Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: Liberalism - Formula for Failure

WOLVES IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING

LIBERALISM - FORMULA FOR FAILURE

Dr. Clark Jensen

Copyright © 2009

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Contents

Introduction

I. The Pillar of Faith

II. The Pillar of Capitalism

III. The Pillar of The Constitution

IV. Putting It All Together

Epilogue

INTRODUCTION

I have never attempted anything like this before. I don’t know where this will lead, but for some reason I feel compelled to put my thoughts down on paper.

Maybe it will serve to help me to clarify my own beliefs. Maybe it will be of value to my children as they try to make sense of the world we live in. Maybe it will go beyond that. Who knows what will happen with this?

My hope is that good, God-fearing, honest people will read this. I am hoping that people of faith who are confused about politics and government in general will read what I have to say and find some clarity. I also hope that there will be enough voices telling the truth, that the message will get out, so that we can save our country from the enemy within.

We are very much in a war in this country, but it is not so much a war of bullets and guns as it is a war of ideas and ideologies. It is a war we cannot afford to lose. We are truly surrounded by wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Let me give you some background about myself. I grew up in Byron, Wyoming. On a good day, Byron had a population of four hundred. I know that sounds too small, but it was a great place to grow up. I had a lot of freedom there as a child and as a teenager. I also had the benefit of great teachers, great role models and a safe learning environment as a child.

In my hometown patriotism was a given. A belief in God was also a given. It was also understood that we watched out for each other. While there were certainly those who didn’t get along, we were all in it together for the most part. For example, there was a wonderful school and town spirit and when the high school football team or basketball team played, the whole town showed up.

Most of the teachers in school were just as visible on Sundays at church as they were during the week at school. That closeness could get a little bit uncomfortable at times. It was hard to keep a secret in Byron, and some people thought that was bad, but I liked feeling connected to a community of good people who cared about each other and watched out for each other.

In many ways it was a sheltered environment. In some ways it was almost too good to be true. I had a lot of freedom to come and go even as a young boy. There were no policemen in town and most people didn’t even lock the doors to their homes at night or when they were away.

The Pledge of Allegiance started each day in grade school. As I grew older and participated in sports, I noticed and appreciated the fact that before any of our sporting events we had a team prayer. Furthermore, from the time I was in grade school until I graduated from high school, I was taught about the wonderful heritage of our great country.

I don’t ever remember anyone bashing the United States or talking about how evil we were as a country, even though I attended school during the Vietnam era. We knew about the flag burnings and the Vietnam protests, but they seemed far away and irrelevant. Instead of focusing on protest and dissent during school, I was taught about the Boston Tea Party, the American Revolution, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution of the United States, and many other important historical events that are important parts of our heritage. I was also taught that our Founding Fathers were heroes and that America was a great and generous land.

Some would say that I grew up in a Pollyanna world. I don’t think so. I still believe that the delusional ones are those who don’t recognize how blessed we are as a people and as a nation. The whiners and complainers are the delusional ones. Those who can see only the scabs are the ones who really don’t understand reality.

I still believe in those basic things I learned as a child. I still love my country and my God. I still reverence the Founding Fathers and am grateful for the sacrifices they made for us. I still believe that Constitution of the United States was inspired by God, and that it is the greatest political document ever written, bar none!

As a young man I remember listening to Paul Harvey on the radio. Most days, my dad would listen to Paul Harvey at lunchtime. Whenever I was around, I would listen too. I liked Paul Harvey because he seemed to be grounded in a love of God and country just like we were. The Paul Harvey mentality made sense to me.

However, during my junior high years, the whole hippie movement hit. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me. It didn’t seem to fit into the Paul Harvey philosophy of life, that is for sure. The long hair, the drugs, the free sex, Woodstock, and protest marches all seemed pretty far removed from my world.

I didn’t understand why people were protesting. Why did they think that the establishment was so evil? Marriage, families, stability, responsibility, and patriotism all seemed like the right way to go. It seemed like they were protesting against all the anchors of our society. They hated the flag, the military, employers, responsibility, restraint, religion, and God. I didn’t get it.

Thankfully, because of my happy home life and good parents and teachers who taught me well, I seemed to have no interest in rebellion and protest. In fact, the opposite was true. I grew up with an almost overly active sense of right and wrong, if that is possible.

I loved my parents, and the last thing I wanted to do was to hurt or disappoint them. They believed I was a good kid and I didn’t want to prove them wrong. I didn’t ever drink or smoke. I wasn’t into vandalism or being mean to other kids who were smaller than I was. I can’t say I was perfect, of course. I did get into some fights that I am not proud of and did some things as a young man that were certainly foolish, but for the most part, I kept my nose clean. I wanted to have a life just like my parents had. I wanted an education, a good job, a marriage, and a happy home life. The establishment seemed just fine to me. I can think of few around me who thought differently.

