I’m still learning things from my old buddy Rush Limbaugh.
After 30 years in the business, he’s absolutely at the top of his game – making the keenest of observations about even the most complex mysteries of our age.
On Wednesday, in what seemed like a casual, off-the-cuff throw-away line, Rush asked this provocative question: “The way the left behaves today – in virtually everything that they do – do you realize how close it is to radical Islam?”
“You know, minus the terrorism,” he added, though one could argue with that exception, having seen the left’s riots, the incitement of anti-police violence, the embrace of former terrorists like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dorhn and the sympathy exhibited by so many so-called “progressives” for the anti-Israel, pro-terror propaganda of Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Limbaugh offered a startling similarity I had never considered – not even me, a former leftist who witnessed firsthand the intellectual bankruptcy of the movement, a former Middle East correspondent who has studied Islamist strategy and a guy who spent 20 years in the so-called mainstream media working with dyed-in-the-wool, hardcore radicals:
“For the kind of Islamists we’re talking about, the Shariah Islamists, there is no authority but Islam,” Limbaugh began. “To the left, there is no authority but themselves. They respect and recognize no other authority. They don’t recognize the authority of elections. They don’t recognize the authority of public opinion. They don’t recognize the authority of the Constitution, even though they all swear an oath.”
In America, Limbaugh explained, government officials are required to swear an oath to the U.S. Constitution because “that’s the glue that keeps everything together.”
“[T]hat is supposed to be the compact that unites all of us,” he said. “Winning or losing, we are united as Americans, defined by our Constitution. Swearing the oath announces the understandings based on which we become ‘We, the People.'”
He continued: “But if America sees a massive movement that rejects and undermines the Constitution, that unity comes into serious question. And once that group becomes a majority of the population, America loses its indivisibility as ‘We, the People.'”
“This behavior is very, very close to Shariah Islam,” Limbaugh said. “There is no authority but Islam. It’s a core tenet: The ruler must be obeyed as long as he complies and enforces Shariah. And if the ruler abandons Shariah, they assassinate him, like in the case of [former Egyptian President] Anwar Sadat. … Now, they don’t do assassinations here, but if the left’s leader abandons them, you know what happens to them. They’re immediately forgotten, destroyed, cast aside and ruined.”
There’s much more to Limbaugh’s insightful analysis – and I highly recommend you review it all for yourself at RushLimbaugh.com – a literal treasure trove of his pearls of daily wisdom. (While you’re at it, subscribe to Rush 24/7. It’s well worth the small investment, even if you are able to listen to his three-hour daily program without fail.)
When I hear what Rush said I found myself thinking, “Why have I not made this connection before, with all the background and experience with the left and Islamic radicalism?”
My mind was reeling. I felt like calling in to the show to add something.
There’s another similarity between the two ideologies, these seemingly different ways of life. They are both religions in every sense of the word. Just try reasoning with an Islamist or a leftist. They and they alone have a monopoly on what they consider to be “truth.”
It’s true there are defectors from these creeds. Some people get caught up in the fervor and run with it for a while, then become disenchanted. But those defectors often lose friends, family relationships, employment and sometimes, in the case of former Islamists, their lives.
Think about it. Leftists and Islamists will do whatever is necessary for their cause. I recall a slogan of the left from back in the ’60s and ’70s, when I was under its spell: “By any means necessary …” There’s something about that phrase that still sends chills down my spine. Any means?
Yes, leftists will lie, cheat and steal – and Islamists will do all of those things in the name of Allah, as well as kill and die for the cause. It’s all permitted in the name of the cause – even encouraged.
Limbaugh made another brilliant point about what this means vis-a-vis the future of America.
Neither the left nor Islamism will ever accept the literal, original meaning and substance of the Constitution of the United States.
They may profess to do so. In Islamism, it’s called the doctrine of “Taqiyya.” On the left, they don’t just profess allegiance to the Constitution, they swear it when necessary. But they spend all of their time, energy, money and effort undermining its principles – most often through counter-constitutional judicial rulings, stacking the courts with their ideologues, inventing new “rights” and passing laws that would make the framers of that document roll over in their graves.
Think about it. Both are religions.
The left’s religion is secular humanism. That means men get to create their own morality. There is no God. Long ago, they began teaching Darwinism and the theory of evolution as fact. More recently, in their effort to topple the free enterprise economy, they began teaching catastrophic, man-made climate change as fact. If you disagree with these teachings, you are ostracized, condemned, ridiculed, marginalized and demonized. Other faiths might call it “shunning, disfellowshipping or excommunication.”
It’s a religion. That’s what Islamism and leftism have in common.
Someone should write a book.
Rush?
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
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