by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n Conservatives are put into awkward positions of critiquing liberal ideas on grounds that they are impractical, unworkable, or counterproductive. Yet rarely, at least outside the religious sphere, do they identify the progressive as\u00a0often immoral<\/a>\u00a0[1]. And the unfortunate result is that they have often ceded moral claims to supposedly dreamy, utopian, and well-meaning progressives, when in fact the latter increasingly have little moral ground to stand upon.<\/p>\n Take a few contemporary controversies.<\/p>\n Radical environmentalism<\/em>. When \u201cconservation\u201d sometime in the 1970s was redefined as \u201cenvironmentalism,\u201d\u00a0the morality of the entire issue likewise changed<\/a>\u00a0[2]. Most Americans had wanted clean air and water; and they were willing to pay to curb pollutants and drive more expensive, but cleaner, cars. They had no desire to see condors die off or kit foxes disappear.<\/p>\n But at some point, the green creed began to dictate that all species were equal to humans. Soon concern for a tiny frog or worm trumped a needed project \u2014 a dam, an irrigation canal, an oil well, or a mine \u2014 designed to alleviate human suffering. Here I am not talking about large-scale species annihilation, but rather taking a truth about wishing to protect a natural habitat and perverting it into elevating concerns for insects, amphibians, and small fish over people\u2019s elemental struggles to exist and prosper.<\/p>\n When California elites shut down 250,000 acres of irrigated agriculture to divert water into the San Francisco regional delta and bay, purportedly as a remedy to help the three-inch delta smelt, they were making a loud moral statement that those who mostly had secure jobs, mostly nice homes, and well-off environments were going to destroy the jobs of those in agriculture \u2014 not just the landowner and foreman, but the agricultural workers themselves \u2014 without much worry over the consequences.<\/p>\n In crude terms, the ideology might be paraphrased as something like the following, \u201cI got mine, Jack, and can\u2019t worry about you.\u201d Or, \u201cYou don\u2019t interest me as much as does a tiny fish in the delta.\u201d In truth, I would be far more worried that the town of San Joaquin had little money for basic civic services from a cutoff in irrigation water than I would a drop in the delta smelt population.<\/p>\n Had a tractor salesman in Mendota or an irrigator in Firebaugh had an environmental Shane to square off against the Bay Area\u2019s hired Jack Palance, then the dispute might at least have been more equal and honest. By that, I mean surely there are environmental problems with Berkeley\u2019s treated sewage that goes into the Bay; a particular moth larva in theory could be found to be \u201cin danger\u201d when the next UC environmental sciences building is envisioned; and there must be all sorts of ways to ensure the Fish and Game Department\u2019s trucks and SUVs run only on natural gas or propane, right?<\/p>\n In other words, so often in matters of producing gasoline for the lower middle classes, or cutting timber to ensure affordable housing, or making sure that we have plentiful cheap asphalt to fill potholes, we forget the moral argument that such resource utilization is critical to ensure that average folks have the same sort of chance for jobs, money, and aspirations as do the more wealthy whose green religious zeal makes them absolutely insensitive to \u2014 and in truth immoral about \u2014 the concerns of others less well off.<\/p>\n When Steven Chu admits both that he wishes gas prices to soar to European levels and that he has no need either\u00a0to drive or to own a car<\/a>\u00a0[3], then he is really saying, \u201cI don\u2019t have much concern for the results of my own fantasies.\u201d Yet had his lab and assorted lasers once been put on regular 12-hour blackouts to conserve \u201cskyrocketing\u201d energy, then he might have worried more about the consequences of his utopianism. When Barack Obama both calls for \u201cskyrocketing\u201d energy prices, and on his first January day in office turns up the West Wing thermostat\u00a0to tropical temperatures<\/a>\u00a0[4], then there is a sort of immorality implicit in his entire ideology. At least Jimmy Carter put on a sweater and turned down the temperature to match his malaise rhetoric. Does Al Gore think that the Mexicans, Nigerians, or Venezuelans who supply some of the jet fuel that allows him to huckster via private aircraft are kinder to Earth in the Balance when they drill than when we would in ANWR or North Dakota?