SelwynDuke.com

If I Were a Governor….

By Selwyn Duke

If I were a governor, the first thing I’d do is scrutinize the school curriculum in my state. For the teachings in the schools today will be the ideology of tomorrow, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln.

I’d review as much of the material as I could myself, and if the volume was too great, I’d appoint like-minded traditionalists to help with the task. But gone would be the revisionist history, radical environmentalism, feminism, multiculturalism, politically correct teaching models, and most other pseudo-intellectual “innovations” of the last century. Tradition would be resurrected and exalted, the classics would be taught, and the moral supremacy of the old Western civilization emphasized. I would be mindful of G.K. Chesterton’s words: “It ought to be the oldest things that are taught to the youngest children, the assured and experienced truths that are put first to the baby. But in a school today the baby has to submit to a system that is younger than himself.”

American Suckers

By Selwyn Duke

Really, I can’t completely blame foreigners who hold us Americans in contempt. I know that’s a controversial statement, but my reasoning is explained with two questions: Do people generally respect those who allow themselves to be used as a doormat? And, then, how do people usually feel about the character of a traitor?

Now consider what foreigners see from modern America. We not only allow aliens to transgress our borders and often refuse to deport them, but we then also sue each other, with many among us fighting tooth and nail for the “rights” of these interlopers. Where other nations throw illegal migrants out like yesterday’s trash, we’re erecting water stations in the southwestern desert to facilitate their invasion.

Then there is the war on our formative religion, Christianity, and the attendant exalting of what had been considered foreign faiths, such as Islam. There are again the lawsuits, resulting in the removal of crosses and other historically present Christian symbols and sentiments. Christmas trees are renamed “Holiday” trees and schoolchildren are sometimes told not to write about Jesus, while a California school district instituted an Islamic immersion course. In contrast, Muslim countries tend to be chauvinistically Islamic, often even prohibiting the proselytization of other faiths under the threat of death.

There are other examples, but suffice it to say we’re eating ourselves alive.

Read the rest here.

The Left Shows Its True, Violent Colors

By Selwyn Duke

It isn’t entirely true that, as Lord Acton said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It’s often the case that power simply allows people the luxury of lowering façades and showing their true colors.

A good example is the recent behavior of many on the Left. Commentator Donald Kaul just wrote that he had no problem with guns being pried from their owners’ “cold, dead hands” and that Republican leaders should be dragged around a parking lot with a pick-up truck. A European college professor recommended the execution of “Climate Change Deniers” and the Pope. Closer to home, an American academic called for NRA president Wayne LaPierre’s “head on a stick” in some profanity laden tweets. And then there was voice of moderation Harry Belafonte; he didn’t ask for blood — only that Barack Obama arrest political opponents (prompting me to spoof a song in his honor).  

Ah, it’s a long way from Woodstock and peace and love, isn’t it?

Read the rest here.

Conservatives Rationalize as America Circles the Drain

By Selwyn Duke

It’s often hard to accept the truth, especially when that truth is scary, when reality seems to offer you no solutions, only poison from which to pick.

It’s as with a man I once knew who insisted it couldn’t be proven that smoking was bad for you. He knew better in his heart, but his available choices — giving up cigarettes or accepting the danger of their use —were both emotionally unpalatable to him. Enter the rationalization.

We’re seeing the same thing with Republicans in the wake of Barack Obama’s re-election. Radio host Sean Hannity, citing changing American demographics, stated a while back that his position on immigration has “evolved”: we now must offer illegals some kind of pathway to citizenship (a.k.a. amnesty). Other conservatives are warning that we must dispense with social issues or the Republican Party will be dispensed with.

Invasion of the Liberal Body Snatchers

By Selwyn Duke

When I was a younger and more naïve man, I sometimes thought to myself, “Boy, if I could just get a forum in which to express my ideas, I could really change people’s minds.” This was before I realized that, more often than not, it wasn’t a matter of changing minds. It was a matter of changing hearts.

This is why I shake my head when hearing talk of how conservatives can possibly “win over” women or Hispanics or blacks or whatever the latest pander-worthy group may be, of how they need to “reach out” or “reframe their message,” as if everyone is a logic-worshipping Mr. Spock. After all, even if the media would disseminate the conservative argument without twisting it into a soggy, unpalatable pretzel — which they won’t — did it ever occur to these tacticians that the problem isn’t mainly a matter of intellect, but emotion?

Losing the Future: The Fiscal-conservative Fantasy

By Selwyn Duke

With the loss of the 2012 election, there is much talk of how the Republican Party must do some soul searching. How will the GOP wage successful campaigns when demographic and cultural changes favor the opposition? Increasingly, the answer is that the party’s party is over, that it must move into the future or be relegated to the past. “Dispense with the social issues!” we’re counseled. “Don’t trouble over abortion or faux marriage and instead just focus on fiscal matters.”

