Why are liberals suddenly opposed to citizens protesting their government, even calling it fascism and treason?

[Obanocchio]

This will explain it all

Alex Knepper’s recent run-in with American University’s radical and rabid campus left seems to have taught him some surprising and invaluable life lessons about the true nature of American politics.

Lesson One: Leftists and so-called progressives are illiberal, dogmatic, and closed-minded. They believe in and promote censorship. They work assiduously and underhandedly to demonize their political opponents and thus will brook no dissent.

This means that leftists and “progressives” cannot be reasoned with or deterred. They must, instead, be defeated outright in the political, cultural and public-policy arenas.

Lesson Two: Liberals are not leftists. Liberals may harbor left-wing public-policy ideas. They may, for instance, wish to promote universal health insurance coverage. However, liberals believe in the foundational principles of the American republic; leftists and so-called progressives do not.

Liberals, moreover, believe in intellectual tolerance and free speech, the American military, the defense of U.S. national security interests abroad, markets, and private property. Leftists and so-called progressives, by contrast, believe in none of these things.

Lesson Three: American conservatives are the true liberals. This is quite literally true in that the political ideas and principles espoused by classical 19th Century liberals are today championed by American conservatives.

These ideas include limited government, protection of private-property rights, equal treatment under the law, and economic growth precipitated by entrepreneurs and businessmen.

But American conservatives also are the true liberals in that they are far more intellectually and socially tolerant than are leftists and so-called progressives.

Indeed, the greatest incidence of censorship in America today occurs not in small towns and villages, but at allegedly cosmopolitan college campuses. American University’s social and cultural jihad against Mr. Knepper’s column is a prominent case in point.

Lesson Four: Far from being a hotbed of intolerance and reaction, Middle America is instead wonderfully tolerant, open minded and good natured. In fact, the idea that racism, homophobia and bigotry lurk deep within the American soul is a slander on the American people.

Mr. Knepper, who is himself a gay man, knows better. “The outpouring of support that I have received from Middle America has been heartening and reassuring,” he wrote at David Frum’s website, FrumForum.

The essence of my argument — don’t engage in volatile, risky situations unless you’re prepared to deal with the consequences of your actions — is a common sense, mainstream argument among everyday Americans

Yes it is. But although the Left dominates American colleges and universities, it doesn’t believe in commonsense; nor is it part of the mainstream. The Left believes in destroying its opponents through intellectual bullying, intimidation, and character assassination.

Unfortunately for the Left, when they decided to make an example of one campus apostate, Alex Knepper, they picked on the wrong man. Thus their bullying backfired and they themselves have been exposed. But it wasn’t the first time – and nor will it be the last – that the Left has met its match and gotten its comeuppance.

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John R. Guardiano is a writer and analyst in Arlington, Virginia. You can follow him on Twitter: @Guardian0.

http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/04/04/a...t-lessons/