Monday, July 14, 2008

Need To Make A Point? Make Something Up.

THE DISSENT DECEIT
Worst of all, the most enduringly popular slogans tend to be either dishonest, misattributed - or just plain dumb.

We've all heard humorless America-haters promote themselves by announcing, As Thomas Jefferson said, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

The first problem with that self-righteous bull is that Jefferson never said it. On the contrary, he warned of the dangers of political dissension carried to extremes.

The earliest traceable provenance of the slogan goes back to an obscure 1960s lefty who just made it up (long before activist-historian Howard Zinn commandeered it).

My fellow Americans, let me ask you: Were Abby Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Sen. Barack Obama's Weatherman Underground pals (who bombed their own country) really more patriotic than those who served in Vietnam? Was trashing the campus records office truly the "highest form of patriotism?"

Why shouldn't the left make up fake quotes for the founding fathers? They make up fake Bible verses, fake history and fake science.