Dan Boylan has favored us with a glimpse inside the oh-so-marvelous Independence Day festivities as practiced by the left with this improbably titled piece from his Midweek column:
"How Liberals Celebrate 4th Of July"
First off, Professor Boylan is not a liberal, and I suspect that neither are his friends. Dan Boylan is a Leftist Progressive, same philosophy which has metastasized our federal government over the last century. There is another word for folks who have chosen to follow convention like Dan and his friends, people who favor the status quo, that word is conservative. To avoid confusion I just call them lefties.
I on the other hand
am a Liberal, a true Liberal or a '
Classical Liberal' as we're called these days. To put it succinctly, we Liberals espouse the same revolutionary ideals as our founding fathers, while Prof. Boylan and his comrades clearly do not, hence if Mr. Boylan wants a credible accounting of how Liberals celebrate Independence day, he should be interviewing me instead of posing.
With that now sorted out Prof. Boylan writes...
"The Boylans spent the glorious Fourth of July on a Hoolauae Street lanai in Aiea, where we’ve spent if for three decades or so. The lanai belongs to Ned and Kamaile Shultz. The crowd includes various Wongs, Oyamas, Takesonos, Golds, Claffeys and assorted others."
Ah yes, Dan rejoices in the wonderful multi-cultured, multi-ethnic, multi-racial rainbow that can only be found in the gatherings of the politically enlightened.
Yes Dan message received, overbearing as it is.
"The menu consists of hot dogs, burgers, potato salad and watermelon; and the singing of patriotic songs and watching of fireworks displays from far away Ala Moana Park, Hickam Air Force Base and Pearl Harbor provide the entertainment.
The Hoolauae crowd leans decidedly to the left in its politics. Still, its Fourth of July celebrations reek of chauvinistic nationalism..."
I get it. On the 4th left-wingers like to wrap themselves in the trappings of patriotism, and perfume themselves with the "reek of chauvinistic nationalism"
Now some might think that a bunch of lefties reveling in concepts which judging by Boylan's own words are anathema to them is rank hypocrisy; I don't think so, I kind of do the same thing at Christmas, I'm not a Christian, in fact I embrace no religion at all, but I still join in on all the Christmas fun and tradition.
I suspect that lefties enjoy July 4th celebrations in the same way one might a costume party, or as I do Christmas.
"...So much so, that a few years ago a lonely conservative Republican in our midst - after hearing a second or third drunken rendition of The Battle Hymn of the Republic - said, “I didn’t know liberals were so patriotic.”
We came close to tossing the deluded muttonhead off the lanai."
Yup, nothing lends itself to left-wing patriotic fervor like alcohol, and the tossing of hapless dissidents from lofty places.
Boylan continues...
"No, we’ve sung through the gawdawful Reagan and Bush the elder years and through the gawdawfuller Bush the younger and dumber years. Our patriotism never faltered; the nation’s leadership in those years merely, to put it delicately, sucked.
But I must admit, we sang with more gusto this past Saturday night for a number of reasons. The first, of course, was that the nation’s leadership - for the moment at least - does not suck..."
I disagree. The Obama regime does suck, it sucks mightily, in fact its suction is without precedent, it sucks as no administration has ever sucked before, it sucks in great heaping gobs of freedom and expels regulation, control, and nascent tyranny. But more to the point, Boylan doesn't realize that his 'admission' belies any separation his kind places between governance and love of country. I don't do much singing on July 4th, but I can say unequivocally that no administration has ever affected my celebration of the holiday in any way.
"Barack Obama has brought erudition, enormous charisma and sweet reason to every issue he has confronted thus far in his administration."
Charisma doesn't count for much in my book, from what I understand Hitler had it in spades, and while a Harvard law degree and the ability to quote Saul Alinsky backwards may pass for erudition in Boylan's crowd, I don't think it counts much for the office of US President either, certainly not more than say... an MBA from Harvard.
One can only imagine what passes for 'sweet reason' amongst the tortured psyches and twisted rationales of the left. Oh wait a second, we already know; stuff like raising taxes during a recession, or nationalizing the greatest most innovative health care system on the planet.
"Have his stimulus package, his energy legislation, his healthcare reform proposals and his diplomatic initiatives cured all of our nation’s ills? Of course not. But there are intelligent, pragmatic people working on all those issues and many more left unattended for all these ideologically laden years. And President Obama demonstrates almost daily via speech, press conference or interview that he is the most intelligent and pragmatic of the lot."
Uh, make that "pumped" (Helen Thomas's words not mine) press conference's and interviews, not that I see in Obama any signs of exceptional intelligence or pragmatism, and certainly less if the lot is to include Reagan or Clinton. Good of Boylan to point out though that none of Obama's agenda has so far "cured all of our nation’s ills", but if he was truly honest he might point out that nothing Obama and the Democrat majority have done has cured
anything. In fact
clear-minded intelligent people think Obama and the lefts radical agenda most likely has done, or will do, irreparable harm to our country.
The rest of Prof. Boylan's piece was nothing more than a pitch for Abercrombie's Governor bid, you can read it for yourselve's if you've the stomach.
