WHY  THE  LEFT  HATES  AMERICA 
            Exposing the lies that have obscured our nation's greatness 
                                         by Daniel Flynn 

Have you ever hated someone for getting in your way to achieve your life's goal? Really despised him? You've tried to get him to see things your way, to embrace your goal, to see the potential benefits (to you), but he stubbornly refuses and continues his own way. And his "way" is what blocks your progress.  So what can you do? Actually, if you are a moral relativist, your list of options is endless.  Moral relativism rejects the centuries-old notion of moral standards that determine right and wrong; it allows any amount of trickery you can think of, and  hatred is fertile ground for dreaming up tricks. 

Daniel Flynn's book offers answers to a question that has long perplexed many of us: Why does the Left hate America?  Flynn says that today's anti-Americanism began when the Industrial Age of the late 19th century created a wealthy, leisured class of intellectuals who became enamored of the Marxism brought into the country by immigrants from Europe. These intellectuals believed that their unearned wealth and educational superiority proved they were truly fine fellows, of a rare excellence seldom found on the earth, and fully equiped to create a Marxian Utopia in America. 

Their wealth was created on the backs of  "ordinary" Americans on whom they bestowed pitying concern;  these same Americans continue to support -- through our tax dollars -- the Left's activities, which are still aimed at the overthrow of our republican government. The Left's hate especially embraces the U.S. military -- those young men and women who die or are mutilated as they defend the Left's privileged existence in America, along with the rest of us stay-at-homes. (Illus: Homecoming by Norman Rockwell)

So, why does the Left  hate a nation that gives them so much? Because, Flynn tells us, we don't do obeisance to their superiority, nor do we want to follow their scatterbrained, deadly schemes. They are utterly convinced of their righteousness, their wisdom, their extraordinary suitablility to rule over us -- but we aren't convinced. 

Despite their declared high IQs the Left is not terribly bright --  its policies always destroy the very wealth they want to control (see: the U.S.S.R., Communist China, North Korea, Cuba, Zimbabwe, etc). And even the most dimwitted among us Americans chafe at the idea of self-styled "superior" beings intruding into everything we choose to do or plan, hemming us about with meaningless, petty rules and laws, demanding (at last count nationally) close to half what we earn via tax piled upon tax, and driving our jobs away by endless regulations (see: the Oregon Democratic Party). (Photo: Karl Marx)

In America, the Left started its assault on us with soapboxes and pamphlets, but finding difficulty articulating its message, resorted to bombs and bullets.  In 1886,  they murdered policemen and  investors on Wall Street, and made attempts on the lives of governors, U.S.Senators and various business leaders. Their violence was not successful then nor later in the 1960s when the "New Left" strove to overthrow the U.S. government with killings and 
bombings.  As the anti-American Left developed, "more mainstream methods of persuasion supplanted the guns-and-bombs approach." 

Flynn tells us that four movements have contributed to the Left's development in America.  He says "At least 90% of America's original Communist Party was foreign born.....Relativism, an intellectual rather than an activist movement, immigrated to America with its founder, Franz Boas.  Cultural Marxism, which helped spawn the New Left of the 1960s, was a refugee from Nazi Germany.....Multiculturalism....is the lone movement of the four to have indigenous origins." . Flynn says that these movements are " the religions for the people who mock religion." He explores the movements in detail:  the personalities, the rationalizations, the cynicism, and the hypocrisy inherent in them. 

The Left is comfortable in America, empowering itself politically through the Democratic Party, taking full advantage of our rule of law, of Americans' tolerance, attaining positions of authority and respect as routes to power -- to destroy all that we treasure. 

In the chapter titled "Anti-American Chic", Flynn describes the Left's acquisition of causes to lure in unsuspecting compassionate Americans  -- such as the deceit that a free market reduces freedoms and exploits the poor. In fact, capitalism has reduced poverty in America to a degree the world never before dreamed possible. Indeed, capitalism lifts the standard of living for everyone wherever it is practiced.  It is the Left, socialism, that 
impoverishes, and is so effective at doing so that once-prosperous nations are inevitably  reduced to beggary. 

Flynn describes how the Left turns Americans against Americans by inciting grievances, how it erodes self-confidence and initiative by encouraging victimhood, and how they use our cultural industries and institutions -- music, movies, television, education -- to spread their message of hatred for America, distorting history, denigrating our founding fathers and trashing our heroes.  The Left holds itself up as sophisticated, worldly, an elite that is no 
longer bound by ordinary morality or even courtesy, and they invite our young to join them.. 

He quotes Eric Hoffer* in The True Believer: "All active mass movements strive to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth or certitude outside it."  And so, says Flynn, "We see shades of Hoffer's 'true believer' in campus activists who viewed the September 11 attacks as our just desserts. We see it in the intellectuals who craft history to fit their theories instead of the facts. We see it in racialist groups that blame their individual problems on white people they have never met."  More than anything, Leftism fits the definition of a religious cult. 

Flynn asks "How does one make something look bad that is responsible for so much good?"  Reality gives the lie to all of the Left's propaganda, and that is true even considering our nation's imperfections.  He quotes John Walker Lindh's email to his mother: "I don't really see what your big attachment to America is all about. What has America ever done for anybody?" and then answers John's question. 

He says that America enriches not only itself but also all of humanity. One way we accomplish this is  through our inventions -- electric light, air conditioning, the telephone, the internet, etc. --  and myriad medicines that have saved millions of lives.  One of the reasons American movies are so loved around the world is not because of the quality of the story plots or the acting, but because of the miraculous freedom and prosperity ordinary Americans are clearly shown to enjoy.  The lack of deference to our "betters", our lack of fear of our government -- these are astounding revelations to citizens of other lands,  engendering in them a desire for the freedoms and lifestyles they observe. 

The answer to why the Left hates America is multi-tiered but, after all, banal.  They loathe that we can choose.  They are a long way from coming to an end to the tricks they intend to use to take those choices away from us.  "Our way," our choices,  mostly keep us moving too fast for them to keep up effectively -- unless we tire of so many choices and personal responsibility for making decisions and stop to listen to their power-hungry, cynical siren call. 

                                                        -- Peggy Whitcomb 

*OMED: Eric Hoffer's ideas are quite popular with folks who call themselves "positive atheists."  San Francsco loves the man's writings, in the main because he once suggested that the young should be given all the privileges of adults, and education be saved for later in life.  (Silly junk thought that indicates a basic lack of knowledge of the learning needs of higher mammals, particularly humans, apes and the whales and dolphins group.) Hoffer, known as the "longshoreman philosopher," however, is an odd dog for the Left to admire.  Some of what he said and wrote is a perfect description of the confused state of mind of liberals everywhere.  Here is are some examples.
 

© 2003 Peggy Whitcomb  Most of the illustrations and photos are links.