12/10/2013
See also: War Against Christmas 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999 All PostsIt really is the most wonderful time of the year — when I get to write about the War On/ Against Christmas, a subject hated by Left and quisling Establishment Right alike, which has earned me one of my typically terse entries in Wikipedia (along with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly — fame!) ; and also to launch VDARE.com’s annual War Against Christmas contest — a bottle of champagne and a copy of John Derbyshire’s From The Dissident Right for whoever reports the most outrageous attempt to suppress Christmas in 2012. Email me or : put War On Christmas in the message line.
I’ve been in pixel about the War Against Christmas since at least just before we launched VDARE.com officially with an email blast on Christmas Eve, 1999 — not “since the early 2000s” as Wikipedia still says. But my involvement dates back even further: I got poor John O’Sullivan, then Editor of National Review, to start a War Against Christmas Competition back in 1995. (We called it “War Against Christmas”, but “War On Christmas” has obviously won out in popular usage, so I’ve adapted, with characteristic grace).
The last NR competition ran in 1997, at which time William F. Buckley for his own discreditable reasons had already fired O’Sullivan, but had not yet leaked the disinformation that O’Sullivan was “resigning to write a book.” The War Against Christmas Competition was promptly dropped, along with the cause of patriotic immigration reform — not coincidentally. In 2000, NR itself actually published a “Holiday Books Guide”.
Since then, it’s been a long war and a hard war, with many ups (can you believe Charles Krauthammer defended Christmas in 2004?!!) and downs (apart the special and deliberately-exaggerated case of Bill O’Reilly, I saw absolutely no defenses of Christmas by fashionable MSM Big Feet in 2012).
But I don’t care. Recently, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about World War I, not just because its centenary is alarmingly close. And my attitude is that of the British veterans who maintained the Commonwealth (formerly Imperial) War Grave Commission’s great battlefield cemeteries in France, as hauntingly recorded by Martin Middlebrook in his 1971 classic The First Day On The Somme, when nearly 20,000 British soldiers were killed in the opening attack:
There are few visitors to the Somme now…It is not on the popular holiday routes to the South. The more isolated cemeteries sometimes do not see an English visitor in a whole year. It does not matter to the gardeners, they keep them just as beautiful as the more popular ones.Regardless of whether it’s in or out of fashion, I believe attention simply must be paid to a Cultural Revolution as dramatic as the sudden near-extirpation of Christmas from the American public square (if you’ve not noticed, check this out).
And attention must also be paid to the passionate, leaderless-resistance backlash against the War On Christmas, which was clearly a precursor of 2009’s Town Hall insurrections, 2010’s Tea Parties, and before that the intense opposition that stopped the Bush Administration’s Amnesty drives in 2006 and 2007. A more recent example: 2012’s Chick-fil-A eat-in.
All of these popular movements, needless to say, were basically cold-shouldered by the Republican Party — more evidence of what I regard as its terminal condition.
Fundamentally, of course, what drives the War On Christmas is Christophobia, combined with visceral hatred of the West — what John Derbyshire once called “Hesperophobia” (a term originally coined by poet/ historian Robert Conquest) in a column spiked, significantly, by the post-purge National Review.
Last year, I noted that the War Against Christmas has gone through eight distinct phases:
1. Guerilla War 1990s-2000
2. Gathering resistance, 2001-2003.
3. The Khristmaskampf goes Mainstream, 2004.
4. War On Christmas Denial 2005-2007
5. War on Christmas Finally Gets Nasty 2008-9
6. War On Christmas Is Over!! 2009
7. War on Christmas Redux 2010-2011
8. Going in for the Kill? 2012
“Going In For the Kill” because I detected in 2012 a reassertion of the nastiness that dominated 2008-9, this time taking the form of an attempt to absolutely anathematize any resistance to the Khristmaskampf. I was particularly alerted by Jon Stewart’s much-ballyhooed Daily Show attack on Bill O’Reilly — which in fact was mostly an irrelevant but uninhibited expression of Jewish alienation — and by the anti-Fox Leftist media enforcer NewsHounds resurfacing its allegation that Bill O’Reilly’s War On Christmas coverage was anti-Semitic, citing (for some paranoid reason) VDARE.com. The same website reported, with ludicrous portentousness, Bill O'Reilly Once Reprimanded By ADL Over War On Christmas. (Shock! Horror!!)It’s a token of the extent to which American Leftists are no longer in any sense “liberals” but instead Cultural Marxist totalitarians that they believe they can arbitrarily ban anything they really don’t like, most notably any discussion of racial differences but more recently the term “illegal immigrant,” resistance to gay marriage or, for that matter, me. The War On Christmas is all too obviously driven by Jewish and homosexual animosities (even though it’s easy to find Jews who don’t agree, for example here) but it has by now also become a litmus test for much of the lumpen Left, and I thought anathematization was quite possible.
