Leftist Tyranny

The Left’s Misplaced Concern

May 22, 2012May 22, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

by Dennis Prager –
You cannot understand the left if you do not understand that Leftism is a religion. It is not God-based (some Left-wing Christians’ and Jews’ claims notwithstanding), but otherwise it has every characteristic of a religion. The most blatant of those characteristics is dogma. People who believe in Leftism have as many dogmas as the most fundamentalist Christian.

One of them is material equality as the preeminent moral goal. Another is the villainy of corporations. The bigger the corporation, the greater the villainy. Thus, instead of the devil, the left has Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Big Oil, the “military-industrial complex,” and the like. Meanwhile, Big Labor, Big Trial Lawyers, and, of course, Big Government are leftwing angels.

And why is that? Why, to be specific, does the left fear big corporations but not big government? The answer is dogma — a belief system that transcends reason. No rational person can deny that big governments have caused almost all the great evils of the last century, arguably the bloodiest in history. [Read more…]

Progressing toward Moral Darkness

May 19, 2012May 22, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

Communism and Progressivism Moral Darkness by Gary Horne –
A fashionable name for the left these days is “progressive.” The use of this word hints that the progressive has already passed the rest of us and is moving on to some place where the normal rules of reality don’t apply. Is it the Garden of Eden? Atlantis? Oz?

What will life be like in this destination? Will the moral standards be compatible with the society we want? How do progressive values compare with the traditional American ethical standards from the founding of the United States and from the major religions?

From the Founding:
The moral underpinnings of the United States of America were beautifully and concisely expressed in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

[Read more…]

Keynesianism and the Collectivist Dream

May 16, 2012May 18, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

Democrat Communist Marxist no difference by William Sullivan –
It’s campaign season, and as usual, Democrats are employing their class struggle rhetoric to position a redistributive government agenda as the only way Americans can be saved from themselves and the greedy capitalists who prey upon them.

Accustomed though we may be, this might seem an odd campaign strategy in light of recent polls showing widespread distrust of, and even contempt for, the federal government. But they have no choice but to keep their talking points emotional rather than substantive, you see. The core economic model of the American left is Keynesianism, which is less a viable economic path than it is an unrealistic pipe dream that stirs the collectivist’s blood, much like the notions of world peace and Utopia.

Keynesianism is a model based upon how collectivists think the economy should operate, rather than how it actually operates. As Ron Ross puts it, “Keynesianism is definitely not an evidence-based model of how the economy works. [Read more…]

Same-Sex Marriage: How Did We Get Here? And Where Are We Going?

May 15, 2012May 18, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

by Archpriest Lev Semenov –
President Barack Obama recently affirmed his personal support for the legalization of same-sex marriage. For a perspective from Russia on this momentous development, we offer the following commentary by Archpriest Lev Semenov, Dean of the Faculty of Further Education at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University and cleric of the Church of St. Nicholas in Kuznetskaya Sloboda, both in Moscow.

The political heavyweight of the Western world has taken a step towards the abyss. If we are to believe the news report broadcast on the radio, and later confirmed in the press, President Barack Obama has made his first public statement in support of the legalization of same-sex marriages.

One can only sympathize with the citizens of this country who hold the Christian faith, just imagining how they must have felt when they heard this statement from their head of state. [Read more…]

America’s Useful Idiots

May 10, 2012May 13, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

Useful Idiots Communism Obama Marxist Radical by Steve McCann –
Many years ago, a phrase was coined by the leaders of the Soviet Union to describe those in the West who naively promoted the cause of Russian Communism when in reality they were held in contempt and were being cynically used by the Soviet hierarchy. The term “useful idiot” more than ever applies to a vast swath of citizens in the United States who have been cynically used by the hardcore left for a cause they are unwilling to understand.

