Mediaboss Marketing

|

Posted: Aug 03, 2017 9:58 AM

There was a timeover a hundred years agowhen to battle the forces of rapacious greed for meat safe to eat, railroads safe to ride, and tenements safe to inhabit was the noble call of some progressive voices. Yet, Teddy Roosevelt reformers were not rough riders upon Americans individual liberties in pursuit of better, safer lives.

From another Roosevelt era onward, however, progressives eschewed the rights of individuals for the power of the state. Instead of the Old and New Testaments, and the wisdom of Thomas Aquinas and John Locke, theirs have been the Books of Marx and Alinsky. Instead of Love thy neighbor, it became Compel they neighbor for the common good. No longer were individuals seen as beacons of liberty but as threats to a new order where, progressives said, each would receive according to his need. In and of itself, progressivism may not be evil, but its steroidal mutationsfascism, Nazism, and communismhave been nothing but.

In 1984, five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Pope John Paul II said, There is the danger of replacing Marxism with another form of atheism which, praising freedom, tends to destroy the roots of human and Christian morality. In his book, A Pope and A President, Dr. Paul Kengor says JPII was referring to secular progressivism, a movement responsible for millions of abortions in the name of freedom and banishing God from the new constitution of the European Union.

Banishing God from everyday life was an important first step following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The Leninists were ruthless in their quest of a Godless society. Todays progressives need not be, as an entitlement public marches steadily away from an Almighty Providence to a governmental one. Because progressives have nearly driven the Almighty from our public spaces and made it uncool to attend places of worship, it is a matter of time before Freedom of Religion will be its own relic. Europeans have largely abandoned active faith in God, and where has that gotten them?

Why do progressives fear God so? Because the very notion of a Creator is critical to individual liberty. Who may have been one of the first in our country to see progressivisms threat was Bishop Fulton Sheen, who spoke the truism that, God can live without democracy, but democracy cannot live without God. What he was getting at was nothing less than our survival as a free people, and he was speaking as only an American could.

The Gospel of Matthew I heard on Sunday speaks of the man who finds a pearl of great price and does whatever he must to possess it. This and other parables proclaim the universal truth that our relationship with the Almighty is an individual one, and it is a tenet held by all Abrahamic religionists. Aside from the unique covenant with the Jews, our rights do not come to us with a group discount because we are female or male, Black, Latino, White, Asian, or a member of the LGBTQ brigade. Rather, we were born to our rights as human beings, individually endowed by our Creator, and progressives know they cannot be legalized away if God is in our lives.

The difference, then, between the progressivism of Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Elizabeth Warren and the natural law philosophy of Aquinas, Locke, and our Founders is stark: they firmly believed our individual rights to be inalienable, that they come from the one Creator and no one else. Obamians believe our rights are granted to us by the government of the moment, that our Constitution must morph to what (progressives think) is necessary for our times.

Without the principle of inalienability, of individual rights, there is little to resist the siren song of free stuff progressives constantly sing. Theirs is a Ponzi sham where the state takes what it wants and distributes it according to the lights of the current ruling clique. Its not as if taking the life of a viable infant in the womb, breaking into our country and living here illegally, or trashing several thousand years of marital practices are God-given rights. Progressives know these to be vote-buying bribes, not inalienable rights from the Almighty. As such, they are flimsy, fragile, and ephemeral, and that includes the pursuit of happiness, when elected progressives decide how we marry, raise and educate our children, and perhaps, how and when we die.

In less than one generation, when numberless baby boomers burden an already sagging health system, and maintaining the warehoused millions denies dollars to new state largesse, such as a free college education, progressivesin powerwill propose, ultimately, a final sunset for vast numbers of the elderly. Because the Creator has been removed from the progressives equation, there will be no moral basis to object, and rights, once thought immutable, will be taken away for the greater good. Will 90 And Out be their 2024 campaign slogan?

Its always a fair question to ask supporters of progressivism what liberties (of ours) they would trade for government goodies, when in the world of Obamians, progressivisms ultimate price in securing power must always be liberty itself.

There are times when even rugged individuals must act in unison, knowing what patriots of 1776 knew: We acted then to bridle the power of a king and declare independence. We must act now, not just to resist the progressivist tide, but to advance the liberties for which so many have lain their lives on the altar of freedom.

