Written by: Anonymous

The following post arises from a comment to my Terri Schiavo post below:

I get the impression that there are lots of people out there, including some readers of this blog, who basically (1) want their taxes lowered and (2) get a real uncomfortable feeling when crazy, "extremist" conservatives start getting exercised about boys "marrying" other boys, babies' skulls being crushed, and men executing their wives under color of law. And these people suck.

I'm talking, of course, about "fiscal conservatives but social liberals." And "Log Cabin Republicans." And "Republican Women for Choice." And -- hell -- "moderate Republicans" in general. Basically all bizarre political groupings animated by an extreme concern for the FICA column on bi-weekly paychecks and absolutelty no concern whatsoever for American culture and its impact on everything else, including the FICA column on bi-weekly paychecks. Again, let me be clear: if you fall in any of the categories just described, you suck.

Although it's increasingly difficult to notice (because history is no longer taught in schools, guys like Al Gore and John Kerry get major party presidential nominations, the Supreme Court cites foregin law approvingly, men get to kill their wives when they feel like it, and there are millions of criminals and terrorists streaming across our unguarded borders), our country is a product of what extremists like to refer to as "Western Civilization." Western Civilization is made up of a complex array of social institutions and what religious nuts like to refer to as "values," and it has been historically populated and animated by a majority population of what racists like to refer to as "Westerners." We "Westerners," with our "values" and institutions, have formed over hundreds of years what conservatives like to refer to as a "society." This "society" is the framework within which we all operate -- pursuing our individual dreams, voting for our representatives, engaging in economic activity, executing our wives, and the like.

This society, and the values and institutions upon which it was constructed over so long a period of time, is, in fact, critical to our ability to live on a day-to-day basis. It is critical because of its effect on the way we raise our kids, the way we deal socially with one another, the way we engage in politics, and the way we engage in economic activity. In a sense, the strength of Western society -- its ability to channel our individual passions, organize us, absorb serious social shocks -- is THE necessary element, the sina qua non, the baseline, for all else. To the extent they ever beceome controversial, the existence and substantive content of Western society and its varying institutions are the most critical political issue a Western country could ever discuss.

And yet the very existence and content of Western society HAVE become controversial, and in so many ways. For a couple of generations now, the Left has relentlessly attacked the institutions and values that play such a critical role in our civilization and that have evolved naturally over so many years of Western history -- the Christian churches, the classical universities, the Constitution, the institution of civil marriage, the sanctity of life . . . you name it. And for a couple of generations now, conservative "extremists" -- so defined by revolutionary Leftists posing as "moderates" in this Orwellian nightmare of a political climate in which we live -- have been fighting the good fight. Not the fight to convert everyone to Protestant Christianity, but the fight to maintain the role of religion in the public square, as the Founders intended. Not the fight to indoctrinate kids, but the fight to educate them about their history and the cultural achievements of their forebears. The fight to keep men from having legally-sanctioned chimp marriages. The fight to keep other men from executing their wives. The fight for the Constitution's true legal meaning. The battle lines have been drawn.

And yet standing on the sidelines are these "economic conservatives but social liberals," these misnamed "moderates," these people who suck. Well, guess what? You people need to wake up. Your freedom of contract, your low taxes, your commercial privileges -- these do not exist in a vacuum. They exist because you are fortunate enough to live in a society that chooses to recognize, sustain, and protect them. But if that society is under attack -- and it is -- then the day is not too far away when those freedoms and privileges are gone. Do you think the American Founders just woke up one day in 1776, decided it made rational sense to have a capitalist country where people get to vote, waved a wand, and thereby made it so? No. The Founders were animated by a deep belief in God, by a shared cultural heritage, and by -- gasp! -- a shared ethnic identity that nurtured their religious and cultural institutions, just as it also nurtured their economic interactions and institutions. For 200-plus years, you people have suckled joyfully yet unkowingly at the teat of those values and that heritage. Although you never noticed, all that you hold good and dear in your lives and about your country you owe to those values and to that heritage.

So those of us attempting to preserve those values and that heritage would be much obliged if you'd drop your utopian, ahistorical attitude that religion and shared social values and the like don't matter, and start standing up for the things that keep our society from descending into a despotic hell. You people seem to be at least somewhat reasonable -- you're not Leftist Commies after all -- how about making some slight effort, at least a verbal one, to stand up for the things that make your ability to make money and pay low taxes possible? How about recognizing the Leftist social and political revolution in America for the danger it is, rather than getting all worked up about some phantom risk that the Southern Baptists are going to seize power and tell you what to do? How about dropping the retarded yet popular view that "moderation" means coming down halfway on every issue between the people who want to destroy your society and the people who want to protect it?

In short, I'm asking that you stop sucking.