As a social liberal, Frank Rich is feeling his oats. The New York Times columnist has declared the culture wars (one-sided affairs waged only by conservatives) to be over. But in his March 14 New York Times column, he couldn’t resist a last gloating shot at the “ayatollahs” and “family-values dinosaurs” that have the temerity to suggest there’s a place for traditional morality in the American public square.
"Here, at last, is one piece of good news in our global economic meltdown," wrote Rich. "Americans have less and less patience for the intrusive and divisive moral scolds who thrived in the bubbles of the Clinton and Bush years. Culture wars are a luxury the country — the G.O.P. included — can no longer afford."
So the recession not only brought Obama to power, it shut up those pesky Christians with their tedious morality. This isn’t the first time economics put a well-deserved double-whammy on the hated right. Rich drew a comparison to Prohibition-era society, with Obama predictably cast as FDR and social conservatives as the Temperance League. "Having lost plenty in the Depression," he wrote, "the public did not want to surrender any more freedoms to the noisy minority that had shut down the nation’s saloons." Fast-forward to 2009. When Obama overturned Bush’s stem-cell policies, there was "No hysteria from politicians, the news media or the public." Ditto with Obama’s “earlier reversal of Bush restrictions on the use of federal money by organizations offering abortions overseas.” And Rich cheerfully predicted that, “When the administration tardily ends “don’t ask, don’t tell,” you can bet that this action, too, will be greeted by more yawns than howls.”
Finally, some peace and quiet so we can get on with the business of remaking America in the image of Manhattan. Why has it been so quiet? "So many of them [conservative politicians] don’t want to confront the obsolescence of culture wars as a political crutch," Rich wrote. To Rich, Obama’s many socially liberal actions – the stem cells and abortion funding orders, nominating a pro-abortion extremist to HHS secretary, threatening to remove legal protections from medical personnel who refuse to perform morally objectionable procedures, and yes, his promise to end "don’t ask don’t tell" – aren’t shots in the ongoing culture wars. Again, they’re only culture wars if conservatives wage them. Rich and others on the left are complaisant, and with good reason. They have a very liberal president, very liberal leadership of a Democrat congress, and comforting polling that fewer American are religious.
According to Rich, “This, too, is a replay of the Great Depression. ‘One might have expected that in such a crisis great numbers of these people would have turned to the consolations of and inspirations of religion,’ wrote Frederick Lewis Allen in ‘Since Yesterday,’ his history of the 1930s published in 1940. But that did not happen: ‘The long slow retreat of the churches into less and less significance in the life of the country, and even in the lives of the majority of their members, continued almost unabated.’ The new American faith, Allen wrote, was the ‘secular religion of social consciousness.’ Sounds like, er, heaven. And for Rich, it may be something close. “[S]o far Obama has far more moral authority than any religious leader in America with the possible exception of his sometime ally, the Rev. Rick Warren.” Sure, probably won’t be banished forever, Rich acknowledged, but “In our tough times, when any happy news can be counted as a miracle, a 40-year exodus for these ayatollahs can pass for an answer to America’s prayers.”
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Less than 50% under God...In the late great America..
March 16, 2009 - 12:06 ET by upcountrywaterWhat did Reagan say?
Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the
conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world
that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a
coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and
cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God,
then we will be a nation gone under." --Prayer Breakfast, 1984
P.R.I.N.T. Money 30 sec YT
Frank Rich
March 16, 2009 - 12:12 ET by GothampcI wonder who Frank Rich has dirt on at the NY Times. He was never a good theater critic and he's even worse as a political columnist. The NY Times put his (and Mo Dowd) column under "pay per view" and subscribers wouldn't support it. Why is he still employed?
I've heard us being likened
March 16, 2009 - 12:14 ET by dborschjr68I've heard us being likened to Hitler, Manson, and now to the Ayatollahs. What's next? Will they say we are the Jeffrey Dahmers of America, as well?
======================
To the MSM: It has been said that, "The pen is mightier than the sword". So I'll tell ya what- how's about you hold onto a pen and see if it stops me from slapping your face. I'm just sayin'...
I am waiting
March 16, 2009 - 12:52 ET by Paul Atreidesuntil the first Muslim screeches about removing the teaching of evolution out of public schools and looking forward to hearing the reactions of the Frank Riches of this country.
incredible.
March 16, 2009 - 12:16 ET by sawing battawitnessing the end of America, folks.
watch society rot and disintegrate from the inside...slowly, but surely. but hey, you can now have sex with a goat or a stranger and Frank Rich will think you're cool (but really cool if it's a goat).