<\/p>\n That moral obtuseness, along with\u00a0hypocrisy<\/a>\u00a0[5] and pseudo-scientific bombast, is why Gorism has imploded. In short, radical environmentalism is\u00a0a sort of medieval sect<\/a>\u00a0[6] that terrorizes the less well-off.<\/p>\n Multiculturalism<\/em>. Multiculturalism is another unkind dogma \u2014 the very notion that all cultures are professed equal, and those in the West often have a particular obligation to elevate illiberal and intolerant systems above their own in recompense for their supposedly ill-gotten prosperity and success. This week, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia \u2014 not a minor voice in the world of Islam \u2014 announced that he wished, according to his reading of Koranic-inspired statute,\u00a0that all the churches in the Gulf region be destroyed<\/a>\u00a0[7]. That threat was met with silence in the West. We know that had the pope said something equivalent (e.g., Europe should be free of mosques), we would have heard loud denunciations, perhaps even a declaration from President Obama that he did not wish his daughters growing up in a world of such religious bias.<\/p>\n But again the press said little or nothing \u2014 even though Abdullah\u2019s creepy declaration will spur Muslims even more to persecute Christians, most of whom are Arabs who have been Christian for millennia. Nor does the liberal establishment worry much that Jews are fleeing the Middle East, Africa, and other \u201cthird-world\u201d countries, largely because of a new anti-Semitism, fueled by radical Islam.<\/p>\n All over the Middle East, Christians and Jews are treated as\u00a0untermenschen<\/em>(only in Israel are they safe), and in immoral fashion we believe that our multicultural fides exempt us from the fact that we are quite callous and unapologetically uncaring over the plight of tens of thousands.<\/p>\n Illegal Immigration<\/em>. Unfortunately, illegal immigration has turned into an abjectly immoral enterprise. Here I won\u2019t dwell on the usual moral dimensions of massive influxes \u2014 illegal immigration makes a mockery of federal law in a way that would not be sustainable if the law were so assaulted in other areas; it undercuts the wages of US entry level workers; it results in billions of dollars in remittances, often from subsidized senders, that leave the US economy to Mexico; and it burdens insolvent states with entitlement costs borne by the strapped general population.<\/p>\n Instead, I am curious why an abstract fact of legal or illegal entry into the United States has become a\u00a0de facto<\/em>\u00a0\u201cLatino\u201d issue. There is zero concern voiced by Democrats over illegal aliens in general, unless, as in the case of the president\u2019s aunt and uncle, they are well-connected. By that, I mean no political leader announces, \u201cWe are quite cruelly deporting those who overstay their visas or arrive without one, and just this month unfairly deported 10 South Korean students, 6 Nigerian workers, and 4 Russian tourists.\u201d There is no interest in pondering how to free more Cubans from a totalitarian Castro regime that has systematically jailed and sometimes executed dissidents.<\/p>\n California Latino politicians are instead interested in the issue entirely on tribal grounds, not just out of empathy for those of the same ethnic background, but more practically in political terms of advancing their own careers as self-appointed tribal spokesmen in a multicultural system where hyphenation brings dividends. If the Mexican border were secure, and 1 million French Canadians were pouring into the US without English, legality, education, or capital, the Latino community would be calling for border enforcement, expressing worry about the unfair competition to entry-level American workers, decrying the cost and separatism in providing French-English official documents, and regretting the mockery made of the law. It is hard to recall a comparable example in the history of two nations, in which millions of foreign nationals fled their own nation to a neighboring one, and then immediately made claims upon their new hosts, often in deference to their home country that they had just abandoned due to its failure to provide them basic services and opportunities.<\/p>\n And yet to suggest that illegal immigration has morphed into an issue of ethnic chauvinism, predicated on ignoring the law only in one particular instance \u2014 illegal entry into the American southwest from citizens of Mexico and some regions of Latin America \u2014 is to incur a charge of racism. How Orwellian that \u2014 a largely race-based lobbying effort, aimed at a single ethnic constituency, defends itself by alleging \u201cracism\u201d on the part of any who would so identify its own unapologetic motives as such.