Calling them “extreme conservatives,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo blasted conservative Republican New Yorkers earlier this year, telling them they have no place in New York state. More recently Nancy Pelosi said: “Civilization as we know it today would be in jeopardy if the Republicans win the Senate.” In ugly campaign ads and lies, the NYS Democratic Party has repeatedly slammed Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino as an “extremist” and perhaps it won’t be long before congressional candidate Grant Lally is labeled a rightwing extremist.
The “extremist” mantra is one of the three big lies that many incumbent Democrat politicians use as their re-election campaign strategy to paint Republicans as bigoted and dangerous in order to win votes by demonization. The three lies repeated incessantly are that Republicans are extremists, racists, and only care about the rich. Goebbels said, “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it” and Democrats have been repeating these lies for nearly 20 years and unfortunately they’ve stuck. It’s straight out of Saul Alinsky’s playbook, the forth rule: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”
Since when did the political arena become so ugly and divisive? By and large, the great modern partisan divide took off in the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election in 2000 between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore. The election results hinged on Florida, where an extremely close race ended in weeks of legal battles over the recounting of votes. A Supreme Court decision ended the recount, awarding the Florida electoral votes and the presidency to Bush.
The left screamed “unfair,” that the voters not the courts should have decided the election. Although he disagreed with the Supreme Court verdict, Gore ended his campaign “for the sake of unity as a people and the strength of our democracy” and said “partisan rancor must now be put aside.” Bush declared that the “nation must rise above a house divided.”
Regrettably, the house remained divided and the bitterness and resentment intensified. Leftwing Democrats felt cheated and declared it was an illegitimate election and that democracy doesn’t work. Angry and embittered, they vowed that the system was broken and planned to avenge their loss by ultimately seizing control of the Democrat Party and ruling by fiat. That is why today, indicative of their plan to destroy the opposition, Nancy Pelosi can say with a straight face that Republican rule will destroy America. President Obama often uses his executive powers to bypass Congress and rule by executive fiat.
Today leftist progressives dominate the Democrat Party and repeat endless lies, run false campaign attack ads, denounce their opponents as racists and extremists, and refuse to debate as in the race between Cuomo and Astorino. Once they eliminate the opposition, they can put their extreme progressive agenda into place, “fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” as Obama declared. Their objective is to dispose of the values that made America the greatest nation in the world.
The extreme progressives are an outspoken minority who believe they should make the rules for all of us. They believe they know best that the minimum wage should be $15 per hour; that because specialized high schools are not diverse enough, the tests need to be dumbed down; that all schoolchildren will learn best with a universal one-size-fits-all curriculum; that everyone will be safer if cops react to violent crime rather than confront it before it occurs; that bigger, more expensive government is better for society; and the list goes on and on.
However, the vast majority of the American public cherishes the ideals and values that made America great and don’t believe in the extremist progressive agenda. They believe in American ideals, merit, family, self sufficiency, and law and order. The vast majority are not extremists or racists, contrary to the race hustlers’ accusations that racism is rampant in America. They value hard work, education, self-sacrifice, and service to our nation.
With the help of the media and academic elites, the progressive left creates the myth that Republicans are the bad guys. If the majority of Americans learned the truth and voted, the extreme progressives would be an endangered species. As Senator Frank Padavan used to say: “You’re all Republicans, you just don’t know it.”
Phil Orenstein
President
Queens Village Republican Club