Use the free condom from your kids' elementary school? why? your healthcare is soon to be "free". what do you care if you get a disease? need time away from work to fix yourself? no problem, there will soon be law so your sexual practices are protected from evil businessmen who want you to work for your pay.)
ah, "change" we can believe in.
Watch society rot and disintegrate?
March 16, 2009 - 12:27 ET by CKA in Red State USARespectfully, you've got the verb tense wrong.
How about: "Continue to watch . . ."?
But your point's well made and taken.
point taken
March 16, 2009 - 13:06 ET by sawing battayou are correct in correcting me. point taken.
honestly, i'm not being dramatic. i think we're in serious danger as a nation...I fear we've passed the tipping point - socially/morally, economically. Think it's only a matter of time.
Buy Gold, a Howitzer and an island.
Find God.
March 16, 2009 - 17:11 ET by CKA in Red State USAAll the other stuff's just window-dressing, if they even matter.
BTW: I agree that we've reached the tipping point.
Actually, we're probably on the other side of already having tipped.
Hey Rich
March 16, 2009 - 12:18 ET by Lord ErondI'll bet the NY Times collapses and finds you unemployed before the bastions of religious belief and catholicism do. Normally, Jesus tells us to love thine enemy and pray for him but your case, I hope you go straight to hell to be screwed by Satan's barbed demon penis for eternity. Frigging atheistic hack lying bastard.
"To sin by silence when we should protest, makes cowards of men" -Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Normally, Jesus tell us . . .?
March 16, 2009 - 12:25 ET by CKA in Red State USAGet a grip, ace.
Jesus said that. At it didn't have "normal" applied to it.
He also said that the sun shines on and the rain falls on the bad/unjust just as it does the good/just.
By what you said, you just lowered yourself into the ditch in which Rich swims.
And by what you said, seems you might try to find out more about the Jesus whose words you distort.
Let him gloat and call us names. His . . .
March 16, 2009 - 12:22 ET by CKA in Red State USA. . .harvest is coming and he won't like it.
Nor will any of the Demockacats/Dementocrats, liberals, leftists, socialists--whatever you call wish to call them.
They are killing their souls with such arrogance and hatred.
But, per usual, they're too self-absorbed and consumed by that hatred to understand.
This is so silly and
March 16, 2009 - 12:25 ET by MikeLIThis is so silly and over-the-top, one has to think, of the desperation of Mr. Rich and The New York Times, in their money situation, to be so outrageous.
It's so beyond anything genuine, it's satire, and should be treated as such.
It is silly. I understand
March 16, 2009 - 12:34 ET by balboaIt is silly. I understand what he's saying, to some extent; everyone tends to worry less about extraneous matters in tough times. I think that's true. But ayatollahs is a wild term to attract attention.
"So many of them
March 16, 2009 - 12:33 ET by motherbelt"So many of them [conservative politicians] don’t want to confront the
obsolescence of culture wars as a political crutch," Rich wrote.
Yeah, Frank, those moral issues are SO 1890's!
To
Rich, Obama’s many socially liberal actions – the stem cells and
abortion funding orders, nominating a pro-abortion extremist to HHS
secretary, threatening to remove legal protections from medical
personnel who refuse to perform morally objectionable procedures, and
yes, his promise to end "don’t ask don’t tell" – aren’t shots in the
ongoing culture wars.
This is just like the Israel/Palestinian thing...the problem isn't that the Palestinians attack, the "war" thing only comes in when Israel fights back!
I guess Rich is just glad that conservatives are apparently no longer going to "escalate the cycle of opposition."
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
If Rich think's the end of
March 16, 2009 - 12:43 ET by BlazerIf Rich think's the end of family values is something worth celebrating, he should see the celebration I have planned for when the N.Y.T. goes belly-up.
Heck, maybe I'll invite him. He could serve drink's or D.J.
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious. "
- Ben Kenobi on Liberals, and the MSM.
" The Cake is a lie."
I'm sure Mr. Rich
March 16, 2009 - 12:57 ET by Paul Atreideshas forgotten all of those Family-Values people who were donating money and volunteering services to the World Trade Center victims' families.
He's forgotten that a
March 16, 2009 - 14:00 ET by moderncommentaries83He's forgotten that a majority of Americans, who are still religious, are the most generous people on the planet. We've given billions of dollars and other donations (i.e., food, clothes, blood) - not only domestically, but globally - in times of disaster and crisis.
But, boy, let's get rid of those nasty "family values" people.