<\/p>\n Affirmative Action<\/em>. Race-based exemption has become illiberal, and increasingly immoral. By that general term, I mean not just discriminatory quotas of a near half-century, or race-based advantages in hiring and admission, but a general pass given to illiberality on the basis of race. Just this last week, Lovie Smith, the coach of the Chicago Bears, released a video for Barack Obama\u2019s reelection efforts. Here\u2019s what I wrote about it\u00a0on NRO\u2019s Corner<\/a>\u00a0[8]:<\/p>\n What are we to make of the coach of the Chicago Bears, Lovie Smith, announcing on a campaign video, \u201cI have the President\u2018s back and it\u2019s left up to us, as African Americans, to show that we have his back. Also join African Americans for President Obama today.\u201d Does Coach Smith mean that \u201cas African Americans\u201d one has a duty to support the president by virtue of his race rather than his politics alone, or his politics as they relate to the welfare of African Americans? Are those African Americans who oppose Obama, then, doing so \u201cnot as African Americans\u201d? Are whites and Hispanics who support Obama doing so because he is also half-white or as \u201cnot African Americans\u201d?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And is the coach of the Chicago Bears now starting a precedent that the coaches of all NFL teams shall endorse particular political candidates (e.g., \u201cI have Senator X\u2019s back and it\u2019s left up to us, as (fill in the blanks: White, Latino, Asian) -Americans, to show that we have his back.\u201d), in hopes that their own races and team loyalties will sway voters? If so, Lovie Smith should read Procopius on the Nika riots and the volatile intersection between sport, faction, and politics.<\/p>\n These sorts of Byzantine blue\/green tribal loyalties become creepy when our president is encouraging well known Americans to state them so overtly. And, of course, it is only a matter of time now when some will, in counter fashion, publicly state that they are voting against Obama as a matter of racial politics in the way that others are voting for him on that very basis \u2014 or perhaps by virtue that they also don\u2019t like the Chicago Bears.<\/p>\n Again, the Obama-Smith strategy of race-based ethnocentrism is a suicidal path for any multiracial society that has hopes of transcending tribalism.<\/p>\n I am not suggesting that Mormons in Utah might not vote for Mitt Romney over Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum because of their shared faith. But I am suggesting that if Mitt Romney overtly were to have the coach of the University of Utah football team proclaim that he supports official Romney-designated \u201cMormons for Romney\u201d groups, and remind Mormons that it is \u201cup to us as Mormons\u201d to cover Romney\u2019s back (from what?), then such a video would be stupid and morally wrong \u2014 and would be widely denounced by liberals.<\/p>\n Where does all this lead? At first, of course, only to embarrassing hypocrisy. Those in the Bay Area who idled critical food-producing farmland would not wish, as the proverbial Committee of Public Safety, the same environmental zealotry aimed at their own offices, cars, homes, and institutions. And they assume that they have the incomes to buy increasingly expensive food when others would not. The grand mufti would not like Billy Graham to announce that he wanted North America freed of all mosques. La Raza would not like a Volk movement that sought to waive immigration law for Germans on grounds they were once America\u2019s largest immigrant group and should be again. Lovie Smith would not wish other rival coaches to pitch their own favorite presidential candidates on the basis of shared racial affinities.<\/p>\n To do all the above is retrograde and ultimately nihilistic. That something so unsustainable continues then is predicated on one unspoken truth: most in the West will not act like Bay Area greens, the grand mufti, La Raza, or Lovie Smith, because for all others to adopt their favored methodology and ideology would lead to something other than liberal life as we know it. Thus they act as they do because they know others will not act as they do \u2014 at least for now.<\/p>\n Tit-for-tat factionalism leads nowhere but to chaos and carnage. But the Western tradition is not made of adamantine metal; it is fragile and singular. Anytime we do not stand up and defend it, however unpopular, we cede to barbarism ourselves.<\/p>\n In other words, the only way to question\u00a0these illiberal doctrines<\/a>\u00a0[9] is without apology to identify them as immoral \u2014 and to welcome the hysterical reaction that ensues.