As I illustrated in a recent column, "Why I'm 'worse than Joe McCarthy,'" the left has long relied on one paramount tactic for advancing its cause: intimidation.
But it's not just the left that bullies and ridicules opponents in order to bring about its glorious "hope and change." Almost every destructive agenda being promoted in America today is being advanced, not through logical argument, but intimidation.
Take the Obama crowd. The president, a disciple of Saul Alinsky, and his administration rely heavily on ridicule, which is very intimidating. (Remember rule No. 5 from Alinsky's magnum opus "Rules for Radicals": "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.")
- When normal citizens opposed Obama's unprecedented power grab right after inauguration, his Department of Homeland Security labeled them "right-wing extremists" and terror threats.
- When Fox News aired stories critical of his administration, Obama launched a bizarre defamation campaign against the only cable news network the country watches anymore, declaring it "not a legitimate news organization" and even trying to boycott it.
- Recently, presidential press spokesman Robert Gibbs engaged in a disgraceful, extended mock-fest in response to a straightforward question from WND's White House correspondent Les Kinsolving about Obama's conspicuous lack of presidential press conferences. Kinsolving, who has been the conscientious gadfly of the White House press corps since the Nixon administration – when the 39-year-old Gibbs was still in diapers – was treated with almost maniacal contempt by the perpetually hapless presidential flack.
- With law-abiding Arizonans trying desperately to protect their state from being raped by a 500,000-strong mob of illegals, the response from the left is to condemn them as Nazis and racists.
This is not debate, folks, it's intimidation. Its message is not, "Let's reason together and find a solution," but rather, "Shut up, or be attacked and defamed."
As I have often explained, expansionist Islam advances its agenda the same way. Each of its two modes – violent jihad/terror and stealthy subversion – relies entirely on intimidation. Terrorism, of course, is an extreme form of intimidation. But even the more "peaceful" Islamist subversion of our nation (taxpayer-funded imams recruiting jihadists in our prisons, Saudi-funded mosques teaching hate, terror-tied groups like CAIR masquerading as moderates, etc.) depends on bullying any and all critics into submission by attacking them as bigots and "Islamophobes."
The gay-rights movement has accomplished virtually every stage of its remarkable quarter-century juggernaut – successfully mainstreaming homosexuality, transgenderism and to a large extent same-sex marriage – largely through intimidation. No room for reasoned debate here. Indeed, there has never actually been a genuine and open national dialogue over homosexuality. Not that defenders of traditional values don't try to engage the debate, but instead of being engaged, they are always attacked, vilified, demonized, boycotted, threatened. Oppose the gay activist agenda for any reason, however rational your argument and noble your intentions, and you're branded a "hater" and morally equivalent to a racist and anti-Semite. As I documented in "The Marketing of Evil," the marketing vanguard of the modern gay-rights movement proclaimed the paramount importance of the propaganda tactic known as "jamming" – their word for raw intimidation – to advancing their agenda.
I could go on. Radical groups profoundly at odds with America and its core values – from old standbys like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood to the constellation of subversive Soros-funded outfits ridiculously pretending to be mainstream – rely first and foremost on intimidation and defamation of all who stand in their way.
Why? Because it works. Most of us don't deal well with being bullied. We either cower in fear and give up on opposing them, or we get angry and out of control and act like idiots. Either way, we lose the credibility and moral authority we once had, and they advance.
There is a solution. The tens of millions of good, decent, God-and-country-loving, tea-partying Americans who are horrified by the current depredations of a cancerous government and a toxic culture need to discover a quality Ronald Reagan had. It's called grace under pressure.
Remember, the modus operandi of those destroying our noble country is to get us so frustrated, angry, upset, full of rage and torn-up inside that we become unable to function with strength and grace – like Reagan did despite all the dangers and difficulties he faced.
Every one of us needs to become like Reagan, so bonded to God internally that we aren't eaten-up inside by bad guys' deliberate provocations. Trust me, this is their actual intention.
As I explained not too long ago, the one thing that could seriously, perhaps fatally, derail all the principled, patriotic efforts to rein in the unprecedented power-grabbing by Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress would be for elements on the right to turn to violence.
We all need to learn to stare evil straight in the face, without doubting or becoming confused about what we're seeing – but at the same time not fall to hating it. This was Jesus' unmistakable message to us from the cross, when he said, " Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
This doesn't mean become passive, but exactly the opposite. When we're not eaten up with rage and resentment, our energy, effectiveness and judgment become multiplied and blessed. Why? You already know the answer deep down: Because by forbearing to hate our enemy – which means we automatically will not be intimidated – we're allowing God to fight our battle for us and through us. It's hard to put this quality into mere words, but think about the heroes of our favorite action stories of yesteryear – "Bonanza," "Wyatt Earp," "Zorro," "The Scarlet Pimpernel." They featured characters who stood up for righteousness against great odds, sometimes suffering greatly in the process, yet they always kept their dignity, natural grace and good humor because they never became hateful and out-of-control like the lesser men around them.
Reagan possessed this quality and demonstrated it for the world to see, and he accomplished an extraordinary amount of good, literally freeing millions of slaves to communism. To save our country, each of us needs to discover Reagan's secret for ourselves. (I devote an entire chapter to intimidation and its antidote in my new book "How Evil Works.")