In an era when voters seem easily driven toward the warming notions of empathetic rights, elegant speech, kumbaya companionship, and spandex liberties, when so many are brushing aside the Author of our national soul, the better question is:

What are all the rest of us thinking?

Originally posted here:
Progressivism's Problemthe Price - Townhall

What wasnt to like?

A lot, as it turns out. The leaders of the Womens March, arguably the most prominent feminists in the country, have some chilling ideas and associations. Far from erecting the big tent so many had hoped for, the movement they lead has embraced decidedly illiberal causes and cultivated a radical tenor that seems determined to alienate all but the most woke.

***

Start with Ms. Sarsour, by far the most visible of the quartet of organizers. It turns out that this homegirl in a hijab, as one of many articles about her put it, has a history of disturbing views, as advertised by . . . Linda Sarsour.

There are comments on her Twitter feed of the anti-Zionist sort: Nothing is creepier than Zionism, she wrote in 2012. And, oddly, given her status as a major feminist organizer, there are more than a few that seem to make common cause with anti-feminists, like this from 2015: Youll know when youre living under Shariah law if suddenly all your loans and credit cards become interest-free. Sound nice, doesnt it? She has dismissed the anti-Islamist feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the most crude and cruel terms, insisting she is not a real woman and confessing that she wishes she could take away Ms. Alis vagina this about a woman who suffered genital mutilation as a girl in Somalia.

Ms. Sarsour and her defenders have dismissed all of this as a smear campaign coordinated by the far right and motivated by Islamophobia. Plus, theyve argued, many of these tweets were written five years ago! Ancient history.

But just last month, Ms. Sarsour proved that her past is prologue. On July 16, the official Twitter feed of the Womens March offered warm wishes to Assata Shakur. Happy birthday to the revolutionary #AssataShakur! read the tweet, which featured a #SignOfResistance, in Assatas honor a pink and purple Pop Art-style portrait of Ms. Shakur, better known as Joanne Chesimard, a convicted killer who is on the F.B.I.s list of most wanted terrorists.

Like many others, CNNs Jake Tapper noticed the outrageous tweet. Shakur is a cop-killer fugitive in Cuba, he tweeted, going on to mention Ms. Sarsours troubling past statements. Any progressives out there condemning this? he asked.

In the face of this sober criticism, Ms. Sarsour cried bully: @jaketapper joins the ranks of the alt-right to target me online. Welcome to the party.

Theres no doubt that Ms. Sarsour is a regular target of far-right groups, but her experience of that onslaught is what makes her smear all the more troubling. Indeed, the idea that Jake Tapper is a member of the alt-right is the kind of delirious, fact-free madness that fuels Donald Trump and his supporters. Troublingly, it is exactly the sentiment echoed by the Womens March: Our power your power scares the far right. They continue to try to divide us. Todays attacks on #AssataShakur are the latest example.

Since when did criticizing a domestic terrorist become a signal issue of the far right? Last I checked, that position was a matter of basic decency and patriotism.

Whats more distressing is that Ms. Sarsour is not the only leader of the womens movement who harbors such alarming ideas. Largely overlooked have been the similarly outrageous statements of the marchs other organizers.

Ms. Mallory, in addition to applauding Assata Shakur as a feminist emblem, also admires Fidel Castro, who sheltered Ms. Shakur in Cuba. She put up a flurry of posts when Mr. Castro died last year. R.I.P. Comandante! Your legacy lives on! she wrote in one. She does not have similar respect for American police officers. When you throw a brick in a pile of hogs, the one that hollers is the one you hit, she posted on Nov. 20.

Ms. Perez also expressed her admiration for a Black Panther convicted of trying to kill six police officers: Love learning from and sharing space with Baba Sekou Odinga.

But the public figure both women regularly fawn over is Louis Farrakhan.

On May 11, Ms. Mallory posted a photo with her arm around Mr. Farrakhan, the 84-year-old Nation of Islam leader notorious for his anti-Semitic comments, on Twitter and Instagram. Thank God this man is still alive and doing well, she wrote. It is one of several videos and photos and quotes that Ms. Mallory has posted of Mr. Farrakhan.