During the ’60s and later in the ’70s, I remember my dad saying that he was worried about the day when the generation of the hippies would be the leaders in our country. He was concerned that the lack of moral foundation would someday come back to haunt us as a nation. I fear that day has come.

After high school, I attended college for a year and then served two years in Sweden as a missionary for my church. Most of the people in Sweden had a positive opinion about the United States and its citizens, but some didn’t. There were some who viewed the United States in a negative way. They, of course, didn’t understand and didn’t value the Constitution of the United States, and they really didn’t think we were a good influence in the world. I wasn’t too surprised about that perspective coming from people from a foreign land; however, later, as I returned home to the States, I heard some pretty negative things coming from the mouths of some of my fellow citizens. I had a hard time understanding that perspective coming from those in our midst who had grown up here in the United States and had benefited from all the privileges that we enjoy in this great land.

I was starting to become more aware of the liberal voice. My first reaction was anger. How dare they say those things? How dare they burn the flag? If they really hate the country so much, why don’t they go find a better place to live and a better government if they can? I really had a hard time understanding where they were coming from, but that voice did not go away. In fact, over time the anti-America liberal voice became stronger and stronger.

I came to recognize that there were two major places the liberal view was voiced. Liberalism was heard on college campuses and in the mainstream media. Since that time I have listened to that voice become louder and shriller and have watched as it has in large part been adopted by the National Democratic Party. Unfortunately, the Republican Party is not too far behind the Democrats in their adoption of liberal principles in many instances.

In spite of my upbringing, I really didn’t have much interest in politics and government until I was almost thirty years old. My mother convinced me to attend a weekend seminar about the Constitution sometime around 1984. The sponsoring organization was the National Center for Constitutional Studies.

I don’t know if they are even in existence any longer, but they did a good job of educating us about important principles of our Constitution. Much of what I heard there, I had heard before, but much of it was new. As a result of that seminar, I gained a greater appreciation for the writers of our Constitution. I also gained a better historical background about our country. I came to appreciate the miracle that our Constitution is and how it has blessed our country and the world. I also learned about attacks on our Constitution and our way of government. While I don’t remember all they taught us, I do remember the basic principles that were taught and have never been able to shake the feeling that I needed to do something to try to protect and preserve the Constitution and its principles.

After the Constitution seminar, I became more aware that much of what was happening in our country was not consistent with the Constitution. I also noticed that much of what was happening in our society was the tearing down of the institutions and ideals that had made this country great. Good was bad, and bad was good it seemed.

While most people were still proud of our great nation, an extremely vocal and well promoted minority did everything they could to tear down and embarrass the United States. They did things like the burning of flags. They claimed we were an imperialistic nation. They called the police pigs and did everything they could to tear down, humiliate, and disparage our soldiers in uniform. It seemed they wanted us to lose the war in Vietnam. In fact, that is exactly what they wanted and were able to achieve.

I also saw that free sex and drugs were promoted by the left, while responsibility, patriotism and faith became taboo topics. Plus there were those that claimed that God was dead and that religion was evil. Capitalism was also assumed to be evil, and competition and ambition were nasty words. Furthermore, employers were made out to be the enemy rather than the friend of the worker. And if a person didn’t believe that abortion was an acceptable alternative, he was automatically assumed to be against the rights of women. Similarly a person who stated that he was pro-family was instantly assumed to be a homophobe. I didn’t even know what a homophobe was.

It also seemed that many politicians were more concerned with staying in office than they were in preserving our nation and protecting Constitutional principles. Politicians of both parties were extremely generous with other people’s money and used their influence in Washington to buy votes.

I further noticed that the media really didn’t report anything without a bias and I came to doubt everything coming from any of the major news sources. It was all too obvious that they had their own agenda and it certainly wasn’t consistent with what I believed.

It all reminded me of 2 Timothy 4:3–4 which states, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine: but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. Even though the liberal talking points seemed like fables to me, the liberal voice was everywhere.

It was obvious to me that there were those among us who wanted to destroy us. If it was just a difference of opinion about what we should do as a nation, it would not have mattered so much to me what liberals thought. However, it became abundantly clear that the liberal mindset was not only to disagree with my perspective, but they also set out to destroy virtually everything that was good. I was sure they were leading us away from freedom and goodness to places we should not go as a nation.

I have now passed my fiftieth birthday. This is not the same country I was born into. Sure, it is the same country geographically, but much has changed since I was a young boy. I love our country. I love our form of government, as imperfect as it is, it is the best form of government to ever grace the face of this earth. I am convinced this land is a blessed land, and that we are truly one nation under God like our Pledge of Allegiance states.

