Silencing the Majority
By Christopher G. Adamo
This week’s abominable decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, to delay the recall election of California Governor Gray Davis, stands as a clear indication of the epic political struggle that is taking place in America. And though this struggle has been ongoing for more than the past four decades, only recently have those Americans, who seek to retain their heritage and uphold traditional values, joined the fight in a big way.
While sentiment against the war in Vietnam was considerable, those calling for immediate withdrawal of American troops never achieved majority status. Unfortunately, however, the only version of America regularly portrayed on a widespread basis was that warped and jaundiced view, presented by ABC, NBC, and CBS on the nightly news, in which countercultural radicals were ostensibly setting the course for the future of the country.
Throughout those same years, the concept of the “silent majority” was also promoted, suggesting that the preponderance of this nation’s people were either apathetic or indifferent to the social chaos that was rapidly transforming society around them. However, this was not the case. Rather, they were simply unable to present their opposing viewpoint in any sort of a reasonable forum, since those who controlled the dissemination of information were clearly unsympathetic to their cause. In spite of that, President Richard Nixon trounced the antiwar candidate, George McGovern, in the 1972 election, with McGovern winning only one state.
In the latter part of the 1980's, a watershed event occurred in the battle for the American culture with the advent of talk-radio giant Rush Limbaugh’s nationally broadcast program. Suddenly, the left found out just how vulnerable it was in the face of logical and vocal opposition. From the aborted attempt to derail Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings, to the Clintons’ disastrous effort to implement socialized health care, to the earth-shattering shift of power in the House and Senate in the 1994 elections, liberalism found itself increasingly on the defensive, its once-arrogant advocates often realizing the sudden necessity to run for the tall grass.
During the past decade, things have only gotten worse for those on the left. Alternative media, such as the Fox News Channel, along with the massive distribution of information over the Internet, have further eroded the ability of liberalism to dictate the agenda, since the falsehoods on which it has always been founded are inherently defenseless against thorough scrutiny.
Also during that time, those liberals who had once held unchallenged dominance of the debate, as well as its eventual outcome, steadily increased the virulence of their efforts, in hopes of eventually regaining their monopoly of power, and with full intentions of never again relinquishing it.
So now the left believes the time has arrived to strike a fatal blow to conservative America. Buried in the shadows of last week’s Senate debate over FCC rule changes is an attempt to reinstate the so-called “Fairness” Doctrine, whereby complaining listeners could literally shut down radio programs with which they disagree. The full force of the federal government would thus be available to systematically expunge “controversial” broadcasts such as Limbaugh’s from the airwaves, much as the ACLU has eliminated virtually every public reference to God from the public scene.
During the past week alone, Hillary Clinton shamelessly used the anniversary of 9-11 to foist a claim that the President allowed New Yorkers to be misled as to the environmental dangers posed by dust and debris in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Elsewhere in the media, liberals sought to mischaracterize government warnings to prepare for Hurricane Isabel’s imminent landfall as attempts by the Bush administration to increase consumer activity so as to bolster the sluggish economy.
Is this the level of uncontested debate to which Americans, regardless of their party affiliation, really desire to once again descend? Can the propagation of such absurd contentions, presented as fact without any serious challenges to their validity, truly be in the best interests of the people?
America has little time left in which to grasp the magnitude of danger posed to it by the "Fairness" doctrine and, despite individual political leanings, fight to preserve the rights of all citizens to express their views. Otherwise, the day will come when, like the people of California, the entire country must face the grim reality that its ability to determine its own destiny has been irrevocably torn from it.
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