Ms. Perez is also a big fan. In the fall, she posted a photo in which she holds hands with Mr. Farrakhan, writing, There are many times when I sit with elders or inspirational individuals where I think, I just wish I could package this and share this moment with others. Shes also promoted video of Mr. Farrakhan dropping knowledge and another in which he says he is speaking truth to power.

What is Mr. Farrakhans truth? Readers born after 1980 will probably have little idea, since he has largely remained out of the headlines since the Million Man March he organized in 1995. But his views, which this editorial page has called twisted, remain as appalling as ever.

And dont you forget, when its God who puts you in the ovens, its forever! he warned Jews in a speech at a Nation of Islam gathering in Madison Square Garden in 1985. Five years later, he remained unreformed: The Jews, a small handful, control the movement of this great nation, like a radar controls the movement of a great ship in the waters. Or this metaphor, directed at Jews: You have wrapped your tentacles around the U.S. government, and you are deceiving and sending this nation to hell. He called Hitler a very great man on national television. Judaism, he insists, is a gutter religion.

In one of the several widely available YouTube videos hes made about the Jews, he told black Americans that the control of the Synagogue of Satan over our people must be exposed. He adds: These satanic ones have not only controlled hip-hop but they control, according to their own words, the very messages that are brought to the public. He goes on to offer a truly remarkable analysis of the hip-hop industry in which intelligent rappers are rejected by the satanic minds who insist that they want filth and encourage vulgarity and savagery. This is the first 10 minutes of an hour.

Mr. Farrakhan is also an unapologetic racist. He insists that whites are a race of devils and that white people deserve to die.

Feminists will find little to cheer in his 1950s views of gender: Your professional lives cant satisfy your soul like a good, loving man. Recently he told Jay-Z that he should make Beyonc put on some clothes. He also opposes gay marriage.

If that wasnt enough of a rap sheet, Mr. Farrakhan also loves Scientology and believes 9/11 was a false flag operation.

***

I can already hear the pushback. Whats a few impolitic tweets and photos compared to the horror show of this administration? Save your outrage for the transgender ban in the military, for the lies that spew forth daily from the press briefing room, for the cuts to Planned Parenthood, the shady business with Russia, and, and, and.

But the nightmare of the Trump administration is the proof text for why all of this matters. We just saw what happens to legitimate political parties when they fall prey to movements that are, at base, anti-American. That is true of the populist, racist alt-right that helped deliver Mr. Trump the White House and are now hollowing out the Republican Party. And it can be true of the progressive resistance regardless of how chic, Instagrammable and celebrity-laden the movement may seem. Recall that only a few months ago, Keith Ellison, a man with a long history of defending and working with anti-Semites, was almost made leader of the Democratic National Committee.

Will progressives have more spine than conservatives in policing hate in their ranks? Or will they ignore it in their fury over the Trump administration?

I am sure that Linda Sarsour, and perhaps the other leaders of the Womens March, will block me for writing this. Maybe Ill be accused of siding with the alt-right or tarred as Islamophobic. But what I stand against is embracing terrorists, disdaining independent feminist voices, hating on democracies and celebrating dictatorships. If that puts me beyond the pale of the progressive feminist movement in America right now, so be it.

The rest is here:
When Progressives Embrace Hate - New York Times

Rep. Maxine Waters / Getty

BY: Paul Crookston August 1, 2017 4:34 pm

After progressives turned "nevertheless, she persisted" into a rallying cry in support of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), they have now moved onto the refrain"reclaiming my time," taken from Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.).

Waters repeated those words to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin during a House Financial Services Committee hearing last week, when she thought he was stalling in his answer about responding to a letter she sent him in May. Committee chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas) stepped in toexplain that the time did indeed belong to Waters as a ranking member of the committee, and progressives found it to be an empowering moment of defiance in the face of male verbosity.

"As a de facto leader of the anti-Trump resistance, Waters has become a bit of a rallying point for progressives in recent months and her words to Mnuchin quickly became an internet meme among women, minorities, and anyone else who's run out of time to waste and f**ks to give," Aja Romano wrote at Vox.

