THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, U.S.A.
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume V, Issue # 133, May 9, 2003
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
LEFTIST DISSENT, FREE SPEECH, & PATRIOTISM:
THE DELUSIONS OF THE POLITICAL LEFT
By Paul Walfield
It used to be, if you weren't part of the solution, you were considered part of the prob- lem. Nowadays though, members the political Left consider themselves "patriots" and "true Americans." They believe that dissent is, in and of itself, patriotic. The Leftists believe that their freedom of speech not only applies to the government not interfering (as provided in the U.S. Constitution), but their right also extends to private individuals not interfering in what they have to say. It also gives them the right not to be criticized for what they say.
Generally speaking, patriotism can be equated to love of country. The problem for the Leftists is that it is not the country that they love. It is their way of life that they love, and the rights they perceive include their right to maintain that way of life. More to the point, their greatest delusion is their belief that all that they have, all of their rights, perceived or actual, their way of life, even to including their own ambitions, are under threat by no one but the American government.
The delusions of the political Left, the games Leftists play, are nothing more than the wants and needs of folks who live in ivory towers. Of course, there are those with ul- terior motives who do, in fact, hate America and wish her ill. However, the rest of the Leftists, the vast majority of them, are simply unwilling to accept that what they have is not permanent and what they want is not "rightfully" within their grasp. To obtain what they want, all they have to do, so they think, is "want it more than anyone else." This is a motivational seminar taken to its extreme.
On April 21, 2003, the Washington Post reported that the town of Arcata, California had passed an ordinance that made it illegal for the City Council to voluntarily comply with the Patriot Act. The town decided that the federal law, which was overwhelmingly passed by Congress in the wake of the September 11th. attacks, was too great an infringement to let stand.
David Meserve, the City Council member who, along with the Arcata city attorney, city manager and police chief, drafted the ordinance, said, "I call this a nonviolent, preemp- tive attack." Mr. Meserve, who is in his fifties and sports a ponytail, believes that the "The federal government has gone stark, raving mad." Apparently, the Feds decided to fight back against terrorism by enacting laws that made it more difficult for terrorists to attack us and easier for the Feds to catch the bad guys. That was just too much for Mr. Meserve and the town of Arcata, California.
It is simply way too unreasonable for the people in Washington, D.C., who have sworn on the Bible to uphold the U.S. Constitution and protect America's citizens, to actually do something to that effect. Enacting laws that help track down murderous terrorists, but which might inconvenience the folks in Acata, is an infringement that cannot be allowed.
Imagine the nerve of the federal government allowing court ordered wiretaps to enable its law enforcement and homeland security agencies to follow and keep under surveil- lance targeted terrorists, listening to their conversations and closely watching their ac- tivities. How awful. Even worse, imagine the horrors the folks in Arcata must have felt when they learned that, after September 11th., the Feds figured out that terrorists used our libraries to gather information and use the internet for communication and research. But it was the last straw for the socalled "patriots" in Arcata to learn that the Feds now possessed the right to find out what suspected terrorists might be using at the local li- brary in Arcata. The horrors did not end there, though.
The Patriot Act went even further. It made it possible for the Feds to obtain identifying information about foreign students who attended American schools. The shame of it all. It is true that terrorists who murdered thousands of Americans had overstayed their student visas and the new law would help keep track of these folks, but it was the last straw, the Arcata City Council had to act. While the Feds were making laws to stop ter- rorism and terrorists, Acata needed to make a law to stop the American government.
For the Arcata City Council, stopping America's law enforcement officials from protect- ing Americans from terrorists, who would without hesitation turn Arcata to a cinder, is an act of patriotism. For Arcata, being in a war with murderous cutthroats should not be an inconvenience for the citizens of the California town. The Arcatans don't even need to know that the federal law they just made a local law against has a sunset clause causing it to expire on its own accord.
The thousands of Americans who were slaughtered, the countless more who might be, need not be considered. The Arcatans see who the real villain is, and it isn't the terror- ists.
On the one hand, it is an achievement for America to have instilled in some of its more simple-minded folks that America is invincible. On the other hand, it isn't.
More on Liberals, Statists, Socialists, & Other Leftists
Paul Walfield is a freelance writer and member of the State Bar of California, with an undergraduate degree in Psychology
and post-graduate study in behavioral and analytical psychology. He resided for a number of years in the small town of
Houlton, Maine, and is now a California attorney. His articles appear in numerous periodicals and on numerous websites. He
has been the featured guest on KTSA News Talk Radio. CONTACT INFORMATION: Email:
paul.walfield@cox.net
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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