The Anti-American Right
Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? It’s the Left — liberals, left-wingers, socialists, commies, pinkos, the Noam Chomskys and Alec Baldwins and Barbra Streisands — that hates America. But the Right — good old flag-waving patriotic God Bless America conservatives? How could they possibly be anti-American? It sounds ridiculous.
Yet whatever sense or nonsense it makes, Anti-Americanism is seeping into the entire conservative movement and is threatening to splinter it into pieces.
I’m not talking about the racist nuts, the white supremacists and militia types. I’m talking about mainstream heartland conservatives. Howard Phillips, head of the famed Conservative Caucus, is one of the founders of the entire modern conservative movement in America. He is a dear friend whom I care for personally, with whom I worked closely on organizing support for the Reagan Doctrine in dismantling the Soviet Empire. Yet Howard Phillips’ writings and speeches now are indistinguishable from those of Howard Dean’s in their outpouring of vitriol and condemnation of President Bush, accusing him of “war crimes against the people of Iraq.”
Jon Utley, an influential conservative writer and activist of long anti-Communist standing during the Cold War, has simply gone around the bend in his hatred for everything America does in terms of foreign policy, and everything the Bush Administration does foreign and domestic.
The same is true for conservative economist Paul Craig Roberts, whose syndicated columns have become so rabid that they seem deranged with hate — such as the claim that the Bush Administration is “organizing genocide for Arabs.”
David Keene, head of the American Conservative Union, organizer of the annual C-PAC conference (the largest gathering of conservatives in the country), and member of the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association, is now in bed with the ACLU in its efforts to demonize Attorney General John Ashcroft and prevent the Patriot Act from catching Moslem terrorists.
Former Congressman Bob Barr, who led the Impeachment of Bill Clinton in Congress and is also a NRA board member, has become a paid whore for the ACLU, and now makes a living bashing Bush and Ashcroft.
The single most influential conservative activist in Washington, Grover Norquist, is being investigated by the FBI for his long-standing connections to a network of financiers of Moslem terrorists.
There are many people in Washington who look upon Grover as the conservative movement’s most valuable asset. His Americans for Tax Reform is in the forefront of the entire conservative tax reduction effort. Yet ATR shares office space and staff with the Islamic Institute at 1920 L Street. The same receptionist answers both groups’ phones. Grover is the founding chairman of the Islamic Institute and got the seed money from Abdurahman Alamoudi, just indicted by federal prosecutors for financial connections to Al Qaeda terrorists.
Grover is the conservative movement’s “gatekeeper” to Karl Rove and the White House, yet he is doing everything he can to demonize John Ashcroft, recently appearing on a panel with Alec Baldwin to denounce the Attorney General. Grover is amazingly smart, talented, and influential. The source of his pro-Moslem obsession, and his passionate defense of radical Moslems linked to Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda is a mystery to many.
The source of many conservative-libertarians’ hatred for America is, however, no mystery: the baneful influence of the founder of the Libertarian Party, Murray Rothbard. He is the reason why so much of the entire libertarian movement is in bed with the Hate-America left, and why so many conservatives are getting under the same covers.
The intellectual parents of the libertarian movement are philosopher Ayn Rand and economist Murray Rothbard, whose followers caused an ideological split in the movement in the 1970s. Randian libertarians are pro-defense, pro-America; Rothbardians are the opposite. Tragically, the latter seized control of the Libertarian Party and have not relinquished it since.
I will never forget the day I canceled my subscription to Rothbard’s Libertarian Forum newsletter in 1974. The lead editorial was written by Rothbard, in which he said: “The Soviet Union is the greatest force for peace in the world today.” Not once — never — did Rothbard take the side of America in any dispute with the Soviet Union. I will state it very clearly: Murray Rothbard hated America. He was as Platonist as they come, and hated America for not living up to his anarchist ideals.
Rothbard was a black flag anarchist who argued for the total abolishment of all government entirely. Congressman Chris Cox once told me how much he regretted the ruinous influence of Rothbard upon the Libertarian Party, disenabling it from playing the positive role in American politics he felt it could and should.
Rothbard’s anti-America left-wing libertarianism is now gaining advocates among conservatives — especially those who are infected by anti-Semitism, and can’t stand America’s support for Israel. Rothbard provides an intellectual excuse for their anti-Semitism. Pat Buchanan is the most well-known among those who use the term “neoconservative” as an insult and code-word for “right-wing Jew.” Paul Craig Roberts rants about “the neoconservative jihad against Islam.”
The question of the moment regards the extent to which there will be a parallel between the libertarian right-left schism of the 1970s, and the conservative right-left schism emerging today. Left-wing libertarians demolished the Libertarian Party as a major player in American politics. Will left-wing conservatives do the same to the Republican Party?
Standing in the way of their seizing more control within the Republican Party is President George W. Bush. That is why they despise him. Left-wing conservatives are Bush and Ashcroft Haters because Bush and Ashcroft are actively protecting American national security.
What separates the Anti-American Right from the Anti-American Left is social and politico-economic issues. The former remains anti-abortion, pro-family, pro-capitalist, and disdains the latter’s advocacy of abortion, homosexuality, personal irresponsibility, and tax-the-rich demagoguery.
What the Anti-American Right and the Anti-American Left have in common is that they both don’t care about defending their country. That’s why there was not a single panel or speech on terrorism, national security, or the war in Iraq at that conference of conservative leaders I told you about a month ago. All of these people were staunch Anti-Communists during the Cold War. Somehow they have lost their interest or their courage in opposing Islamism in the War on Moslem Terrorism.
Now — what can you do to help prevent the Anti-American Right from taking over the conservative movement and causing irreparable damage to both the Republican Party and America’s security?
First, if you know any member of the Anti-American Right, tell them by phone, fax, email, or smoke-signal to come to their senses. Tell them to stop doing Howard Dean imitations and start supporting George Bush and John Ashcroft’s efforts to win the war against Islamic terror.
Second, whenever you see Bush and Ashcroft-bashing in a conservative publication, write them a letter denouncing it and demand the publication of a counter-balancing article.
Third, if you get into a confrontation with a member of the Anti-American Right, don’t back down. Stand your ground and demand they have the guts to defend America from her enemies. A lot of these folks will come back at you with a holier-than-thou righteous fury. Tell them to take out their anger on the terrorists who attacked our country, are killing our soldiers in Iraq, and planning more attacks on our cities — not on those who are trying their best to defend us against the terrorists.
If pro-America conservatives and libertarians recognize the threat of anti-America conservatives, and work together to combat it, the threat they pose will evaporate. Primarily because I believe that once confronted, many if not most will come to their senses. These are good people who have gone astray. They are Prodigal Conservatives who should be, and hopefully soon will be, back in our pro-America home once again.