"It's a conspiracy, man"
By Alisa Craddock
web posted June 25, 2007
I have to laugh every time some enlightened, emancipated individual tells me that Catholicism is 'mind control'. But I can understand where that comes from, at least. Before I converted, I always resisted the idea of being told 'what I have to believe'. I guess I realized at some point that…well, the Church was right. But more importantly, I came to believe that the Church is what she says she is, the Barque of Peter, the Rock, the Church of the Lord, and if that is true, she does have the right to tell me what to believe on matters of faith and morals. Nobody is making me be Catholic if I don't want to be Catholic. But being Catholic means I accept what the Church teaches because I accept Her authority to teach it. "Whoever hears you, hears me," He told his Apostles. "Whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects Him who sent me." Well…that's clear enough, isn't it? So, the Barque of Peter may list from time to time, but she always rights herself because she has the truth for a compass, and our Lord as her Captain.
By contrast, our Ship of State seems to be sinking, and there are some who would like to blame it on a "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy." If only they could get those darn right wingers to shut up and stop interfering with their double-plus-good "programming" we'd all be on the same page. To be fair, both the Left and Right believe the other side is "conspiring" to gain control of the government. But though I know it is the job of Republicans to try and regain control, it is at the grass roots level where we discover who's conspiring against whom.
And the nature of that conflict is this. One side wants absolute control over our lives (the Left), the other side (the Right) want to protect ourselves from political enslavement. One side wants to gradually choke off our liberty, the other to restore it. The Right is oriented toward self-determination. The Left suffers from AHAD, Aggressive Helplessness with Aggravated Dependency (a disorder caused by too much exposure to Liberal notions of "entitlement"). The Right honors faith, family, and country, freedom and self-government. The other side pays lip-service to the virtues of democracy but is trying to completely redefine our life and liberty, and forget pursuit of happiness. Here, take a pill. Go get laid. That will keep you happy and complacent. Meanwhile, kiss your property goodbye, your right to practice your faith, your right to speak freely about public issues that concern you, your right to petition your government, your right to bear arms to protect yourself, your family and your property (who needs arms when there's no longer such thing as a family, and you no longer own property), your right to privacy (unless you're having kinky sex or killing your unborn child), and your right to the fruits of your own labors.
We all recognize the chasm between the vision of the Left and that of the Right. But each side has a different idea about how to unite us. The Right believes that returning to Constitutional principles (small government, few taxes, less intrusion into the lives of the citizens) is the way to unite us, while the Left believes that government must involve itself in everything, even your feelings. The Right wants as little legislative meddling as possible; the Left wants a law to cure even what they consider 'wrong' beliefs. This not only refers to federal legislation, but also state, local, and corporate laws and policies which fall under the global agenda (which is Leftist). The examples are too numerous to cite, but here are some glaring ones, all relatively recent:
- Sexual harassment policies in work places and schools now perversely used to protect homosexual activism and behavior, while silencing criticism of homosexuality, which is allowed to bring its politics into the workplace and in your face with such celebrations as "National Coming Out Day."
- Non-discrimination policies to prevent religiously or socially based discrimination in business dealings. Included in this category would be the taboo against 'racial profiling' which is causing so much problem with terrorist infiltrators and their sympathizers.
- Diversity workshops and sensitivity training sessions to indoctrinate everyone to who is favored and protected [and who isn't] and to instruct everyone in what they should feel, how they must think and how to act. 'Diversity' as a policy is ideological conformity imposed upon you in the workplace or school setting. It treats all moral values, cultures, religious beliefs and so forth as having equal merit, and so must you.
- Hate crimes laws used to punish "offensive" (read religious) speech against immoral sexual practices or their practitioners.
- Psychological 'studies' declaring conservatism a psychiatric disorder.
- RICO charges leveled against peaceful pro-life protesters (since rejected by the Supreme Court, but not until after great personal financial loss to those who were so charged).
