Pat’s Polemics

Liberals often cry that the institutions of this country are being destroyed, our justice system, our economy, our immigration heritage, religion, education, even art. They do not understand why conservatives are not alarmed. Do they not think things are bad?
Conservatives shrug. The country, in their minds, was destroyed long ago. Take your pick: The New Deal, The Great Society, Brown v. Board of Education, the Viet Nam War, the modifying of the Hayes Code in movies, the legalization of abortion, the legalization of same-sex marriage. The list goes on.
To the conservative mind, all of those turning points signaled the end of John Wayne’s America. There is nothing left to be destroyed. Things can only get better from the rock bottom place we occupy now.
Everything new is a slap in the face to conservatives. Women heading households? That was OK for Blacks but not for White women. The Sexual Revolution? Just an excuse for our women to become sluts with no penalties. The expulsion of Christian religious observance from our classrooms? A clear cause of total moral decline as evidenced by abortion on demand, other languages having official recognition, short skirts and yoga.
Since when did America become a place full of foreigners? Just look at TV back in its heyday, in the 50s. How many Asians or Blacks or Mexicans did you see? Even the Indians were played by White guys. Maybe big cities in the North tolerated foreign languages being spoken publicly, but in the Real America, it was English only.
The complaints go on. So the notion that we are destroying the country sounds hollow to a conservative; it was destroyed a long time ago, some time after the conservative turned ten.