We have been living and investing in a low-inflation environment with falling interest rates for more than 20 years. Currently, all the evidence indicates we are headed for higher inflation and higher interest rates soon.
Liberals usually mask, in service of political expediency, their policy preferences that run counter to mainstream American opinion. Their full-bore support of the location of the Ground Zero mosque reveals an affinity for Islam that, combined with a lack of empathy for September 11 victims and their families, and contempt for others who oppose the mosque, has trumped their vaunted political acumen.
Liberals are already in trouble because of the health care bill, the weak economy and the failed stimulus bill which combined to awaken Americans to the danger of excessive government regulation, spending and debt. Their stand on the location of the mosque not only further threatens liberal majorities in Congress but also exposes their elitism, and complicates attempts by the media to support liberals’ claims that their policies will lead the average American to a better life.
Liberals say they support the location of the mosque because of personal property rights and religious freedom, but these issues have not gained support from liberals in the past.
Liberals’ actions illustrate an inability to overcome their enmity for conservatives. Liberals made the mistake of equating, and then grouping any American who opposes the location of the mosque with hated conservatives. As is consistent with their thought, liberals were loath to pander to that negatively labeled, intolerant “Islamophobic” group. Only belatedly did they realize their insistence on honoring the wishes of the controversial Imam of the Ground Zero mosque Feisal Abdul Rauf drove a wedge between themselves and 68 percent of the American people.
Their surprising lack of perspective in this matter is similar to liberals’ heavy-handed response to the Tea Party movement. Their perception of Tea Party members as disguised Republicans with racist motives resulted in a dismissive disregard for the Tea Party’s political power. In reality, the Tea Party is a very diverse group of people that includes Democrats and libertarians who oppose an increase in the size of government. Their political clout has resulted in the nomination of several Tea Party-backed candidates for the House and the Senate.
In both instances, liberals effectively distanced themselves from a group they mistakenly defined as unimportant, fringe and politically impotent.
Liberals and Muslims have contempt for Christianity. Both hold revulsion for the Christian cross. In Qur’an 9:29, Christians who are subjugated by Muslims agree to…”refrain from erecting crosses on the outside of our churches and demonstrating them and our books in public….” Liberals are well-known for their intolerance for any public display of Christian icons and are fervent about eliminating any religion from the public square.
The dominant media reacted with great alarm to the proposed Qur’an-burning on September 11 by Pastor Terry Jones on the grounds that the act could cause violent Muslim reaction. In contrast, Americans are expected to absorb any dismay at the insult of a mosque at Ground Zero, an action that is consistent with the Muslim tradition of erecting mosques on the sites of their victories. In both cases, Christians are assigned responsibility and blame: for the action they take, and for the violent reaction the other person may have.
It is worth noting that when the Qur'an-burning was canceled, media reacted with fearful assessment of “damage already done.” Imam Rauf, meanwhile, claimed in a September 9 CNN interview that relocating the mosque is now impossible because it will cause Muslims around the world to believe that “the radicals have taken over the discourse. The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack.” As in the case of the Danish Cartoons in 2005, the world is expected to react with fear and deference to Muslim outrage.
Liberals who are concerned about the dangers of a theocracy fool themselves into believing it is Christians they must fear. Rather, it is radical Islam that threatens the American way of life and of which they must beware.
-Kerry and Peggy McCarthy are writers living in Indiana.