Among the mysteries confronting those of us who have immigrated to the United States from countries that have experienced the devastating outcome of socialist/Marxist ideology is why seemingly successful and educated people could be so easily swayed to support those whose end-game is to transform the country into a socialist “utopia” and to control the day-to-day lives of all Americans. [Read more…]

Beware of the Petty Totalitarian Left

May 7, 2012May 13, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

Petty Totalitarian Left - Tyranny by Mark Judge –
People who argue against reducio ad Hitlerum, the tendency to reduce every political argument to a Hitler comparison, usually have a good point. Welfare reform was not the Third Reich. Neither is environmentalism.

Yet in rejecting Hitler argument, people have forgotten an important aspect of totalitarianism: its pettiness, and how that pettiness can morph into greater forms of repression.

Many totalitarian states don’t start by shoving people into death camps. Most begin by micromanaging everyday life. This is why I fear liberalism so much.

For the past several decades the left hasn’t resembled Stalin liquidating millions — although pro-life people could make that case — but rather the nitpicking, control-freak oppression of a low-level bureaucrat in a new totalitarian regime. [Read more…]

Without Justice, What Else is the State But a Great Band of Robbers – St. Augustine

May 4, 2012May 6, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

St. Augustine Without Justice State is a Great Band of Robbers by Andrew M. Greenwell, Esq. –
In his book City of God, St. Augustine famously said, “without justice, what else is the State but a great band of robbers?” This statement seems to be a favorite of Pope Benedict XVI, and he has recruited it in warning lawmakers, particularly lawmakers in the Western nations with Christian heritage, of the way to which they are headed.

He referred to these words in his address to the German Parliament or Bundestag when he visited Germany. Some years earlier, in his encyclical Deus caritas est, Pope Benedict XVI referred to those very same words.

It is useful from time to time to recall these words of St. Augustine and the deep truth that they convey. [Read more…]

The Economic Paradox No One Wants to Talk About

May 1, 2012May 3, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

Patriot Post Economic Paradox by Arnold Ahlert –
There is an economic paradox that few people understand, much less wish to acknowledge, because to do so would reveal the level of societal deterioration that has caused it. In simple terms, there are two schools of economic thought: one posits that massive amounts of government spending, aka stimulus in all its odious forms, is the only way to save an economy.

The other posits that until massive over-spending by government is brought under control, aka austerity, economies over-burdened by debts and deficits will continue to founder. Who’s right? There is merit to both arguments — but only because we’ve reached the aforementioned level of societal deterioration. Let me explain.

For decades, the growth of government both here and in Europe, has been inexorable. [Read more…]

England: It was Fun While It Lasted

April 28, 2012May 3, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

England decay moral decline tyranny by Kyle Smith –
England and the rest of the UK are increasingly becoming mirrors of the capital. London is splitting into a land of surly immigrants and the governing-media-celebrity class of the well-shod who insulate themselves from everyone else and thus don’t care what is going on.

The working and middle class have been left to their own devices as they contend with absurd levels of taxation, decaying schools, horrific crime, and cultural devaluation. Try as Britain might to make 2012 about the queen and Lord Sebastian Coe (its chief Olympics cheerleader and gold medalist runner), its more relevant faces are Liam Stacey and Rhea Page. [Read more…]

A Recovery That Never Comes

April 25, 2012April 28, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

Road to Socialism Obama by Jeffrey Folks –
The President has been promising an economic recovery ever since 2008, when he promised to create 5 million green jobs and to “act quickly to help people stay in their homes.” With all the promises Obama made, many voters who supported him expected the economy to begin turning around early in 2009. But then, shortly after his election, Obama let it be known that the economy had been driven “into a ditch” deeper than he had imagined, and the recovery would take some time. Then he discovered that the economy he inherited was not just in a ditch, it was actually a “mess” as well. There were always new excuses for why the recovery never came.

Now it seems, just as the President was prepared to declare “mission accomplished,” the economy is slipping back into the ditch, only it’s no longer George Bush’s ditch. This ditch is entirely of Obama’s making. [Read more…]