- McCain-Feingold to prevent people from having access to incumbents' voting record in the last weeks before an election—the time they most need access to that information. (I know McCain's supposed to be "one of us", but he's widely regarded as a RINO, and has frequently shown himself to be quite liberal on issues near and dear to conservatives.)
- Elimination of the words "Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, lest your children make a connection between freedom and the Providence of Almighty God.
- Churches prohibited from political activity with threat of losing tax exempt status (now being threatened with same for simply preaching Christian moral truths to their own congregations.)
- De facto religious test for judges.
All of these things either have been implemented or some Leftist politicians are in the process of trying to get them passed. It is irrelevant whether it is likely or not that they will be passed (although if you throw it out there enough times, eventually it will stick), the point is, this is what kind of thinking comes from the Leftist camp.
There is no better illustration of it then an incident described by Sen. Inhofe last week when he reported on a conversation he overheard about three years ago between Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer. According to Inhofe, they were discussing the "excesses" of conservative talk radio, apparently piqued at something Rush Limbaugh or one of the other conservative commentators had said, and the comment was made (as Inhofe relates it) "We've got to do something about this…these are nothing but far right wing extremists, we've got to have a balance, there's got to be a legislative fix to this.'
A legislative fix. They would love to silence conservative talk radio, a venue where they are not in control. The legislative fix currently being dragged out of mothballs is "The Fairness Doctrine." It was tried years ago, caused innumerable problems, and so it was consigned to the trash heap where it should have remained, but here it is again, threatening truth, freedom, and the American way.
Liberals tried their hand at talk radio with Air America, but no one listened. The death of Liberalism's own effort at talk radio proves that irrational liberal thinking and propaganda can't compete with conservative truth—people just don't want to hear it. As Inhofe told Clinton and Boxer, "It's market driven, and there's no market for your liberal tripe." If liberalism didn't have George Soros paying to keep it on life support, perhaps it would die a natural death. Fred Thompson, in his May 17 address, The Fred Thompson Report, described the real purpose of the resurrected Fairness Doctrine: '[I]f you can't compete in the world of ideas, you pass a law that forces radio stations to air your views." That's the legislative fix Clinton and Boxer have in mind. If not that, they'll come up with something else. But you have to be wary of the intentions of a political party whose members who have so little confidence in their own policies that they have to try and silence those who oppose them with restrictive, unconstitutional legislation. (Sadly, some members of our own party are starting to complain about conservative talk radio "running the country" as well. One gets them impression that our leadership would like us to stop interfering with their "business as usual" approach to governing. The constituents are making demands of the people they elected! Shock!) The fact is, the only place I get news I can trust is on the web or on the radio. I have a little alarm that goes off inside me every time I hear a network or cable news story laced with left-wing propaganda. It's in my gutt, right next to my heresy alarm.
You see, the thing is, liberal policies defy reason. So liberals try to use the force of law to compel everyone to meekly accept what they know is irrational and even offensive, and threatening to individual rights and liberty. Is it any wonder those who the Leftists refer to as the "radical right-wing" (that's one of their more flattering descriptions), who recognize the assault on our liberty, are endeavoring with great urgency to expose this insidious, ravenous cancer called "Liberalism" before it is too late? When everything they do defies right reason, when every legislative effort is aimed at curbing someone's freedom or taking someone's earnings, or shoring up their own power, who is conspiring against who? Conservatives are not trying to silence liberals; liberals are trying to silence conservatives. Why? So they can remake the country according to their own utopian vision. How else will they get you to accept the yoke of slavery unless they persuade you that it's actually freedom? That's hard to do when Rush Limbaugh is over there pointing out the absurdity of yet another hair-brained, liberal 'legislative fix'. 
Alisa Craddock is a columnist and activist in the culture war, a convert to Catholicism, and describes herself as a Christian Libertarian. She may be contacted at
alisa.craddock at hushmail.com.