruction and the internal ideology/ideologues who seek to subvert, destroy and rebuild the civil society and the American system of liberties under a new order.
But we have to acknowledge both and not argue over which is the enemy.
Most of those who acknowledge the internal subversive counter-revolutionary enemy throw in with “birthers.” Then they leap off the ledge. Birthers, while having valid points about proving quilification (until they go all “Kenya”), are fatally flawed in the long run, in the longer battle. They seek a convenient easy remedy to a man, and one which would not provide any gains against the Leftist ideology and ideologues which seek to gain just enough public support (via Congressional vote results) to tear down the Capitalist engine and rebuild the economy and the society under a socialist government speckled hen. It is a spoonful of sugar even if successful. And chasing it blunts the edge of the sword in the greater domestic battles. (Pardon the violent metaphor.)
I’ll spare all from further diatribe. Will conclude that both enemies are real and there are realistic and productive ways to combat both. And there are counterproductive ways to combat both. And the fact of the matter is, if we lose to either, it’s over. For good. There are no takebacks or new elections after.
I have no doubt that all in here are extraordinary Patriots, and am sincerely honored to be associated with each and all.
Let’s step back and acknowledge that there are two fights to be had. One to preserve the American Experiment and Civil Society in the face of external threats seeking to destroy it. And one to preserve the American Experiment and Civil Society in the face of internal threats, which seek to subvert it, bring rise to revolutionary change, and rebuild it in a manner wholly foreign to our Constitution. Both are fundamentally critical.
And both have smart & stupid, productive & counterproductive ways of prosecuting. We need to choose wisely. There will be no do-overs if we fail to act or act imprudently. And do NOT mistake this as a call for ‘moderation.’ Hardly. The meek shall inherit the Earth. But they have to die first. I much prefer, “History is written by the victor.”
I am still in the process of re-evaluating just where I belong and where I can most productively and passionately contribute. It’s not quite as cut and dry as I had thought a handful of years ago. (If you’ve read ThreatsWatch over the years, you’ll have noticed a drop-off in the past year or more. Have been embattled in my own mind what and where to contribute, how and to what ends. Unresolved.)
Bottom line: Good intentions are not enough. It’s the cause for which we fight, the values in which we believe, that matter. America is currently being bombarded by bad causes and bad values both internally and externally. Worse, the internal bombardment is weakening our ability to protect ourselves against the external war being waged against us. The two badnesses have become entwined and those of us who believe America is pretty damn good must fight against both.
We must heed Lincoln’s words that “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” At a micro level, we conservatives are that house. At a macro level, we Americans are that house. Unless we find the will to protect the American way of life both at home and abroad, we are done for.
