Get past the left-wing propaganda that passes for news and the past 12 months will be recorded as a bellwether year in the demise of liberalism.
Random thoughts about the decline of the American liberal, an endangered species that appears to be headed for extinction.
If you watch television (other than Fox News Channel) or read one of those big city newspapers, youre probably thinking the Bush presidency is teetering on the brink of the abyss.
Nothing but bad news emanating from the liberal media since Bush began his second term. Katrina cleanup costs. American soldiers dying in Iraq. Gas prices at record highs. Millions of illegals pouring through the U.S.-Mexican border. Beware of 6-foot-tall Mexicans who answers to the name of Osama bin Gonzalez.
Dig a little deeper. Put things in perspective. Get past the left-wing propaganda that passes for news and the past 12 months will be recorded as a bellwether year in the demise of the radical left.
The signs of the apocalypse for liberalism are everywhere:
Fox News Channel dominates cable news, drawing millions more viewers than its liberal competitors. Left-wing icon CNN was so desperate to escape the ratings cellar in 2005 that it hired the host of the reality show "The Mole" to anchor its prime time newscast. Who's next at the CNN anchor desk? Regis Philbin? Bob Barker?
The launch of Air America was trumpeted as front-page news in all the liberal newspapers, including the mother of biased reporting, the New York Times. The network turned into Dead Air America in 2005 and was rocked by a financial scandal involving deceptive loans to keep the network on the air despite dismal ratings. Conservative talk radio dominates.
Hollywood box office receipts have declined for the third year in a row. The Left Coast continues to churn out movies that most Americans don't want to see, including tales of gay cowboys ("Brokeback Mountain"), transsexuals ("Transamerica") and sympathetic terrorists ("Syrianna").
Organized labor, another liberal pillar, crumbled in 2005. The AFL-CIO self-destructed, with several large unions, including the Teamsters, leaving the group that has funded Democratic Party campaigns for decades. The breakaway unions, representing a third of the AFL-CIO's membership, finally asked why their union dues kept going to candidates from the losing party.
The much-ballyhooed "Commander in Chief" TV show about the first female president tanked despite the media hype. After the curiosity factor died down, millions of viewers turned the channel and the show is facing cancellation. Doesn't bode well for Hillary's real-life run for the White House.
Big city newspapers from New York to Philadelphia to Chicago to Los Angeles are on life support, losing hundreds of thousands of readers and tons of advertising revenue. It's not that people don't read anymore. Newspaper circulation has declined about 2 percent in recent years, but liberal papers have lost readership in double figures. Readers simply don't trust the New York Times or the Philadelphia Inquirer to deliver credible information. Instead of giving balanced coverage to the conservative politics of most Americans, these newspapers have circled the wagons and cater to a shrinking liberal base. The Lost Angeles Times fired its editorial page editor, left-wing icon Michael Kinsley, because the newspaper's owners were embarrassed by Kinsley's fanatical editorials. The LA Times' editor was also forced out, but the moves were too little, too late to save the sinking ship.
The nomination of John Roberts as chief justice of the Supreme Court, as qualified a jurist as you can find in the U.S., exposed the radical left for its one-issue litmus test to serve on the high court. "Unless you're in favor of abortion on demand, you can't serve on the court," according to the pro-abortion group NARAL, the militant wing of Planned Parenthood and the puppet master that controls the minds of such intellectual giants as Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer. When NARAL couldn't dig up any dirt on Roberts, it decided to make it up, producing ads linking Roberts with bombings at abortion clinics. Even the left-leaning CNN decided to pull the false ads.
The impending confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito may put the nail in the coffin of the abortion-on-demand industry. Unable to prevent qualified judges from being confirmed to the high court, the bankers for these left-wing organizations will cut the purse strings.
The shadowy ACLU was exposed as the anti-Christian and anti-American bully it's been since its founding as it tried to spread its secular claws into traditional Christmas celebrations.
The call for U.S. surrender in Iraq that began with radicals Baghdad Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore spread to liberal luminaries Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha, proving once again that Democrats can't be trusted with national security. Old Yeller Howard Dean has proven to be the Republican Party's biggest booster as he continues to lead the Democratic Party over a cliff.
The Democrats' end-of-the year campaign to scuttle the Patriot Act was applauded by al-Qaida members everywhere and should keep Congress in Republican control after the November 2006 elections as voters again wonder whose side Democrats are on in the nation's war on terror.
Tony Phyrillas is a leading conservative political columnist and blogger based in Pennsylvania. He is a veteran journalist with 25 years experience as a reporter, editor and columnist for several newspapers. Phyrillas received recognition for column writing in 2010 from the Associated Press Managing Editors, in 2007 from Suburban Newspapers of America and in 2006 from the Society of Professional Journalists, Keystone Chapter. A graduate of Penn State University, Phyrillas is the city editor and political columnist for The Mercury, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning daily newspaper in Pottstown, Pa. In addition to The Mercury website (www.pottsmerc.com), his columns are featured on more than a dozen political websites and blogs. Phyrillas is a frequent guest (and occasional host) on talk radio and has been a panelist on the "Journalists Roundtable" public affairs TV program on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN). Phyrillas was named one of the '10 Leading Greek-American Bloggers in the World' in 2007 by Odyssey: The World of Greece magazine. BlogNetNews.com ranked Phyrillas the Most Influential Political Blogger in Pennsylvania for three consecutive years (2007-2010). You can follow Phyrillas on Twitter @TonyPhyrillas
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