At the same time I love this country, I fear that our freedoms are eroding. I am deeply concerned about the direction our country is taking and I am fearful that ignorance of truth will undermine that which made this country great. I am fearful that the liberal establishment in the news media and in our universities are brainwashing our people. Unfortunately, they do not want us to be a nation under God. They want us to be something else.

The liberal establishment is the blame American first crowd. They don’t believe that the United States of America is a noble place. They don’t believe our success as a country has anything to do with noble ideas. They don’t recognize that as a nation we have saved the world more than once from tyranny. They look at us as bullies rather than as heroes and they are quick to apologize for the United States where no apology is necessary.

It should be obvious to you that I am a conservative. What does that really mean anyway? There are two parts to conservatism. Those two parts are social conservatism and fiscal conservatism.

I believe social conservatism means that we believe in God. We also believe that His law trumps all other law. It means that just because something is legal doesn’t necessarily mean that is it moral or right. Social conservatives are pro-life, pro-family, pro-marriage, and antigambling among other things. Yes I am socially conservative.

I am also a fiscal conservative. Fiscal conservatism means that government spending is controlled and limited. It means that reductions in government spending and taxation are good for our people and good for our nation. It also means (as the Constitution states) that money and power should reside more on the state than on the federal level.

Let me briefly share some of my other basic conservative beliefs. I believe the Constitution of the United States was inspired by God and that it is the greatest, most important political document ever written. It is great because its law, if followed, allows freedom to continue.

I also believe in the free enterprise system and capitalism. Capitalism is not a perfect system, but it is better than the alternatives.

I believe in limited government in the market and everywhere else. Similarly I am fearful of too much power being given to any man or group of men.

I believe that responsibility is underrated and rights are overrated in our country. I don’t want, in any way, to diminish the importance of our rights, but there needs to be a voice just as loud talking about responsibility.

Furthermore, I believe in a strong military. I believe our strength is a great deterrent. Conversely, I do not believe negotiations will work with dishonest, immoral governments or their representatives.

I believe in limited taxation and limited government spending. I believe more moms would be able to stay at home if the tax burden weren’t so great. The tax burden is great, by and large, because politicians of both parties are fiscally irresponsible.

Most importantly, I believe the home is where the real strength of our nation lies and I am fearful that the decay of marriages and homes has hurt our nation and will ultimately destroy us if we don’t take care of our duties at home.

I also believe in the sanctity of life. I believe we have a responsibility to the unborn, to our children, and to the elderly. I believe the creation of new life needs to be treated as seriously as the taking of life. I further believe that children are our greatest asset, and that parenting is undervalued in our busy society.

Ultimately, I believe we each have a responsibility to give something back to society. We have a responsibility to make the world a better place. I don’t believe words alone will do that, but I am hopeful that what I have to say will help someone, somewhere, go out and do something to help preserve our freedoms.

So, what do liberals believe? Well, I am sure they believe in some of the same things I do, but I am not really sure what those things are.

It seems to me that they devalue the family in favor of homosexual freedom and other alternative lifestyles. They seem to value the three-toed frog, caribou, dolphins, mice, and wolves much higher than unborn humans. They seem also to worship the earth instead of God. It appears they want government to be bigger and more powerful, taxes to be greater, and freedoms to be less.

They want to control industry, commerce, the health care system, communications, and generally micromanage the economy. They are anticapitalist. Moreover, they say the Constitution is a living, breathing, growing document (which means they can change it anyway they would like). They want less government on the local level and more on the federal level.

Plus they don’t want God’s law to have any influence on man’s law. Moreover, they are more concerned about controlling education than they are in teaching our children. Similarly, they are more concerned with looking generous than in actually helping people get out of poverty.

Furthermore, they are pacifists both in regard to crime and international relations. As a result, they are quick to want to sign bad treaties with dishonest nations. They also are quick to support United Nations’ actions but condemn our unilateral involvement in almost any military exercise (unless of course there is a Democrat in the Whitehouse). They very much believe man will destroy the world because of global warming and they are more likely to hug a tree than to embrace reality.

I cannot think of anything in regard to liberalism that I agree with. But, what makes the Liberal tick? What are the underlying principles of their beliefs? If they have core values, what are they?

I have been thinking a great deal about what it really means to be a liberal. I have been trying to figure out how they perceive the world. I have tried to reduce their philosophy down to the lowest common denominator. While it is fairly easy to identify what the liberal or conservative viewpoint is on any given issue, it is much more difficult to identify the principles that got them there. I do not claim to have a perfect understanding of these issues, and I am sure liberals will not agree with my analysis, but I do believe in what I am going to share. I know that the world is not always black–and-white, but I do believe there are some very basic ideological differences that separate these two conflicting views of the world. What are those differences?

At first I thought the central issue separating liberals from conservatives was how agency or choice was viewed. I thought that preserving and protecting individual freedom was a conservative position and increasing government control over the individual was