Obama Calling: America’s Life after Death

By Selwyn Duke

I have never been so unhappy to be right. I’ve long said that Barack Obama would win re-election, and two weeks ago I stated as much in print. In making this prediction, I was almost alone among traditionalist pundits, with some, such as Dick Morris (Mr. Batting Zero), actually forecasting a Mitt Romney landslide. And, no, I’m not pointing this out to numb despair with some perverse kind of gloating, like a man consumed in flames looking to suck on an ice cube. It’s because of why I knew that Romney would lose: America is lost. And there is something to be found, but not unless good people understand what truly lies ahead.

Does the GOP’s Demographic Death Spiral End in a Texas Graveyard?

By Selwyn Duke

If Democratic voters were rapidly increasing in number and Republican voters rapidly decreasing, it should be pretty big news, shouldn’t it?

Not when at issue is a third rail of American social commentary: race.

Recently I wrote a piece on race and voting patterns, using as a lede the story about how white births now account for less than 50 percent of the U.S. total for the first time in history. And while most respondents agreed with my analysis, some reacted predictably: Uncomfortable even hearing about race and/or frightened by what lies ahead, they rationalized away obvious facts.

And here is one: You cannot understand where our nation is headed ideologically without grasping the link between racial identification and voting patterns — and demographic changes that will yield Democratic hegemony.

One response to my piece was that “it’s not about race.” This is true — in a sense. It’s about how group identification correlates with many other factors. For instance, Scandinavian immigrants are very liberal, and Jews vote Democratic upwards of 80 percent of the time. Thus, if these two white populations were increasing rapidly, it would make sense to discuss their future impact on the political landscape. But they’re not.

Another response was that I was confusing race with culture. Actually, though, this confuses the “what” with the “why.”

And here is a significant “what”: Republicans derive 90 percent of their presidential-election vote from whites. Democrats win the non-white vote by, on average, more than 70 percent.

Read the rest here.

Demographic Tipping Point: Whites Now Less than Half of US Births

By Selwyn Duke

Bill Clinton once said that he looked forward to the day when whites were a minority in America. While he won’t live to see such a time, a demographic milestone that should send a tingle up Slick Willie’s leg was just reached.  Writes The New York Times:

After years of speculation, estimates and projections, the Census Bureau has made it official: White births are no longer a majority in the United States.

Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 49.6 percent of all births in the 12-month period that ended last July, according to Census Bureau data made public on Thursday, while minorities — including Hispanics, blacks, Asians and those of mixed race — reached 50.4 percent, representing a majority for the first time in the country’s history.

Obviously, a big reason for this demographic shift is migration – and mainly the legal variety.  As a result of Ted Kennedy’s Immigration Reform Act of 1965, the level of yearly immigration increased from approximately 250,000 prior to ‘65 to about 1,000,000 afterwards.  And its nature changed also: 85 percent of our new arrivals now hail from the Third World and Asia.  This radical departure from America’s traditional immigration patterns has created a demographic transformation possibly unprecedented in world history – except for cases of actual invasion.

How You Can Tell if a Candidate Is Serious About Ending Illegal Migration

By Selwyn Duke

Imagine that your son has a habit of sprinkling copious amounts of bird seed and setting up impromptu birdbaths in your yard. You then notice that your property is starting to seem like an aviary, and, as beautiful as the birds are, they’re becoming bothersome. So you approach your husband and ask him to remedy the problem. He then promises to build a scarecrow, but doesn’t complete the job.

And, when the situation persists and you again ask him to help, he simply scratches his head and replies, “You know, it’s just not realistic to remove all these birds from our property; it’s time-consuming, expensive, and uncompassionate to boot. Besides, every time I chase a few away, more come a little while later.” Now, given that he’s not even hinting at the obvious solution, let alone addressing it, would you think he was very serious about remedying the problem?

On illegal migration, our politicians are for the birds. When pressed on it, the best of them will talk about building fences, beefing up the border patrol, and, sometimes even, militarizing our southern border. And these measures are all well and good. But when asked what we should do about the 12 to 25 million illegals already on our shores, the issue suddenly becomes more complex than high-temperature superconductivity. The politicians will scratch their heads and then utter something to the effect of, “Well, we can’t deport 12 million people.” It’s a response that some say is a reason and others call an excuse. But I say that, in certain cases at least, it’s something else: a dodge. How do I know? Because obvious solutions can’t elude everyone.

Read the rest here.