But, not for the first time, I seem to have been early — as I was in 2004, when I predicted the first outbreak of nastiness, which didn’t show up until 2008. Maybe the Left is disoriented by the fact that Hanukkah ended December 5, undercutting the claim that there’s some generalized “Holiday” season. (Watch O’Reilly rout Jon Stewart on this point here: Bill O'Reilly: Christmas and politics, Fox, December 4, 2013). Or maybe they are even more demoralized by the unfolding Obamacare disaster than is generally realized.
Or something. Anyway, 2013’s early Khristmaskampf clashes have resulted in some startling victories:
Until Wednesday, any expression of “Merry Christmas,” “Happy Hanukkah,” “Happy Holidays,” or the like was forbidden from official congressional correspondence. The postage on such correspondence is paid for with taxpayer money, or “franked,” so there are regulations to ensure that members do not abuse taxpayer funds for their personal use.But Republican Rep. Candice Miller, who chairs the Franking Committee, has changed that policy.
In 2011, Chafee’s aim for political correctness and to be “respectful of everyone” by calling the spruce a “holiday tree” drew protesters during the holiday tree-lighting ceremony. The governor was also labeled a “Grinch” by one state legislator, and a competing Christmas tree-lighting ceremony was held. At the time, Chafee’s office reportedly received some 3,500 calls on the decision.This is particularly interesting because Chafee, a degenerate WASP who is Rhode Island’s Democratic Governor, obstinately stuck to his “Holiday Tree” decision in 2012, attracting the usual MSM support. But now he has capitulated.
Bill Chandler, Gap Inc.’s vice-president for global corporate affairs, sent a personal letter to the association announcing its policy has changed this year for Gap and Old Navy stores:Riddle credits this victory to the American Family Association — which, tellingly, the Leftist vigilante group Media Matters promptly smeared as an anti-homosexual. [O'Reilly Praises Anti-Gay Group In His Fake War On Christmas, by Emily Arrowood, December 2, 2013]As we near the holiday season I want to update you on how Gap, Inc.’s family of brands will celebrate the Christmas season. As a global retailer, we embrace the diversity of our customers and respect a variety of traditions and faith during the holidays, including Christmas.
Starting today, every Gap Outlet window will have signs that say “Merry Christmas” along with Christmas trees and wreaths throughout their stores.
Clay Eaton, the managing director of York Preparatory Academy in Rock Hill. S.C. had previously told students that he had to ban two medleys — “Christmas Overture” and “The Joy of Christmas” — because the American Civil Liberties Union objected, reports The Herald, a local newspaper.It’s long been obvious that the separation of powers rationale for Christophobia is fallacious — or why would the War Against Christmas be raging in Britain, where there is an Established religion? — but this is the first time I can remember the American Civil Liberties Union confirming the point.Songs in the proposed medleys included “Joy to the World” and “O Come All Ye Faithful.”
Freshman band member Phillip Dean told The Herald that Eaton initially claimed that the ACLU had sent the school a letter threatening a lawsuit if the students performed the songs at the Dec. 19 concert.
The next day, Dean said, Eaton changed his story and suggested that he was banning the songs because of a mysterious ACLU press release….
However, the ACLU of South Carolina has flatly denied sending any letter to York Prep or any general press release concerning the annually contentious issue of Christmas songs performed at public-school holiday concerts.
Victoria Middleton, a spokeswoman for South Carolina’s ACLU chapter noted that the august civil rights organization frequently gets blamed when school administrators unilaterally decide to outlaw Christmas music this time of year.
