PrintFebruary 28, 2010
Disappointing Leon
I am going to disappoint Leon Wieseltier. The famous liberal wrote this week, "A day does not go by when I do not do my humble part to prevent such a transformation [of American Jewry from liberals to conservatives] from coming to pass."
Well, Leon, you let one get by.
My transformation has occurred. It began with 9/11 and progressed along bumpily until the Obama, Pelosi, Reid express train came roaring down the track. Putting the final nail in the coffin, so to speak, is our current foreign policy that abandons Israel, leaving it alone amidst a sea of savages and enablers that daily howl for its very destruction. That was it. It was time to jump on to the conservative bandwagon full speed ahead.
For years I had been looking around and asking, "What the heck has happened to the Democratic Party that I grew up in?" My Democratic Party loved America, believed in the Constitution, free market values, and independent thought and actions. When did it turn into the Party of "group think" and intolerance, of programmed talking points and mean spirited, vitriolic spokespersons such as Wanda Sykes and Janeane Garofalo? These aren't the Democrats that I went to D.C. with to protest the Vietnam War. These aren't the Democrats that were more concerned with the content of your character than with the color of your skin. With my attendance at CPAC this last weekend I must contend that my transformation has fully crystallized.
Now, all of this transformation has not followed a smooth and flowing path. I must admit that I have had quite of bit of reflection and doubt along the way. How could I, a child of the sixties, a lifelong Democrat and a Jew be listening to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck?! I guess that part of the answer to that question could come from the fact that the current Democratic President of the United States came to his epiphany listening to Reverend Wright proclaiming not "God Bless America" but "Goddamn America", hanging out with unrepentant terrorists such as William Ayers and asserting that the Constitution was a "mistake."
It seems to me that if you do not believe in the Constitution you would be hard pressed to represent America as its Commander in Chief. Yes, I am not going to quibble and pick apart his comments regarding the Constitution and say that perhaps he believes in some parts of it and not in others. I don't believe that you get to choose which parts of the Constitution you support and which parts you do not. It is not a menu from a Chinese restaurant where you choose one from column A and one from column B.
Thus, I continue to read, explore and question. David Horowitz, Mark Levine, Jonah Goldberg Norman Podhoretz and Mark Steyn have become my new mentors and teachers. As I grasp to understand where I have come from and where I am going as well as where my country has come from and where it is going, I find myself a bit adrift reaching out to people and groups that once would have caused me to inwardly shiver. "Hmmm, maybe they are not really bigots, racists, selfish and self-serving"? All of the things that I heard spouted from "my side" about the evil Conservatives; the "other" does not hold water.
Thus, it felt good to be surrounded by thousands of people at CPAC that love this country, that believe that it and those that make up this country are exceptional. It felt good to be amongst those that believe that we, as a people and a country have done wonderful things for people that have been able to escape tyranny and control in countries ruled by truly self-serving tyrants.
We have and continue to provide a place for liberty seeking individuals who want nothing more than to give themselves and their families a chance to succeed by merely being "left alone," by being given the opportunity to be self-reliant. It felt good to be amongst those that understand that if you never allow someone to fail you also do not allow them the opportunity to understand that they have the power to pull themselves up from that failure, to start again and to succeed. This is the true genius of the American capitalist system. One is able to strive, fail and try again until they triumph.
Yes, it made me proud to be an American and gave me hope; true hope; not bumper sticker Hope.
