Biting their tongues

For those of you who scan the news and study world events looking for signs of the “end times,” I commend to you the report that TV host Rosie O’Donnell, a chronic and vicious foe of all things Republican, has announced that she now loves President George W. Bush. While this one event does not warrant the conclusion that history has run its course, as would the sound of a celestial trumpet in the distance, it surely signifies a weighty shift in the ideological landscape.

Specifically, O’Donnell said, “I love him now … I am in full support of the president.” She acknowledged that she went to a World Series baseball game so that her son could see the president ceremonially open the game by throwing out the first ball. She was undoubtedly among the tens of thousands who raised a mighty chorus of cheers for Bush as he threw a perfect strike across home plate.

Not everyone was pleased with the thunderous approval the New York fans gave President Bush. Prior to the game, ABC’s Peter Jennings ended his news broadcast by saying, “We are always looking for signs that the country is behaving like its old self again … if the Yankee fans boo the president … it just means they’re acting like their old selves, and that’s probably a good sign.”

I do not believe most Americans realize how deeply threatened liberals are by the popularity of President George W. Bush and by the return of God and patriotism to the national mainstream. In that context, Jennings’ remarks deserve scrutiny. It could not be more clear that he hopes to see signs that the people are reverting to their old selves. What he fears is that they have discovered their better selves and will never return.

It is important to remember that this is the same Peter Jennings who had a whiny snit-fit when Republicans took over both houses of Congress in the 1994 midterm election. Looking down on the American rabble from atop his towering elitist perch, he contemptuously sneered, “The voters had a temper tantrum … the nation can’t be run by an angry 2-year-old.”

Sometimes it is necessary for a journalist to climb over his ego, no matter how mountainous, to see what is actually going on. Jennings, along with many of his colleagues, can’t quite scale such dizzying heights. This is why they are out of step and out of touch with the people. This is why their audiences continue to dwindle.

The act of war that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, did not create a brand-new interest in religion, patriotism and decency. It simply awakened what was always there.

For decades, a large and growing number of Americans have been trying to get the message through that they are fed up with disrespect for the flag, attempts to emasculate the military, an invasion by illegal aliens, anti-American propaganda out of Hollywood, government schools that spread the lie that America is no better than any other country, multi-lingualism, gutter politics in the White House, movies and sitcoms that glorify decadence, deviant assaults on the Boy Scouts of America and, by the way, networks of liberal propagandists posing as journalists.

Immediately following the terrorist attacks, the American Civil Liberties Union and other self-appointed censors and thought police tried to pull down flags and silence prayers. Their efforts were quickly crushed. The people are tired of such unconstitutional repression and aren’t in a mood to put up with it anymore.

Oh, what angst! What sharp, hurtful, liberal angst! In mid-October, the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government conducted a poll of 1,200 college undergraduates across the country. A surprising 79 percent of those sampled approved air strikes on Afghanistan, and 68 percent favored the use of ground forces. A full 71 percent of male students would serve in case of a national draft. Seventy-five percent trust the military, and 69 percent trust the president.

The results must have shaken college faculties out of their argyles. Their mission was to tune the hearts and minds of the young to resonate with a socialistic and hedonistic society. Now, here are all those jingoistic ingrates willing to sell themselves to the hated industrial-military complex.

What sweet irony! Liberals in academia and the media have spent all these years tongue-tying America with their politically correct dogma, effectively shutting down honest dissent. Now, suddenly, it is they who are biting their tongues, afraid to speak out, and whining about the First Amendment and the dangers of suppressing their unpopular ideas.