Progressives have praised "Auntie Maxine" (a name that millennials have given her), shared clips from the hearing, and used "reclaiming my time" as a catchphrase. Similar to the outpouring of affection for Warren when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said, "Nevertheless, she persisted" in reference to her, the attention on Waters has been supportive and enthusiastic.

Vocalist Mykal Kilgore even recorded asong in honor of Waters, titled "Reclaiming My TimeGospel Mix" and the Washington Posthailed Waters' phrase as an "anthem."

Waters took to Twitter to thank Kilgore for the song and praise his talent.

Read more:
Progressives Turn Waters' Repetition of 'Reclaiming My Time' Into a Catchphrase - Washington Free Beacon

Last week, the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus voted to endorse City Councilman Jeff Johnson in the Cleveland Mayoral race.

The endorsement is Johnson's second from a local progressive organization, his first being from the Service Employees International Union, and it has given Johnson additional ammo and cred as the "progressive" candidate in the race, one which is perceived as a battle between an entrenched incumbent (Frank Jackson) and the field.

CCPC was formed with about 300 members one year ago as an outgrowth of the local Bernie Sanders campaign effort. The organization is headquartered in Lakewood and has ballooned to nearly 3,000 members. CCPC's political director Steve Holecko attributes that rapid growth to the spirit of political activism in the wake of Donald Trump's election. Its members have organized and demonstrated around issues of wealth inequality, which locally include the fight for a higher minimum wage and opposition to the Q Deal.

Holecko estimated in a phone conversation with Scene that roughly 800 of the organization's members are Cleveland residents.

Only three mayoral candidates applied for the endorsement: Johnson, Brandon Chrostowski and Eric Brewer.

Johnson is himself a member of the Progressive Caucus, and Holecko said that the organization's steering committee was hopeful that Johnson would win the endorsement. Holecko said they made no efforts to tilt the results, but that roughly 70 percent of the Cleveland membership voted to endorse Johnson regardless.

"We're very closely aligned," Holecko said, of the group's platform and Johnson's.

The endorsement is good news for Johnson after a week of legal challenges. Last Monday, one of Johnson's competitors in the race, Eric Brewer, challenged his candidacy by suggesting he was actually a resident of Twinsburg. Brewer emailed Cuyahoga County elections Director Pat McDonald to make his case, but the complaint was filed too close to the election for the board to act. Cleveland.com's Robert Higgs reported that the elections board had already ruled on Johnson's residency. It dismissed an earlier complaint and ruled that Johnson's voting address was at his Glenville home.

Johnson has maintained that he lives in Cleveland he is a "third-generation resident," of Glenville he says but his wife and two stepdaughters do indeed live in Twinsburg, where the teenage girls attend Twinsburg City Schools.

On last week's Reporter's Roundtable on WCPN, the panel of journalists suggested that Brewer who made news last week for not having voted since 2009 was merely trying to stay relevant by challenging and/or distracting the race's top candidates.

Also last week, the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed a resident's legal challenge to Johson's candidacy after the challenger didn't bother to present any evidence. The challenge was an attempt to appeal the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections' unanimous ruling, in May, that Johnson was eligible to run.

Follow this link:
Jeff Johnson at the Poles: Progressives Love Him, Others Want Him Out - Cleveland Scene Weekly

It hurts to think back to election night. After a few hours of watching the votes come in with the people Id spent countless hours on the campaign trail with, the results were becoming clear.

The room felt suffocating, so I decided to take a walk alone. For a few minutes, I strolled along the Charles River, watching the soft glow from Weeks Bridge as an existential dread formed in my stomach. I walked in a heavy silence, thinking about the organizing and campaigning wed done, realizing that, although ultimately not enough, wed given it our all.

Katy Perry had a different election night, one that marked the end of her superficial campaign effortsan uninspiring performance at the Democratic National Convention, some selfies, and bizarre attempts to get her fans to vote. She held Lady Gagas hand in the Javits Center as the results came in, and said it was traumatizing when she heard that Senator Hillary R. Clinton would not be arriving to give an acceptance speech. She claims that the night was an awakening for her and that shes tried reflecting that in her new album, Witness.