Today HB 308, the “Merry Christmas” Bill, was signed into law by Governor Rick Perry at a special ceremony at the Texas Capitol. State Representative Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston) and State Senator Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville) authored HB 308, which received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Texas House and Texas Senate. HB 308 makes it clear that public schools and their staff are permitted to acknowledge and educate students about historic and cultural roots of important holidays such as Christmas, Hanukkah and others, and with school displays that can include Christmas trees, a Menorah, a Nativity scene, Santa Claus, Reindeer and more.Similar bills have been introduced in several other states, including even deep-Blue New Jersey. (Dancer Bill puts the ‘Merry’ back in Christmas, the ‘Ho, Ho, Ho’ in Santa and the ‘Happy’ in Hanukkah and the Holidays, by ARep, Politicker NJ.com, November 26th, 2013)The legislation also makes it clear that school districts, staff, and students are permitted to use greetings such as “Merry Christmas,” “Happy Hanukkah,” “Happy Holidays” or others.
Such legislation is absolutely necessary. Courts have shown — for example in the scandalous Skoros case in which the New York City Department of Education has been allowed to go on permitting "Holiday Season" displays of menorahs and stars-and-crescents while at the same time suppressing any display of Nativity scenes — that they cannot be trusted to stand up to the Christophobes.
Of course, the war never ends. More recently, there have been reports that school districts are subverting the Texas law. (Santa trumps the Grinch under Texas' new Merry Christmas law, By Fort Worth Star-Telegram, December 9, 2013.)
And fresh atrocities constantly occur:
For as long as anyone can remember, teachers at Brooklet Elementary School have posted Christmas cards in the hallways outside their classrooms — until Monday.Ultimately, I think I will be proved right, and there will be an attempt to anathematize all resistance (Chrisistance?) to the War On Christmas.When boys and girls returned from Thanksgiving break, they discovered that their teachers’ Christmas cards had been removed — under orders from the Georgia school’s administration…
Teachers have been ordered to remove any religious icons or items from their classrooms — ranging from Bibles to Christian music.
Teachers have also been instructed to avoid student-led prayers at all costs. Should they be in a room where students are praying, teachers have been ordered to turn their backs on their students.
Georgia School Confiscates Christmas Cards, by Todd Starnes, FOX News, Dec 3, 2013
But meanwhile, in the spirit of good cheer, I present the winner of VDARE.com’s 2012 War Against Christmas Competition — a member of the U.S. armed services on overseas deployment. who wrote:
I thought you may be interested in how Christmas is being done out here?It’s all about home, really — and the effort to take it away.I’m guessing you imagine that there is no decorations, no "Merry Christmas", no trees, just the occasional service at the chapel and that would be about it.
Well …
I’m happy to report that you would be wrong, it’s almost 180 from that. I’m actually surprised how it’s not holidays but Christmas, actually Christmas. No Menorah, or star of David, no, well, whatever that African religion is, and no Muslim holiday.
It goes all the way up to the generals. I look around and almost every office is decorated for Christmas, (more so if there are females). Even Third Country Nationals (TCNs) aka the slaves, the help, the people who do everything else, seem to be happy Christmas is coming. Actually I came in to work, and one of the TCNs who cleans my office’s bathroom smiled at me, waved, and in a thick Indian accent, with head bobbing from side to side, said "Merry Christmas, sir."
Shocked, I was.
But the best is when we went out to the airfield to pick up Christmas decorations.
As we walk in there is the usual hustle and bustle, but there is a working party decorating the entire office. Standing in the middle of the area is this Colonel — imagine a mix of Robert De Niro, and the casino owner in Ocean’s 11. He’s standing there saying, to no-one in particular but everybody is supposed to listen anyway (it’s a Colonel thing): "I want you to Christmas the [deleted] out of this office. I don’t give a [deleted] if I’m Jewish, I'd better believe that I’m walking into a winter wonderland."
This has happened all over the base. And as of yet I have not heard anyone complain. Even the [Muslim allies] have said nothing.
Blow-up statues of Santa and other Christmas stuff, Christmas lights in rooms, even the rocket artillery, range of up to 30km, has on the web page "Santa’s other Christmas delivery system" and a tally for the number of strikes labeled as "Christmas Presents delivered".
I honestly don’t know why this is happening out here. Maybe it’s our way out here of giving the middle finger to the enemy, maybe it’s a propaganda thing. It might just be that were stuck out here for Christmas and were trying to remake a little bit of home.
Merry Christmas to all VDARE.com readers!
Peter Brimelow is the Editor of VDARE.com and author of the much-denounced Alien Nation: Common Sense About America’s Immigration Disaster
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.