<\/p>\n URLs in this post:<\/p>\n [1] often immoral:\u00a0http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/articles\/293615\/liberalism-immoral-mona-charen<\/a> \u00a92012 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Conservatives are put into awkward positions of critiquing liberal ideas on grounds that they are impractical, unworkable, or counterproductive. Yet rarely, at least outside the religious sphere, do they identify the progressive as\u00a0often immoral\u00a0[1].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[187],"tags":[132,56,12,390,1014,192,98,289,405,268,128,336,30,213,219,67],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-ef","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10828,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/disruptive-politics-in-the-trump-era-yuval-levin-or-victor-davis-hanson\/","url_meta":{"origin":883,"position":0},"title":"Disruptive Politics in the Trump Era: Yuval Levin or Victor Davis Hanson?","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By John Fonte| December 15, 2017 American Greatness The crucial question for the American Right today, as it has been for at least 60 years, is: What is the nature of its confrontation with modern liberalism? Is it a policy argument over how to achieve the common goals of liberal\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2854,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/another-times-blowhard\/","url_meta":{"origin":883,"position":1},"title":"Another Times Blowhard","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPageMagazine.com Every so often\u00a0The New York Times\u00a0runs an op-ed by the appropriately named Charles M. Blow. Blow\u2019s shtick is to dig up some statistical nugget and then draw all manner of portentous conclusions this data supposedly support. As one could expect, the conclusions invariably reinforce some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8443,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-home-of-intellectual-populism-could-use-your-help\/","url_meta":{"origin":883,"position":2},"title":"The Home of Intellectual Populism Could Use Your Help","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ NRO- The Corner I have written for National Review since the third bleak day after September 11, 2001, and have not missed a column since. I live and work on the West Coast, but the editors and writers at NR in New York over the years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-7-a-response-to-the-liberal-aristocracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":883,"position":3},"title":"Angry Reader #7: A Response to “The Liberal Aristocracy”","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Angry Reader #6 wrote:\u00a0\u201cMr. Hanson unfolds the conservative Procrustean hide-a-bed. If a Democratic president is wealthy, he's a hypocrite. If a Democratic president isn't, then he's guilt of envy and class warfare.\u201d VDH replied: This is a childish snark. My point is not that wealthy liberals should not enjoy the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3577,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/alls-fair-in-love-and-talk-radio\/","url_meta":{"origin":883,"position":4},"title":"All’s Fair in Love and Talk Radio","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., caused a stir recently when she criticized talk radio for its role in stopping the recent immigration bill. 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\n
\n[2] the morality of the entire issue likewise changed:\u00a0http:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/2010\/20_3_american-liberalism.html<\/a>
\n[3] to drive or to own a car:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2012\/03\/09\/chu-chu-chboogie\/<\/a>
\n[4] to tropical temperatures:\u00a0http:\/\/hotair.com\/archives\/2009\/01\/29\/the-age-of-obama-heat-for-me-but-not-for-thee\/<\/a>
\n[5] hypocrisy:\u00a0http:\/\/epw.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=10717b57-802a-23ad-400e-29c8948450c8<\/a>
\n[6] a sort of medieval sect:\u00a0http:\/\/ricochet.com\/main-feed\/Gaia-Worship-Like-the-Enlightenment-Never-Happened<\/a>
\n[7] that all the churches in the Gulf region be destroyed:http:\/\/newsbusters.org\/blogs\/tom-blumer\/2012\/03\/17\/not-news-grand-mufti-saudi-arabia-calls-destruction-all-churches-region<\/a>
\n[8] on NRO\u2019s Corner:\u00a0http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/293336\/back-byzantine-blues-and-greens-victor-davis-hanson<\/a>
\n[9] these illiberal doctrines:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2008\/03\/17\/a-century-of-liberal-fascism\/<\/a><\/p>\n