It strikes me that, reading this blog, you might get the impression that I’m some sort of slavering, right-wing, Coulter-worshipping fascist nut. Particularly in how I will often refer to “Democrats”, “Dummycrats”, “Ultraleftists” and “Stalinists”. It certainly seems to speak of a certain paranoia on my part, I suppose (for the record, though, I do love Ann Coulter).

To attempt to disabuse you of that notion, allow me to clarify some of my positions and phraseology a bit. Apologies in advance; this is bound to be a long piece.

I’m going to go back to commentary in the “Bloody brilliant, indeed” post from last week. There was some concern that the author was making some valid points regarding a very specific group of idealogues, then using them to paint every left-of-center person in the western hemisphere with the same brush. That concern is valid, I think, considering the particular phraseology used by the author, but it’s not the intent I took from the essay.

When I speak of “the left”, and indeed, when I see others speak of it, I’m not thinking about the UAW laborer punching his clock at the Dearborn plant. I’m not talking about the guy relaxing with a joint and some porn at the end of the day. I’m not talking about the people who vote straight-ticket Democrat because that’s how they were raised.

I’m speaking, specifically, about the hard-bitten, anti-American, cultural and academic Leftists attempting to drive America into its own self-destruction by the measure of every traditional value America holds dear.

In America, we value working hard to get ahead. Leftists want to coddle the lazy with a full-blown, socialist welfare state. Don’t want to work? No problem! We’ll redistribute some of this guy’s hard-earned cash to you, to make sure you can live in relative comfort. In the meantime, we’ll turn a blind eye to illegal immigration to fill that job role you don’t want to fill. Yeah, I’m looking at you here too, George. You should be fucking impeached.

In America, we value freedom of religion. Leftists, in true Marxist fashion, want religion removed in its entirety from public life. It will be a dirty thing that you practice behind closed doors, lest you risk “offending” the secular. On that note…

In America, we value freedom of speech. To the Left, that means burning a flag. Don’t make the mistake of having a non-leftist view of the world, though - that speech has no place in a Leftist Utopia, especially in academia. Dare to lean right, and you’ll risk assault, defunding of your groups and expulsion. Oh, and god forbid you say something “culturally insensitive” that offends a “minority”. You can ask Larry Summers about how that ends.

Edit 4:22 pm EST: Leftists in action. “We have evolved above freedom of speech”.

In America, we value the right to dissent, and gather to protest peacefully to express it. Somehow, though, dissent simply for the sake of dissenting is the Left’s cause celebre. Unless you’re protesting, you’re not “with it”. If you’re not dissenting against any and all policy and opinion coming from anybody right-of-center (regardless of how logical or good it might be), then you’ve obviously got some sort of brain defect.

In America, we supposedly value “equality”. To the Left, you’re only equal if you’re sympathetic to their ideology. If not, you’re just another target for repression. Further, to the Feminist Left, you’re only equal if you’re sympathetic to their ideology and you have a vagina. Penises belong on a prison isle, only kept alive to be milked for seed (until cloning is perfected, at any rate).

Americans used to value a traditional family. The Left wants to destroy the traditional family.

The paths that the “Left” want this country to walk down infuriate me - yet, I understand that these extreme positions (which are exactly what I characterize as “the left”) are espoused by a very small minority of the Democratic voting bloc. So, reading Eric’s essay from “Armed and Dangerous”, I took from it not a broad swipe at liberalism in general, but a focused attack on what I see as a sect of dangerous subversives ideologically opposed to virtually everything America should stand for as a nation.

To my great consternation, there are those on the Right who are willing to devalue those ideals just as thoroughly and ruthlessly. John McCain and his direct assault on free speech with his campaign finance reform bill. George Bush (as Brent illuminated in his comments from last week) using the weight of government regulation to silence legitimate satire. Our new Medicaid Prescription bill, pushed by “Republicans”, the largest entitlement in American history. In their attempt to “co-opt” Democrats on issues, true conservatism is being lost. As Obi Wan Kenobi said in “Revenge of the Sith”, “You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy.” Only now, the dark lord isn’t Chancellor Palpatine - it’s political expediency.

So… yeah. You’re going to see me rail against “the Left” a lot here. I’m not going to hide the fact that I lean Right - I’m proud of it. I will criticize and condemn the hard-left activists, whose interests are not American interests - and also those “Liberals” who blindly support their ongoing anti-American crusade. There’s a tug-of-war going on in the sociopolitical scene, and until recently, it’s seemed to be only the ideological extremes on both sides doing the heavy pulling. Will the rise of the moderate, pro-American “bloggers” now making their mark on journalism and politics shift us all to a better place? I’ll pray to any god that will listen that this will be the case.

Only time will tell.