The Left can be described by various terms – postmodernists, progressives, secularists, social Darwinists, Modern Liberalism, etc. – and the many groups within the Left utilize tactics known as Deconstructionism and Poststructuralism according to David Barton’s article “Deconstructionism and the Left”.
Postmodernists believe that no definite terms, boundaries, or absolute truths exist. They feel that the Western world is an outdated lifestyle disguised under impersonal and faceless bureaucracies that need to move beyond their primitiveness of ancient traditional thought and practice. Most believe that nationalism builds walls, makes enemies and destroys “Mother Earth”. In their minds capitalism creates a have and have not society and lacks equal distribution of goods and salary. Religion, to postmodernists, only causes moral friction and division. They promote and defend New Age philosophy. Most are atheistic or agnostics, naturalists, environmentalist and philosophers.
Progressive are opposed to maintaining things the way they are in respect to traditional values, culture or the institutions of Western civilization. They want to change the free market economics, republicanism in government, the respected role of churches and religion. While progressive is a synonym for liberals or leftists in politics, most liberals prefer to identify themselves as progressives believing that this label evokes a less negative pubic reaction. According to national polling, progressives are less religious on average and tend to support government controlled and government regulated businesses in preference to free market competitive economics; socialism and collective ownership in preference to absolute protection for private property; the subjugation of individual inalienable rights to group rights, etc. Progressives reject, not only specific Biblical teachings, but the successful history of Western civilization that has been the result of applying Biblical teachings. A review of numerous pieces of legislation introduced and supported both in Congress and by the Congressional Progressive Caucus clearly affirms that progressives and liberals are anti-traditional American values and institutions.
Secularists object to public religious expressions or activities and are particularly offended by religious rhetoric from leaders in public positions. They frequently justify their opposition to public religious expressions either by
- wrongly invoking separation of church and state which they direct, not against the state as was its historical and proper usage, but rather against individuals and groups,
- wrongly claiming that pubic religious expressions are improper because our government was built upon a so-called godless constitution, or
- America has been great throughout its four centuries of existence because its public policy remained secular.
Modern Liberalism developed from progressive ideals that combine social liberalism and social progressivism with support for social justice and mixed economy. Liberal causes include voting rights for minorities, abortion rights, gay rights and government entitlements. Keynesian economic theory plays a central role in their economic philosophy that prosperity requires government management of the macro-economy to keep unemployment low, inflation in check and growth high. They believe liberty only exists when access to necessities like education, health care and opportunity are available to all. They are outspoken champions of the environment.
Now that we have identified a few of the Left’s philosophies – lets look at how they divide and conquer.
Deconstruction is a scheme of attacking the foundation on which a belief is based. According to Yale Professor Jack Balkin, deconstruction maligns, smears, and undermines the subject by posing a continuous critique to “lay low what was once high.” The popular objects of attack include the Constitution, tradition, the family, history and culture of American sexual and domestic values in order to “tear down the ancient certainties upon which Western Culture is founded. The result of deconstructionism is a steady flow of belittling and negative portrayals of Western institutions, beliefs, and values.
A common tactic used to “deconstruct” America’s traditional constitutional, moral and religious values is to identify an exception or an anomaly and then publicize it as if it were commonplace and standard. As an example, image that a magnificent skyscraper of over 100 stores has just been built – a beautiful new structure that will house hundreds of businesses and sustain thousands of permanent jobs in a modern and luxurious state-of-the-art facility. Deconstructionists would turn public opinion against that facility by releasing a series of sniping stories and news “reports” – they would claim that the carpet on the lobby of the 4th floor is of a ridiculous color – that one of the windows on the 32nd floor is not property aligned and is out of square – that the women’s restroom on the 58th floor is sexist because it lacks a sufficient number of stalls – or that an office on the 83rd floor is too small to make an efficient working space for the already oppressed American worker so frequently exploited by big business.
Even though there are tens of thousands of windows in that building, they focus on just one; and while there are hundreds of offices throughout the building, they will attack just one; and while there are a thousand restroom stalls throughout the structure, they will condemn just one even if the other 99 are completely praiseworthy. In short, Deconstructionist emit a relentless stream of criticism about a few narrow and carefully selected items in order to shape a generally negative impression – i.e., that the skyscraper is of inferior and shoddy workmanship – that it discriminates against women – that the designers were incompetent, etc. You will not hear about the tens of thousands of positive attributes in the structure – only a continual recitation of a handful of its alleged insufficiency’s.
Deconstructionists apply the same strategy in their portrayal of America and American history. The deconstructionism of America and of Western values and institutions is a standard practice in academia and is willingly cooperated with by large segments of the national media who were trained in those same academic deconstructionist institutions. As a result, most citizens know more about why America, Christianity, and Western civilization is bad than why it is good – they can tell you about every “wart” that has ever appeared in the history of the nation but can tell you nothing about the phenomenal successes, prosperity, and stability that have made America the most exceptional nation in the world.
Students leave these deconstructionist’s institutions believing that our Founding Fathers were a collective group of racists, bigots, and slaveholders. They do not know that the overwhelming majority of the signers of the Declaration were anti-slavery; and it was their leadership that not only founded America’s first abolition societies but that also led to the abolition of slavery in numerous states following America’s separation from Great Britain in 1776. Because of the relentless use of deconstructionist tactics in pointing out everything that has ever gone wrong in America and ignoring the things that have gone right, Americans today know more about the exceptions than the rule. Rather than appreciating American Exceptionalism and being proud of America and its many successes, Deconstructionists instead will point out only what the consider to be its flaws in their concentrated efforts to “lay low” America and American values.
Poststructuralism is marked by a rejection of totalizing, essentialist, foundationalists concepts – concepts which include a rejection of components such as “the will of God” or the “reality of truth”. They not only reject absolutes believing instead that a meaning for something is constructed by each individual for himself. They believe that your values are not on the basis of who you are individually but rather groups with which you identify. This creates “identity politics” where America is no longer composed of Americans – but of various groups – Gay Americans, Feminists, Union Members, Latinos, Blacks, Indians, Youth, Seniors, Socialists, Conservatives, Liberals, etc. A political manifestation of poststructuralism is seen in the manner in which Congress passes “hate crimes” laws determining which groups will receive protection and which groups will not.
TheY undercut nationalism by encouraging citizens to “view themselves as members of their interest group first, with the concerns of their nation and the wider community second. They further degrade nationalism by emphasizing minority influence, inferring that the majority is inherently tyrannical and that majority-rule therefore must be set aside in order to achieve “justice” – that political power must be placed not in the hands of the larger whole but rather in the hands of smaller often unelected subgroups such as the judiciary, administrative agencies, executives, czars, etc.
For two centuries America was accurately characterized by the phrase E Pluribus Unum – “Out of Many, One” emphasizing that although there was much variety in America, there was a common unity that overcame all diversity. Poststructuralism instead emphasizes E Unum Pluribus – “Out of One, Many” thereby dividing the nation into separate groups and components with no unifying commonality between them except perhaps their alleged “oppression” by the nation in general and the majority in particular.
Because Poststructuralism rejects absolute truths in favor of the individual interpretations, individual anarchy against traditional unifying national values is encouraged and group affiliation is elevated above national identity. To Poststructuralism, being an American is not important but being part of some subgroup is.
