Somehow, somewhere, some way, I wound up on a right-wing mailing list.
I still don't know how or why, but it causes my mailbox to occasionally be graced with missives from the right, imploring my assistance in defeating the latest dastardly left-wing neo-Marxist plot to, well, make life better or easier for someone other than multimillionaires and billionaires.
Such is the letter from Ben Stein - onetime Nixon speechwriter, comedian, game show host, and now fierce foe of the dark plots of the Left (yes, with a capital 'L'). The screed is in the form of a plea for support for the Young America's Foundation. Ben starts off lamenting the easily demonstrated historical ignorance of the populace. True enough, and he'll get no argument from me.
Then things start to go off the rails, and the fun begins. You see, apparently the problem is that our youth
...are being taught atheism, political correctness, multiculturalism, and moral relativism. That's because the Left is hyperactive in reaching our kids with their anti-god, socialistic message.
Oh noes! The Godless Left is coming for our youth!
Ben is also disturbed that a study from UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute found that once students start college, "they quickly become more liberal on key issues." And not only that, but "after three years of leftist university indoctrination" the number of students who never attend religious services doubles.
Umm - Ben? That has nothing to do with any Godless Lefty plot. It has everything to do with higher education being associated with more openness - openness to new experiences, openness to opposing ideas, openness to considering and debating more than one side of an issue - and working against the sort of authoritarian, rigid, selective and biased thought processes that characterize so much of 'conservative' ideology.
So who will combat this sad state of affairs? Why, the Young America's Foundation, of course, which apparently hosts high school and college conferences, lectures, and "training programs at the Reagan Ranch [and] Reagan Ranch Center." Ben goes on to explain that
The Foundation's famous campus lecture program sends distinguished leaders, including me, directly to large student audiences on campus to teach conservative ideas and American history.
Ah hahahahaha! Ben Stein really is a comedian - he's making me laugh right now! Hahahaha!
Wait a minute - what's even funnier than Ben Stein thinking he's a "distinguished leader"? Why, the fact that there are right wingers who apparently agree with him, and want him to be a campus speaker! Hahahahaha!
Then he asks for a tax-deductible donation of $35 or more. And just why does this cause need money from me? Apparently, because they don't have
...the deep pockets of the limousine Left.
No, they only have access to the even deeper pockets of the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, associated other right-wing plutocrats of our modern Gilded Age.
Ben concludes in his P.S. that
Our children don't know history. And that one simple fact is helping to lead our country down the Left's dark path.
Sweet Jesus. "The Left's dark path"?? What dark path would that be, Ben? The path that leads to things like..oh, I don't know...
Acceptance of the LGBT community as full and equal citizens?
Affordable access to health care for all?
A commitment to an environmentally sustainable future?
Avoidance of misguided aggressive wars based on dishonesty by our leaders, with no coherent long-term plan or exit strategy?
A commitment to better wages and to shared prosperity for the poor and middle class, rather than endless economic policies that benefit only the wealthiest 1%?
The horror. Imagine the unending nightmare of the world envisioned by the Left!
Hey Ben: thanks for alerting me to this menace to a just and fair society, this so-called "Young America's Foundation." I will definitely be supporting anyone who opposes them!