We’re old enough to remember when censorship was a bad thing.
At least that what leftists told us as they were working hard behind the scenes to take control of American culture. We didn’t always pay much attention when we were in school to disputes on various university boards of regents regarding professors with extreme views.
Unfortunately, neither did conservatives.
Whenever an instructor was called to account for communist sympathies or support of the enemy in a foreign war the outraged cry was the regents or school president or donors were infringing on academic freedom.
Most of the time the people who were supposed to be in charge backed off.
Chastened and embarrassed by editorial boards, columnists, and various limousine liberals.
And in that way the strong oak heart of American culture was felled by a buzzword.
Now that the left is totally in control of academia, there is no freedom.
Censorship is described as an asset to public safety.
Newt Gingrich wrote about just this topic last week. Our cultural collapse into coercive leftism "is the result of three generations of brainwashing."
He could have added it was unopposed brainwashing.
"The college boards — made up of supposedly sound community leaders — refused to fight. Public universities and colleges continued to hire vehement anti-American professors, the state legislatures and governors refused to fight. Alumni continued to give to schools, which were teaching their own children and grandchildren to despise them."
And now ignorant, brainwashed mobs with very high self-esteem are wandering the landscape destroying our cultural foundation.
Passive conservatives are reaping what the left has sown.
Gingrich quotes President Ronald Reagan’s farewell address in January of 1989.
A prophetic speech that fell on deaf, complacent conservative ears that had been weakened by exposure to libertarianism.
That’s the philosophy that posits the strange belief that a stable, limited, rule-of-law respecting government can be built on a foundation of people with the personal moral practices of Woodstock attendees.
Only it can’t, as you can see in the streets today.
President Reagan warned:
"But now, we're about to enter the '90s, and some things have changed. Younger parents aren't sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children.
"And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven't reinstitutionalized it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom— freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs [protection]."
And the people who claimed to be leaders, failed to protect freedom, while the left seized on their weakness.
Normal people are losing this major culture war.
We’re like the British troops in World War I who were described as "lions led by donkeys."
If we don’t find a lion to lead us soon, it may be too late.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)." Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.