Rahe v Steyn on The Future

Recently, Dr. Paul Rahe (author of Soft Despotism) and the venerable Mark Steyn exchanged views on the likely fate of Western Civilization.

Steyn, as you may know, is somewhat pessimistic. Rahe believes we are at a propitious moment for a resurgence. I'm not altogether sure where I come down — predicting the broad future is extremely difficult. Still, this comment from Steyn seemed highly worth reproducing.

It's not only a numbers game. Even in the 13 colonies, a majority of people were not of an actively "revolutionary" disposition. In the last 40 years, the left didn't hollow out every important American institution from the grade school to Hollywood because they represented mass opinion, but because they wanted it the most. The question is whether opponents of Obama's dependency culture are up to their own "long march".

A commenter on HotAir recently expressed the issue as well as I've ever heard it said:

Here’s a bit of harsh reality:

The Waxmans and Boxers and Pelosis (and Obama) infest public offices and wield power because they were voted in, over and over again, by our friends and neighbors and teachers and business associates who function as enablers. These enablers face little or no direct, personal consequences for their destructive behavior, so they will not change it. Spontaneous enlightenment is not in their future.

And we others, by being “nice” and “understanding” and “tolerant” towards these enablers become ourselves enablers. Until this changes, until we can truly see the enablers for what they are and treat them accordingly, face to face, along the lines of interventionist “tough love,” there will be no lasting movement back toward permanent sanity for this great country. [emphasis added]

OzzieMan on April 1, 2010 at 10:59 AM

I'm not sure what form that tough love should take — beyond the sort of recommendations I've already made but, clearly, radical action of some kind is warranted.