Liberal Orthodoxy fails in flyoverland

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Liberal Orthodoxy fails in flyoverland
by Gary Larson, Guest Contributor

November 15, 2002

Gary Larson MINNEAPOLIS -- Hardened liberals might cheer an astonishing editorial in the McClatchy-owned mainstream daily paper here, the Star Tribune. All others might weep. For the lead editorial on Sunday, Nov. 3, is more than a knee-jerk endorsement of Walter Mondale for Senator. It is a revealing peek at a liberal credo that portrays Republicans, all of them, as a vile bunch, cutthroats, worthy of scorn, out to injure kids and rob old folks. Tone-deaf, a less respectful, more spiteful editorial, is not found this side of nasty old Izvestia.

Alas, it reflects the tenor of these times. Harsh noises rattle political wonks’ cages on both sides. Among other things, such noise turns a respectful memorial service into a partisan pep rally for which there would be, in this case, far-reaching consequences.

Politically savvy folks here know the newspaper as crotchety liberal. Most realize it serves practically as a party organ, roughly in the style of Orwell’s Party Orator, for liberal Democrats. One reader mockingly suggests a red donkey logo for its nameplate. Tongue in cheek, another proposes a descriptive label "Official Newspaper of the DFL [Democrat Farmer Labor] Party" for the masthead.

Perspectives in it typically are antibusiness, pro-tree hugger, pro-life, pro-gun control, pro-taxes, pro-Big Government, and vituperatively anti-Bush and any Republican. . Tax cuts are anathema, as they benefit only the rich, usually termed "well-heeled." (Class warfare is soo chic!) The only tax it does not embrace is one on newsprint.

As with left-liberal press everywhere, it’s in lockstep with all unions, particularly teachers’. Talking points from Democrat muckety-mucks are S.O.P. Still, the editors cling to notion that its opinion pages are fair, if not balanced. Editorial boards on such journals claim exclusive high moral ground, and a monopoly on truth.

In sum, they simply reflect a smug liberal orthodoxy. Exuding an intolerance born of self-important hubris, journals on the left gladly depict conservatives as despicable, dangerous or dim-witted--sometimes all three. Easy to realize, therefore, why their ideological foes are vilified, sometimes demonized. The less critical among us absorb such inanity, investing emotional capital in lies--damn lies, Mark Twain would say.

No doubt some at the "service" for the late Sen. Wellstone were taken in by the coarse rhetoric. Stirred they were, as "bases" will be, by party leaders and media. Now, the consequences of incendiary talk make these stirred-up "bases," and their Democratic party, the midterm election losers.

What stirs the base? Take a look at this GOP-excoriating prose as an example:

"Voters should ask for details on what the Republicans offer. The agenda promoted by President Bush and largely embraced by candidate [Norm] Coleman looks like this: shortchanging children and skimping on the elderly, committing the nation to endless consumption of fossil fuels; favoring corporate America over working America; bullying U.S. allies and neglecting U.S. neighbors; and mortgaging the federal budget so that Congress can keep a tax cut tilted heavily toward the rich. -- Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN. Nov. 3, 2002"

Whew! Not even old Izvestia on a bad day hissed such rhetoric. "That’s not much of a future," the editorial huffs, if you missed the drift. Scratch one future, then, because the GOP won bigtime, along with President Bush, perhaps for four more years. This has to be many editorial boards’ worst nightmare.

Bush-bashing is epidemic in the mainstream. Talking heads puzzle over our president’s popularity. In the big Minneapolis daily, he’s characterized as a chronic liar, war-monger, bully, pawn of Enron, Big Oil man, a "cowboy "--i.e.. "Lone Ranger," shorthand for "unilateral" gunslinger (get it?), among other drop-dead epithets. Savage editorial cartoons match the antipathy for the guy.

A deputy editorial editor here alleges Bush’s "political methods" are the very equal of Hitler’s. [Sept. 25, 2002]. Such over-the-edge stuff is business as usual. In 1998, after it dismissed Clinton’s misdeeds as "ethical lapses," this paper labeled Kenneth W. Starr as "the greatest threat to the republic" [Aug. 18, 1998]. Down is up, up is down? Just how Orwellian does it get?

Well, in the Orwell classic Animal Farm, the chant goes "four legs good, two legs evil." To some on the loony left, GOPers are non-hoofed. (But well-heeled?) Their sarcastic brand of hardened liberalism is ready to make war, not love, on all not sharing their self-righteous beliefs. Charity toward others’ views is lacking.

This leads inevitably to a partisan rally masquerading as memorial, and counting the votes selectively, only in friendly territory, as in Florida, plus disenfranchising those overseas GIs’ votes because (gasp!) more will be Republican. Winning elections becomes the bitch goddess demanding total fealty. To that end, fiery speech prose must stir souls--er, the base-- to "win" that next election.

Illustrating the liberal passion is a story the news media did not report (not surprisingly) from the raucous pep rally for a dead senator. A man in a wheelchair came to pay his respects, believing it was a memorial service. Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) was merely booed. But the wheelchair man was booed, then spat upon, a big wad smacking the back his neck. His crime? A campaign button for Norm Coleman, soon ripped off his wheelchair. Ideological hate left its mark.

(Gov. and Mrs. Ventura, disgusted, walk out. If the Mondales do the same, and disavow the tawdry event, he’d likely be the junior senator from Minnesota, changing the political landscape today in Washington, D.C.)

Intolerance lies in claims of monopoly on social justice. Here’s the formula: Deprecate all who disagree with you. Show ‘em disrespect. Vilify ‘em as vermin-like. Okay, so it’s Machiavelli 101. Put simply, the lesson from arch-liberals: If you do not share their beliefs--er, "core values"?--you are like Infidels, hated non-believers. Such intolerance brings shallow, uncivil persons to anger, then to hate. This is the end result of what Reinhold Niebur called "the frantic orthodoxy of the true believers." Let history show it is self-defeating. ***

Larson is a former business magazine editor and retired association executive in Minnesota. He is not the cartoonist of the same name.

Photo of Gary Larson courtesy of staff files