Political Correctness: Part I

Political Correctness (or “PC” as we will call it) is running amuck, not just in the United States but worldwide.  It is probably the most egregious modern day communications tool that controls pretty much every part of political narrative in America.  And every day more and more Americans use it as a tool to attack, demean, politicize, and control everything and everyone that comes into its path.

There are some very important considerations for us all regarding “PC.”  In the next few chapters of dnewman.org we will look at just some of those and analyze what they are, who created and originated those, the obvious purpose or purposes for them, and what the possible anticipated end results of “PC” are.  Today let’s analyze what “PC” is and what is its purpose.

Political correctness:  the avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes, of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.

With this definition in mind, let’s discuss the foundation in America of Political Correctness.  No one knows for certain its origins or who created and implemented it.  It popped up infrequently in past political situations on a national level.  But it assumed a front row seat over the past fifty years.  Its “contemporary” existence has been perpetrated by those who seek political advantage at all costs.  And the methods to achieve such an advantage have been varied, often outrageous, but always discriminatory.

Contemporarily “PC” really shined during Nixon’s Presidency, especially during Watergate.  It gave those on the “other” side an advantage.  And in the late 60’s and early 70’s political advantage had begun to mean a lot to those who held it.  America had begun its slide away from “freedom and justice for all” to “justice for the elite.”  President Nixon foolishly not only made political mistakes in the Watergate break-in, he committed political suicide with his coverup.  The “PC” police lathered at the opportunity to string up the once popular President.  They not only sought the truth through investigation, they scoured the D.C. political landscape to find in “PC” the fuel to light the fire among voters that would burn away the chaff of the Nixon Administration which would establish those “PC” police as the new political authorities in Washington.  And it worked.

Nixon’s replacement — VP Gerald Ford — did not stand a chance.  Politically he was a lame duck and stood no chance at succeeding his quest for a full term.  Jimmy Carter — the “PC” crowd’s favorite son — launched a near socialist agenda that gave the Politically Correct crowd a vision of the power that could accompany the “PC” environment once it took root in America.  And the fight was on.

They thought they had it licked, not expecting a Ronald Reagan — a populist actor/communicator that captured the hearts of Middle Americans.  (Sounds a bit like this President, right?)  Economically the “PC” President led the nation into economic horror.  By 1979, Carter saw rampant inflation that destroyed the housing market, stifled any national economic growth, unemployment skyrocketed, and the only people who made money were those (the wealthy) who were able to invest their money — cold, hard cash — in banks and S & L’s who were paying depositors as high as 17% on their money.  Federal income tax rates were astronomical.  And average Americans were dying financially.

Reagan took his campaign to the People.  And they heard him.  After his election he established very quietly a anti Political Correct Administration that ignored the war of words that the “PC” crowd had used so effectively to build their empire during the Ford and Carter years, and oversaw eight years of slow but steady growth in every sector of the American economy.  Interest rates plummeted as income taxes were slashed to stimulate that growth.  Unemployment slid rapidly and average Americans found new hope.

Diplomatically Reagan to the horror of the “PC” folks confronted the Russians at every corner of their international presence.  He called out Gorbachev who was intimidated to tear down the Berlin Wall.  That ushered in the fall of the Soviet Union.  And Reagan did it all quietly opposing “PC.”

Bush 41 tried to piggyback on Reagan’s success, but failed.  That opened the door to the new “PC” King:  Bill Clinton.  He for 8 years not only followed “PC” guidelines and operating procedures, he re-wrote the “PC” book and added many new twists.  Americans watched as the truth in politics was ridiculed from the Rose Garden and immorality and sexism was given front seat in the Oval Office.  Clinton always smiled and always promised.  He served the “PC” crowd with total disregard for American voters.  Lying for political expediency was his mantra.  No one in U.S. political history before William Jefferson Clinton knew how to personally take advantage of others by creating believable personas of those who opposed him that Americans gobbled up as truth.  He was impeached for lying under oath, and convicted of that lie although the Senate did not follow through with articles of impeachment against him.  He lost his law license because of his offense.

Bush 43 spent eight years treading water.  It was as if every day he walked outside with his dog, licked his finger and stuck it in the air to determine the direction from which the “PC” wind blew that day.  And he reacted in his role as president appropriately.  Besides getting us into our second war with Iraq, he accomplished very little other than not making any other waves.  He had many chances to effect great accomplishments in the areas of breathing life into the dying Social Security System, leading a trek toward immigration reform, a balanced budget, and education improvements.  In most of these he was marginally successful at best.  On others he bailed after his weak attempts to get any progress.  Why?  The “PC” crowd would always step in and shut him down.

But the tsunami of Political Correctness washed over America with the election of Barack Obama.  A multitude of circumstances re-ignited the fires of “PC” in the nation and around the World.  His being the first African American President was the foundation for the almost insurmountable mountain of tools at the disposal of his followers.  His minions would do anything and say anything to assure that no detractor of the Constitutional Lawyer President’s ideas and plans to lead America down the path to Socialism were thwarted.  Their chief “PC” tool was the cry of racism.  Anyone — anyone at all — that would dare oppose any policy or suggestion of Obama was immediately labeled a racist.  And because of that label, they were forever marginalized as being less than any of those who were “PC.”  Nothing they said or proposed mattered.

Obama carried that political correctness from the racist world to the social world:  abortion, same sex marriage, government supreme rights at the expense of Americans’ rights, illegal aliens and immigration, Radical Islamic terrorism, and even political correctness itself were all lifted up and carried reverently on the shoulders of this community organizer turned President for all to see.  No one dared to disagree with his ever-changing positions that morphed based totally on the changing winds of “PC.”  He was a master manipulator.  And he religiously guided the “PC” congregation down the pathway of political correctness to the edge of the abyss.

Following these examples of political correctness in the White House over the past 50 years, you can now recognize its existence, who used it, and remembering some of those shocking happenings during these administrations can now see it has been there in full uniform for some time.  In tomorrow’s offering we will look closely at how political correctness functions, how and when it thrives, and what its enemies are and how they work.  You will  be intrigued as you begin to understand more just how great a threat to American Democracy political correctness has become.

Thanks for reading.  I’d love to read your thoughts.