The Culture of Cowardice
Lt. Col. Michael Burkert
January 23, 2006 - There was a time in our country, not so long ago, that Americans loved a winner. They loved the track star that ran the mile in less than four minutes. They loved the baseball player who hit the most home runs. Americans hated the very thought of losing. The thought of losing a war was absolutely unthinkable, despicable and not thought of as American. Yet today, a large portion of our nation doesn’t care about winning. They are ambivalent towards the United States. They detest competition in all forms. The very thought of competition is an anathema to them. Competition is thought to be bad. Someone may lose, and his or her feelings might be hurt. Their self-esteem might be lowered. We can’t have that; we can’t have competition!
Antipathy for competition, a basic human passion, is one of the germane points of modern “progressive” liberal thinking. Liberals discount competition as an evil of capitalism, republicanism and conservatism. After all, in “big business,” the bogeyman of all perceived liberal ideas of what’s wrong with our country, competition is key to success. This and many other aspects of modern liberalism prove that they are morally and intellectually bankrupt.
The second bogeyman to liberals, is our U.S. Armed Forces. Not satisfied with the wimping down of the army, the feminization of the army, or the homosexualization of the army, liberals continue to bash, lambaste and vilify our army.
During the Clinton years, our army was politicized as never before. Active promotion of women, minorities, single parents and those “thought to be gay or lesbian,” became a primary mission. In some commands, a single comment perceived as anti-homosexual, or anti-woman could land a soldier with Non-Judicial Punishment, under Article 15, UCMJ. An off color joke? During the Clinton years, this could possibly have led to courts-martial!
Can “progressive” liberals really be so stupid as to think we’d all be better off with no military? Do they really think we’d be better off bringing all of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines home, and just quitting the War with Radical Islam? I think so. I really do and it’s much more than “progressive” thinking. It’s a yellow streak six inches wide that runs up and down the backs of our great, modern liberal thinkers and practitioners. It all stems from a Culture of Cowardice.
Not even deep down, liberals are cowards. Yes, even John F. Kerry, and his “three Purple Hearts,” is a coward. Kerry knew long before he went to Vietnam, that the Navy had a three Purple Heart rotation policy. He set out from day one to get his “medals” so he could get out quick, and use them to his advantage in the future. He was nothing more than an opportunist, and a pretty sorry one at that!
Had Kerry chosen the right course, the moral and ethical coarse, he would have stayed to lead his men and take care of his men for as long as he could. That’s a leader. Mr. Kerry is no leader. Mr. Kerry is a coward in a culture of cowardice.
From the time our little ones enter school they are taught to be non-aggressive. These days, little boys are discouraged from roughhousing and encouraged to play with dolls instead of footballs. In many of our schools there are no sports where children learn to compete. The thought is that their self-esteem might be lowered, if they get beat and are not seen a winners. Some schools have even done away with a grading system. In some schools, in efforts to eliminate the stigma of receiving an “F” they’ve made “F” the top mark! Liberalism runs amok!
This is preposterous. Children need to know how to compete. Life is afterall, competition. Competition brings out the very best in most people. Competition instills the will and effort to achieve. However, “progressives” would like to eliminate competition, just as their mentors Karl Marx, Rosa Luxembourg, Vladimir Lenin, Adolf Hitler, Fidel Castro and other 19th and 20th century “progressives” taught.
One of my many fascinations with liberals is that their ideas, their policies, their taxes and regulations are always for others. Never for themselves. Military service as an example, is for others. Every conscription law passed in the last century made provisions for exemptions for “progressive” thinking men. Conscientious objector status always gave an out for cowards, those too scared to serve their nation in time of critical need. There were other “outs” as well for those who sought them. Usually, those who sought exemption from military service were simply cowards.
The “passionate religious” person you ask? What about his rights? Okay, what about them? A religious person can work in a hospital, with a civil affairs unit helping local people in a war zone or a multitude of jobs that don’t involve carrying a rifle, or in anyway considered a combat job. Yet even those jobs, might take a coward close to the front lines, where a stray bullet, or fragment from a shell or mortar might kill their precious, liberal carcass!
One of the bravest, most loyal and trustworthy soldier I had the privilege of knowing was a “conscientious objector." He did not believe in taking human life. He believed in saving it however. He volunteered to serve as a combat medic. He risked his life to save our men who were wounded during the Vietnam War. He didn’t shirk his duties as an American, or a man.
The Samuel Alito “Senate confirmation hearings” have once again proven that liberalism is bankrupt of ideas, morally exhausted and continues to be dominated by the politics of personal destruction. Liberals and their culture of cowardice have no new ideas, and are afraid to explore for any.
If anything, the Alito hearings clearly revealed and unmasked just how weak, morally corrupt, odious, effusive and how out of place liberals are in modern American society. Teddy Kennedy is a liberal dinosaur! Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer et al, are intellectual and moral lightweights unable to contend with the superior intellect displayed by Judge Alito.
Accordingly, our “progressive” liberals revert to the old tactics; the only ones they know in order to attempt defeat and to denigrate our nation’s finest men and women. They take the coward’s way out. Other than compete in the arena of ideas, liberals launch personal attacks, concoct smearing lies, half-truths and innuendoes in their efforts to bring down good people. Good people who oppose their weird and wacky programs, as well as their stupid ideas!
Liberals know that they can never win if voters know who they are, and what they are all about. Liberals can never honestly tell voters what they intend to do once elected. If they told voters, “We want to raise your taxes, put more people on welfare, provide more for our have-nots who refuse to work and make you pay for it, people would simply not vote for liberals. So instead, they lie, cheat, distort and obfuscate. Liberals are masters at the old game of, “How do we fool them today?”
Our people are wizening-up! They are beginning in ever increasing numbers to realize that the liberals are all smoke and mirrors. They are looking behind the curtain and seeing whom the “Wizard” really is. More and more of our people are learning how much of a fraud, liberalism really is. Liberals can’t stand it. They are running scarred. Notice how they never smile, never laugh and never have anything positive to say about anything or anyone except fellow liberals.
They remain angry, corrupt, hate-filled and simply burned-out! You don’t believe me? Well, the proof is in the pudding so to speak. Just watch Senator Kennedy on TV. Look at his scowl, his self-righteous demeanor and his liberal bluster. Tell me that Senator Kennedy is a happy man. Then remember that Teddy Kennedy is liberalism incarnate. Then watch for Senator Kerry. He is well known as the “poster child” for the Culture of Cowardice.
Their biggest fear is losing the courts. They can lose elections and still win, if they have liberal judges to “legislate from the bench.” Do you suppose that the people would ever vote to give municipalities eminent domain privileges that allow a family home to be condemned because some mall or apartment complex will pay more taxes? In the Culture of Cowardice, liberal judges make these decisions, and liberal politicians know that the courts are the true arbiters of liberalism. It’s certainly not the voters at the ballot box. Lt. Col. (Ret) Michael Burkert served 29 years in the Army. During his career, he was assigned duties in Asia, Europe and spent the last five years of his Army service in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia and Kuwait). He is a veteran of both the Vietnam and First Gulf Wars. |