As I said below, and echoing others, it boils down to selfishness. And, weirdly, this supposed "right" to sex with whomever, whatever, whenever and wherever we please. Something conservatives, by and large, realize is neither healthy or safe.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
generosity
March 16, 2009 - 14:42 ET by sawing battai just told my university to shove it - well, in a nice way. they asked for a lot of $$ and i asked them to get it from Obama...he's in the charity business now (and reducing my ability to give to charities). The university was outspoken in their support for Obama and they got what they wanted...but not from me.
There are times
March 16, 2009 - 12:50 ET by Paul Atreideswhen I believe that the Left gets some sort of sexual charge out of abortion; it's as if civilization began with Roe vs Wade.
Abortion
March 16, 2009 - 13:39 ET by slickwillie2001I see the liberals' obsession with abortion as equivalent to ritual pagan human sacrifice. We look back at the Mayan and Aztec human sacrifice rituals as horrifically barbaric, but we can do that because we are detached from it by a couple hundred years of history and no political or societal attachment. How is partial-birth abortion any more acceptable?
For a very interesting read
March 16, 2009 - 14:09 ET by Paul AtreidesLook up "infanticide" on Wikipedia and pay attention in particular to ancient Rome.
This clown would not have a job 300 miles from
March 16, 2009 - 12:58 ET by JTPeither ocean. Maybe in his word this is a popular setiment but not any of the places I live or visit.
"So the recession not only brought Obama to power, it shut up those pesky Christians with their tedious morality."
"I need more cowbell!" SNL
Pardon the pun...
March 16, 2009 - 13:37 ET by moderncommentaries83But it's "rich" that he's cheering the loss of traditional family values when this, in part, is what got us into the financial mess.
The eschewing of traditional family values boils down to one thing: selfishness.
Be it sexual proclivities, financial greed, wanderlust, feminism or what have you, our culture has - pretty much since the late 1960s - tried to undermine traditional family values for the sake of some newfangled, reinterpreted "morality" that became all about ME and what I deserve and want and put self before others. Instant gratification exponentially multiplied.
Traditional family values command, above all, self-sacrifice and infinite patience. Those things are not only discouraged in our culture, but frowned upon. It's all about the self and the "what can you do for me today?" attitude.
Which brings me back to my original point. A culture that's not focused on serving others and sacrificing will be consumed by its need for instant gratification.
Why else would people go out and buy $500k homes when they couldn't afford it? Over extend their credit to obtain things? Have fewer and fewer children left to pay the burden of the Boomer generation (and now Obama's stimulus spending) because the DINK couple wants to go on vacation twice a year, rather than once every other year?
Because it was all about the self and the material wealth they could obtain. NOW. Consequences be damned, because I have to have things - not family - to be happy. That inbred, cultural selfishness has come back to bite us in the collective rear. BIG TIME.
What we need now - more than ever, perhaps - is not less of the traditional family values, but more. We need to stop this selfish culture and return to the family and a fixed morality. Or this cycle will not only repeat itself, it will get worse.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
So here is Frank Rich, the
March 16, 2009 - 14:25 ET by celatorSo here is Frank Rich, the most cut-throat, rampaging theater critic (former) in the history of the NYT, scolding those he perceives as the scolders. Perfect.
The guy is as batty as he ever was. There's no cure for what he has--insurmountable ignorance.
The Government cannot give to anybody anything which the government does not first take from somebody else. Dr. Adrian Rogers
Change the names around
March 16, 2009 - 15:35 ET by Paul AtreidesAuthor: Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter
Subject: Muslims
The left would be caterwauling for months. When it is Christians, it is okay.
Caterwauling? Nice.
March 16, 2009 - 17:25 ET by CKA in Red State USAIn anti-Christian America, which the campaigning and election and inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama clearly demarked, this mindless vitriol is to be expected.
But, really, we should not be so hard on Rich and others who write this tripe.
After all, good bots they be, they simply follow the lead of the high minister of death, abortionist-in-chief and foe-of-family-no-matter-what-he-says-otherwise Obama.
Forgot to mention that Obama's pretend Christianity also gives his thugs and thugettes in the advocacy/adversary media the go-ahead.
BTW: Nice moniker, Muad'Dib.
Are all these Libtards
March 17, 2009 - 00:35 ET by RR GOPAre all these Libtards perpetual teenagers?
Sounds like he's happy that he can finally have a girl over at his place with his parents' full knowledge.
Freud would have had a field day with these types.
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 61% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory (yep...approval for Congress now at 39%...do you believe that!?).
"Culture wars are a luxury
March 17, 2009 - 06:34 ET by Anniee451"Culture wars are a luxury the country — the G.O.P. included — can no longer afford."
Never waste a good crisis. At this rate, we won't be able to afford bread.