Bill O’Reilly: Professional Spin Doctor
So I say this: Bill O’Reilly hates the real America. His financial and personal motives covered with superficial jingoism, he has set out to create a new America with new core values and – potentially – a whole new history. I know quite well that others have been “spinning” America’s core values for two decades – the Rush Limbaughs of the world – but they have generally been marginalized by the levelheaded among us (remember Limbaugh’s infamous stint on ESPN?), relegated to an audience who likes buying into that particular myth about America.
But last night, something horrendous happened. I was idly flipping channels, and there he was: Mr. O’Really, on ABC, talking to Barbara Walters in some sort of exclusive interview. Primetime network television? For this loon? Apparently so, and worse than his appearance was the content of what he was said in the mere two minutes before I changed the channel. O’Reilly, looking confidant, angry, and smug, told Barbara that so-called “SPs,” or “secular progressives,” are ruining America. He claimed that these so-called “SPs” run the media and that is why “nontraditional” outlets have brought issues like abortion and prayer in schools to the center stage, even though those two issues have been in the mainstream media for roughly thirty and forty years, respectively. He placed the number of “SPs” around 20% and basically suggested that they should be defeated or purged in the style of Uncle Joe.
Bull flippin’ bleep.
First, let’s examine the claim that 80% of Americans are non-secular, non-progressives. Both words can vary concerning what they mean exactly, so let’s take them in their most applicable political context since Bill was making a political commentary and not a religious one. “Secular” would therefore denote someone who wants religion out of the government sphere altogether, correct? Well, the number of “seculars” is well beyond 60%. A Gallup poll in 2003 found that 62.2% of the population believed people protested to religious emblems in public places based on Constitutional grounds; only 30% said that they were trying to turn the United States “godless,” and that was with a horribly-done, rigged poll! In the same year, in a more scientific study, two-thirds of Americans opposed placing Islamic religious iconography on public buildings. Repeatedly, it appears that around 65% of Americans want a secular government, 30% are in the minority, and 5% have no clue. Furthermore, “secularism” has been the standard for American government since day one. A similar Gallup poll from the 1940s found that a whopping 80% of the public supported a government that protected our five basic freedoms above all else, including a secularized government and a freedom of religion.
On the “progressive” side of things, what exactly does that word mean? Does anyone really know? Does it refer to the 65.5% who do not want Roe v. Wade overturned? Does it refer to the 60% who opposed the Iraq War on its 3-year anniversary? Is it just a catch-all term for whatever agenda Bill wants to label as “progressive?” Me thinks so. Sure, people call themselves “progressives” nowadays, but how can he mean that when 35-40% of the population routinely agrees with them on core political issues, if not more?
Considering that the number of actual people who go to a church or synagogue on a regular basis is well under 40%, I have to think the number of so-called “secular progressives” is much higher than Bill’s made-up 20%. Bill O’Reilly wants you to think he’s fighting a battle against an elitist minority; in reality, he has about 30% of the country behind him – a loud 30%, mind you – fighting against the rest of us who actually believe in America’s core values.
Let me make this explicitly clear to show exactly why Bill O’Reilly hates America. George Washington was a secular progressive. James Madison was a secular progressive. James Wilson and Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were all secular progressives. That group who courageously met in Philadelphia to found this great country of ours were a bunch of Bill O’Reilly’s hated secular progressives. Call them whatever nasty names you want, Mr. O’Reilly, be it “liberals” or “unpatriotic” or whatever you pull out of your pocket thesaurus, These men were inspired by Rousseau, Locke, and their classical educations, not David’s triumph over Goliath. Perhaps they expressed the vague spirit of God, but the closest any of them came to biblical inspiration was Madison’s love of Hutcheson (a minister). They looked to found a secular progressive society and that’s exactly what they did. Washington’s own personal model for leadership was Cincinnatus, not Solomon, and as a deist (secular alert!), our first President rejected a minister at his bedside. Ben Franklin openly doubted the divinity of Jesus. Jefferson thought Revelations was a ridiculous book of fantasy. While I would never be so bold as to claim exactly what their personal religious beliefs were, it is clear they were not Christians in today’s mold, and it is explicitly clear that they did not want religion involved in their government.
Whether one is religious or not, they HAVE to acknowledge these things as basic fundamental American history that should be taught in every high school in this country. Part of the reason our government and our system of laws is so great is precisely because that group of secular progressive renegades rejected the status quo. They sought new ways of viewing things and rejected the view that God has to be part of a society at the governmental level. David Hume and Thomas Paine helped make this country what it is, to a level that is unattainable by Peter or Paul.
Those men in Philadelphia made a “Darwinian” system, capable of always progressing and molding to the needs of the day. Abraham Lincoln, an agnostic who grew up loathing the religiosity of the “second great awakening,” was a secular progressive and it is because of his secular progressive action that this nation was saved from further wreckage. Woodrow Wilson, though he was religious as a minister’s child, understood this perfectly and he is one of the primary reasons we entered the global stage.
Our nation’s history is rife with what Bill O’Reilly would demonize as secular progressives. We are a secular progressive nation and we always have been. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying through their greedy, ratings-grabbing teeth. That, you see, is why Bill O’Reilly hates America. Bill O’Reilly actively wants to change America’s perception of her own past to fit his own political agenda. He wants to skew present numbers to make it look like some radical minority. Well, Bill, if you think two hundred years of glorious history is a minority, then go right ahead. But it’s not. The 30% who now want a nonsecular nonprogressive society are the minority, and I pray to my Lord that they always will be. Secular progressivism (along with Free Speech, which Bill also isn’t a friend of) is a pillar of this country, and to attack it is to weaken the nation I love.
I’ve written you off as a lunatic, Bill, but seeing you take such a “spun” message about my country on network primetime television makes me want to scream. Whenever you call for a HUAC-like raid of the “SPs,” you’d better remember first that you’re throwing away some of our greatest leaders from the past, as well as a founding principle of the real America. The sad is that if you found a teacher actually teaching their students this history, you’d probably yell about it and try to make up some myth about how “oh, in a public speech John Adams said this…” Bulldookie.
Bill O’Reilly, you love advertising revenue more than America, and as a consequence you’ve created obscene distortions about our past. I’m not even going to ask you when the last time you saw a socialist on the network airwaves to try and disprove this “liberal media” garbage. You can say whatever you want and hold whatever lame-brained opinions you want, but please, stop distorting the historically-proven, core values of the nation I love