A senior editor at Pitchfork wrote in a review of the album that [Katy Perrys] stated goal of making woke pop is, depending on how cynical you are, either admirable or shameless (or both), but either way, its not terribly effective. The album fails because Perry does not follow through on her commitment to social justice; she simply uses it as a selling point. On the album, shes featured homophobic artists, which seems to be in line with a career marked by anti-gay lyrics and blatant cultural appropriation. Katy Perry uses the so-called Resistance as a way of updating her brand, marketing her music, and making money.

When Katy Perrys performanceincluding painfully unoriginal statements on freedom on the Fourth of Julyisnt accepted as genuine, she gets frustrated and accuses critics of issuing vindictive clapbacks for the sake of conflict. Instead of focusing on what she can do for social justice, she worries about why people arent believing her act.

President Donald Trump is an easy punching bageven Perry has taken her shotswhich has made it easy to shirk personal responsibility to social justice while also claiming to care about progressive causes. Denouncing Trump is easy. Actively working against the sexism, xenophobia, and racism that fueled his political success is much harder and doesnt happen as often. The Womens Marches in January were powerful acts of protest, but they were still very white and cisgender. The impressive attendance at them was marred by the sense that some were only there for the the photo-op. Theres been a spike in these performative progressives, who strive to say the right thing without taking substantive action.

Katy Perry is one of the most high-profile examples of this phenomenon, but shes far from the only one. Kendall Jenner commodified the protests sweeping the country in an attempt to sell Pepsi. A recent SNL sketch depicted men at a bar who flirt with a woman by uttering popular feminist phrases before calling that woman a bitch when she rejects their advances. In New York Citys Washington Square Park last weekend, I saw a woman selling $3 Pins for the Resistance, and people lined up to buy them. The political movement for equality has slowly transformed itself into an aesthetic that allows people to be progressive on paper while upholding the status quo in person.

At Harvard, this attitude is clearest among discussions about final clubs. Although membership processes premised on gender exclusion and wealth generally select for a more conservative ideology, many final club members identify as progressive. They support progressive causes online and through membership in political groups on campus, but their performance ends as soon as they join a club. Their actions support institutions that foster class exclusion, gender discrimination, and unhealthy social dynamics on campus. Theyre progressive, but incredibly selective in their causes, which makes their work feel like a show.

The faculty recommendation to phase out social groups brought another set of performative progressives to the forefront. These individuals are progressive in most cases, writing passionately on Facebook about gender, sexuality, and racial equality, but turn a blind eye when discussing the exclusionary culture surrounding final clubs. Perhaps its because their social lives center around Mount Auburn St. Maybe they have friends in clubs who they see as good people, which blinds them to the structural issues that plague clubs. Maybe the idea of social exclusion doesnt seem antithetical to their progressive ideals, as if elitism werent founded on power imbalances. They say the right things, but then turn around and defend institutions that represent everything progressive movements aim to change.

The Resistance, the movement, the causeuse your term of choiceis not about individual gain or bolstering personal image. The ultimate goal should be the betterment of the oppressedcriminal justice reform, curtailment of sexism, equality in both principle and practice. Performative and selective progressives, with their hollow words and convenient blind spots, do nothing to bring us closer to these goals. Its time we stop performing our politics and instead head to the streets as organizers, protesters, and community builders dedicated to making real progress.

Ruben E. Reyes Jr. 19, a Crimson Editorial Chair, is a History and Literature concentrator in Leverett House. His column appears on Mondays.

PROF. HART A CANDIDATE

Professor Albert Bushnell Hart '80, of the department of Government, was nominated for the Massachusetts Senate on the Progressive ticket

Progressive Rally Tonight

A meeting of New England Progressives will be held in Tremont Temple this evening at 8 o'clock. Charles Sumner 'Bird

SUFFRAGE TALK IN EMERSON

Miss Helen Todd, of San Francisco, will lecture ion Emerson D this evening at 8 o'clock. She will speak under

On the Shelf

The current issue of the Harvard Progressive is by all odds the best of the three thus far published. Pessimists

Recap: You Get What You Need Devastating and Magnificent

Read the original post:
Performative Progressives | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson - Harvard Crimson