When former Ambassador to the UN passed away recently she was eulogized in part for her stand at the 1984 Republican Convention in San Diego, where she spoke as a Democrat, and repudiated the NorCal Democrats’ local and conventional wisdom that is so prevalent in this region – Blame America First.
First off, some people think California is just one single state – and if you live here and drive from LA to Eureka you notice the cars have the same license plate, so ostensibly it is. But for many natives it’s not, to begin with there’s NorCal and SoCal – two different entities with different folklore and even different speech-ways. For example down south they say, “the 405,” and “the 710” to refer to Freeways – up North there’s no use of “the” – nobody would ever say “the 280” or “the 101” it just isn’t done, and doing so reveals a SoCal background. There’s probably about four California’s if you separate-out the Far-North and The Central Valley, but the main divide is at the Tehachapies, the watershed mountains that separates North from South geographically.
So there’s cultural differences, and Jean in her speech was speaking across a gulf from one to another – from the Republican stronghold of San Diego (where future Governor Pete Wilson had been mayor for the past 11 years), to the Beatnick Collectivists and Bay-Aryans of the North, throwing it in their face saying;
They said that saving Grenada from terror and totalitarianism was the wrong thing to do – they didn’t blame Cuba or the communists for threatening American students and murdering Grenadians – they blamed the United States instead.
But then, somehow, they always blame America first.
When our Marines, sent to Lebanon on a multinational peacekeeping mission with the consent of the United States Congress, were murdered in their sleep, the “blame America first crowd” didn’t blame the terrorists who murdered the Marines, they blamed the United States.
But then, they always blame America first.
When the Soviet Union walked out of arms control negotiations, and refused even to discuss the issues, the San Francisco Democrats didn’t blame Soviet intransigence. They blamed the United States.
But then, they always blame America first.
When Marxist dictators shoot their way to power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don’t blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies, they blame United States policies of 100 years ago.
But then, they always blame America first.
The American people know better.
They know that Ronald Reagan and the United States didn’t cause Marxist dictatorship in Nicaragua, or the repression in Poland, or the brutal new offensives in Afghanistan, or the destruction of the Korean airliner, or the new attacks on religious and ethnic groups in the Soviet Union, or the jamming of western broadcasts, or the denial of Jewish emigration, or the brutal imprisonment of Anatoly Shcharansky and Ida Nudel, or the obscene treatment of Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner, or the re-Stalinization of the Soviet Union. (read the rest)
And this is where she comes in for a bunch of criticism from the Left who will do everything to tear-down the Legacy of Reagan (and build up the bull-crap pseudo-Legacy of an idiot like Carter – just because). Some suggest that “San Francisco Democrat” is a code word for “gay democrat” – but it’s really a code-word for Socialist. At first I was a bit surprised that Kirkpatrick identified the characteristic, and as far back as that – but upon reflection I quickly realized it went back much further in time.
Socialists are the actual dominant local political group in this region, hell, even outright full-tilt Communists are not at all uncommon around here – some of them were my High School Teachers in the early 70’s in Palo Alto.
My AP History teacher basically lectured us about every atrocities that the US committed, from the Revolutionary War (which was a “wrong” war to start with) to the Civil War (Lincoln only freed the slaves because it was politically expedient and would hurt the South), to Vietnam. In class we were taught to believe all the “Winter Soldier” accounts that Kerry dreamed-up to discredit his and our involvement in Vietnam, and also about The Inevitability of Socialism and The Failure of Capitalism. My teacher saw things pretty much as a zero-sum game economically, and that in the end pure Socialism would triumph and Capitalism would collapse – but not until after Capitalism Ruined the Earth and Devoured The World… And this was AP History, this was Education in California. I think you can trace the notion of Global Warming to this, at the very least its heartfelt regional acceptance among the countless Prius drives.
Growing up in this group-think attitude and having few alternatives you tend to accept it, and inasmuch as even supposed Adult-people say ridiculous things like, “you create your own reality,” – like a fish in water you are aware only of yourself as an individual – and that’s exactly what I was for the longest time. And as well-indoctrinated as I was I also thought that in order for everybody-to-get-along, it’s what everevery body else should also be – and learned to be fairly intolerant of any deviation from that. Fight the Man! Heh.
In this deep-blue sector of a Blue State, the deeper you go the more red you see and it’s not Republican red. This region has one of the largest concentrations of non-working trust-fund baby Socialists powered by inherited old money and BigMoney. From up in Marin County to down the Peninsula – from places like Atherton, Belmont, Hillsborough, and Palo Alto where seriously Big Democrat fundraisers are held every election cycle and most of the cars still have Kerry-Edwards stickers while many still have Gore-Lieberman plastered next to that, with few Republicans in the mix.
Some people are confused about the irony of Rich Communists, that somehow because of the ideology it just can’t be – but really, from all the evidence there shouldn’t be any illusions. Communists like their own money best, taking yours next, and they sure have plans for other people’s money besides. So it’s a hypocrisy, big deal-get real it’s money, they have a Dacha at Lake Tahoe and a Chris-Craft and you don’t. People who are susceptible to the confusion about ideology vs. reality often labor under a similar delusion of “Soaking the Rich” and other deranged economic and tax-advice. They are swayed by the notion of a single, unchanging, Monolithic-Rich who operate as a secret cabal controlling every aspect of life and society – in other words they’re nuts.
Back to “San Francisco Democrats,” historically they had their palaces on Russian Hill, their Summer-Home down on the Peninsula, and the cabin at Tahoe. (For “SoCal Democrats” substitute the cabin at Big Bear.) Now their ancestors, flush with money (and the confusion about ideology), fund every anti-American cause and effort to weaken American influence abroad. It feeds their moral and political vanity as well. They have enough money and free-time to fly up to Portland to protest a G8 summit for “Global Warming” one week, and to attend anti-Capitalist rallies in other States and even in other countries the next. They’re rich wingnuts, confused mentally and politically, and it’s their hobby to make their voice heard. If we could only get them to shut-up for a minute, the silence would be deafening.
Maybe I should have titled this “Growing up Communist in America.”
Not Clauswitz 
