Donald Douglas
American Power
9/12/2011
…I voted for Al Gore in 2000. I still thought the Democratic Party was the party of Truman and Kennedy. How naive I must have been. But my vision has become clearer every year since then.
The annual debate over the September 11th attacks always reminds me of my political transformation. By now it’s safe to say that 9/11 and the Iraq war have merged in my consciousness, although it wasn’t always so. It took me a couple of years to understand the partisan divide in America, that one side stands for old-time values, love of country, individualism and sacrifice. The other side stands for ideological intolerance, anti-Americanism, and appeasement toward the forces of evil in the world. It’s a stark difference that took stark historical events to congeal for me personally.
I’m reminded of this by some of the comments at my post from yesterday, “Progressives Shame the Country on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.” I wrote at the conclusion there: “For many people like myself, that’s why they became conservative.” And my good friend Kenneth Davenport dropped by to comment, responding in particular to my conclusion:
I haven’t thought about it in this way before, but I’ve certainly become more conservative in response to the painful nihilism that regularly comes from the left. I live in a different world than they do, and there really are no areas of common ground. That’s the truth. They see America as a flawed nation which should apologize for itself at every turn and which deserved the attacks of 9/11. And I see America as the last best hope of earth, a place of unbounded fairness and generosity, forged in the belief that the individual — and not government — is sovereign. There is no reconciling these two different belief systems. So I don’t try. Instead, I surround myself with good people who share my values and who give thanks every day that there are those who are willing to sacrifice everything for our survival as a nation.
That’s so well-said, and reaffirming…
Now remember that it was Paul Krugman who got me going yesterday, and it turns out Glenn Reynolds received a load of comments about that. See, “EVERYBODY’S ANGRY, to judge from my email, about Paul Krugman’s typo-burdened 9/11 screed“:
Don’t be angry. Understand it for what it is, an admission of impotence from a sad and irrelevant little man. Things haven’t gone the way he wanted lately, his messiah has feet of clay…
…You’ll see more and worse from Krugman and his ilk as the left nationally undergoes the kind of crackup it’s already experiencing in Wisconsin. They thought Barack Obama was going to bring back the glory days of liberal hegemony in politics, but it turned out he was their Ghost Dance, their Bear Shirt, a mystically believed-in totem that lacked the power to reverse their onrushing decline, no matter what the shamans claimed…
…I’m not angry, as much as continually shocked at the brazen progressive hatred…
Read the whole thing at American Power. It’s a wonderful article in which you may recognize yourself, your own metamorphosis.
Related: Ten Years Is A Long Time
I can hardly believe that a decade has passed since I was two blocks from The White House and watching the TV in my office as a second plane hit the World Trade Center.
A lot of what drives me as an adult was born on that day. It is hard to believe that 2001 was so long ago…
Update: Berkeley: 9/11 March For, Get This… Palestine? at The Jawa Report.
Remember this?:
And the world wants to hand them half of Jerusalem?
Be sure to visit Legal Insurrection today where there is video to instruct readers who the fake and real heroes are.
Also, On 9/11 anniversary, 100 Egyptians stage sit-in at U.S. embassy in Cairo to demand release of cleric behind 1993 WTC attack Wait a minute! Wasn’t Bill Clinton president then?!
