California Conservative

Viruses are small parasites that infect cells within our bodies. Despite their size, these organisms constantly attack to exploit our weaknesses. Despite the billions of cells that give us life, a single virus can undo the miracle of our creation.

To protect us from these invaders, we produce antibodies to identify, attack, and remove them. Despite the value of these proteins, numerous diseases exist that reprogram antibodies into attacking otherwise healthy tissue. With one confused message, our antibodies can turn on us and, like AIDS, they can kill. Why these proteins betray us is still a mystery.

The analogy of the body politic is not new. Like Social Darwinism, today’s scientists are loathe to suggest parallels between biology and society because of the genocidal way socialists like Stalin and Hitler applied them. Although the laws of political correctness prohibit analysis of dangerous ideas, I couldn’t help but think of biology last week, when Letterman asked O’Reilly about the growing attacks on Christmas (video).

After O’Reilly shared two of many verifiable accounts, Letterman scoffed at both and told his national audience that he thought sixty percent of everything O’Reilly said was crap. When O’Reilly asked him to name one untruth, Letterman said he’d never seen The Factor and relied on things he’d heard from others about his guest before adding, “I’m just spitballing here.”

Like all superstitions, spitballing is an emotional way that intellectually lazy people cope with disturbing realities. It’s not that Letterman isn’t smart, but that spitballing (or what Russell Peterson calls the cheerful delivery of lazy nihilism) doesn’t require the discipline or tenacity of good citizenship.

As a court jester, Letterman has an excuse. But as a college-educated American who influences millions of viewers, it’s hard to understand why the comedian deliberately overlooked the obvious absurdity of a Christ-less manger scene to slander a guest known for his dogged veracity. It’s not that O’Reilly and his fans can’t handle comedy, but that conservative and liberal ratings prove that slander isn’t nearly as entertaining as fact. As an entertainer, Letterman chose a cheap laugh over a more meaningful one.

Like any communicable disease, slander isn’t dangerous until it spreads. With the existence of talk radio, the Internet, and cable news, Americans have never had more resources to challenge and confirm information. Although the Information Age has weakened the Democratic Party’s 150-year strangle on education, our public schools’ continuing decline – coupled with the disappearing service industry, lower wages, and the undereducated laborers’ reliance on the shrinking cul de sac of overpaid union jobs makes me wonder whether a nationally broadcasted slander will one day reach the tipping point that results in a political pandemic.

While I don’t see an imminent catastrophe here, the democratic elections and disastrous reforms of Latin American socialists and communists have already affected many of the entrepreneurs who drive those economies. For some voters, the reward of schadenfruede is soon replaced by the reality that former employers can no longer afford to keep wage-earners who feed families. More often than not, the inevitable disenchantment that follows socialist and communist reforms generates political paranoia that invariably results in crackdowns like those that keep Fidel Castro in power and his critics in prison.

Although I don’t see most Democrats accepting the dream shared by union leaders, the ACLU, and the Communist Party, the DNC’s symbiotic relationship with these groups pose dangers that may one day demand remedies as painful to Americans as the Civil War. And for those who think the war hasn’t already begun, ask New Yorkers about their recent holiday commute.

I’m not saying that Republicans are perfect. Many of us are steamed about the enormous cost for slipshod security at our borders and airports as well as the stalled momentum of what might be the Republican Party’s greatest opportunity since Emancipation. But as much as we struggle as a political party, conservative philosophy has not changed much since 1854. And while Abramoff, Cunningham, and Nixon were crooks, Republicans haven’t defended their felons the way the Democratic Party did for Kennedy, Torricelli, and Clinton. As much as caricatures like Byrd, Schumer, and Kennedy wave their Constitution pocketbooks, their unconstitutional departures like jury nullification and judicial activism undermine Equal Protection under the guise of equal protection to incite lawyers, courts, and juries to acquit the guilty and convict the innocent. Just as the Republican philosophy has not wavered from its foundation, the party of slavery and Jim Crow has not wavered from theirs.

Maybe they’ve forgotten, but individuals and corporations like Letterman and the mainstream media (MSM) are Americans first and entertainers second. These antibodies have a responsibility to provide accurate information so that Americans and people throughout the world can make informed decisions in the ballot box, the jury box, and especially during times of war. When the MSM leans to the left or promotes lies for profit or political reasons like Rathergate and the deadly toilet-Koran story, they assault democracies around the world. When they release national security secrets under the pretense of free speech or civic duty, they assault Americans, our allies, and our troops like hijacked planes and IEDs.

And as benign as Letterman’s lapse might be, even professional clowns must weigh the virulent impact that their slander has on humanity. One never knows where America’s tipping point might be.

Cross-posted at Ex-Liberal in Hollywood

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2006 at 11:05 am and is filed under Articles, Author: Clark Baker, Culture, Media, Op-Ed. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.