A prevailing historic theme of left-wing politics has been a general disdain for whatever America was at the moment. There was always and undercurrent of revolution – peaceful or otherwise. As with all big government authoritarian movements, change was based on empowerment through impossible promises and varying degrees of force – not fundamental principles of governance exercised by civil debate in the public forum.
As a form of central planning socialism, the left generally rises from a combination of public greed – wanting things seemingly without the cost or the responsibility of earning – and a faux idealism – believing that such economic generosity is even possible. Wherever left-wing radicalism was successful, the eventual result has been economic collapse with tragic outcomes for the masses it falsely promised to serve.
Such utopianism is an ever-present virus in the body-politic – only to flare up occasionally as a full-blown political malady. We seem to be living in such an era again. The Philistines are upon us – that Philistine Goethe described as a man who, “… not only ignores all conditions of life which are not his own, but also demands that the rest of mankind should fashion its mode of existence after his own.” That is what big government progressivism is all about – controlling and regulating we the people into a “mode of existence” fashioned after their own theories and policies. And that requires concentrated power in the hands of the elitist Philistines.
Progressives generally come onto the scene with a wrecking ball. Their reforms have one fundamental purpose. It is the acquisition of more power in the hands of the few – even when their policies are garbed in the lamb’s skin of granting power to the people.
In this political season, the progressive Philistines are in full force with proposals and plans that run contrary to American traditions, American Exceptionalism and America’s best interests – at least from the standpoint of we the people.
Green New Deal
In the lead for the nuttiest issue is the so-called Green New Deal that seemed to have its genesis from the most radical and ill-informed member of the radical left – Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. Like the religious zealot on the street corner warning of the soon-to-come end of the earth, Ocasio Cortez believes our planet will be uninhabitable in … not millennia, not centuries … but in about twelve years. We have a better chance of being hit by a world-ending meteor between now and then than being flooded and starved out of existence by global warming before Ocasio Cortez’ 40th birthday.
To head off her imagined demise of humanity, the Bronx congresswoman suggests that we stop using ANY fossil fuel, cease to use airplanes and a whole range of other Draconian policies. If her Green New Deal was every enacted – and there is little chance of that – humanity would suffer far worse consequences for mankind than a rise in world temperatures.
Still, several Democrat political candidates have embraced the concept of a Green New Deal if not Ocasio Cortez more irrational provisions – but even then, it is just plan nuts.
Reparations
The idea of paying today’s African Americans for the injustices of slavery that ended more than 150 years ago – not counting the Democratic Parties oppression of blacks in Dixie and the major urban centers. This is nothing less than an ethnic bribe to maintain the political loyalty of the largely oppressed black community.
This shows just how irrational politics can be. The reparation issue would have people who are in no way responsible for slavery, segregation or oppression pay a penalty to people who have no established personal damage from the practice. My ancestors, like many of yours, were not even here during the days of slavery. Many Americans with longer bloodlines on American soil were part of the abolitionist movement.
African Negroes who were harmed by slavery are all dead. Except, perhaps, for blacks who lived in the old solid Democrat segregated southland or in today’s major segregated cities, blacks are not being institutionally oppressed these days. If there is any institution that should pay reparations, the Democratic Party would be the one – and I would not even suggest that.
If you believe that only people who are accountable should be held responsible, you can see that concept being carried out today. In a number of cases where a police officer acted in a racist manner to the point of using inappropriate deadly force, the city governments have had to settle civil suits – pay reparations, if you will.
Native Americans and white Americans were also held in slavery. Will there be reparations for them – even if we could figure out who they were? That does not seem to be part of the plan. If we did not already have the word “pandering,” we would have to coin it to describe the progressive reparations proposal.
Electoral College
Eliminating the Electoral College is political snake oil. If you read the label, it sounds reasonable – a simple devotion to majority rule. But like the snake oil it will do no good and potentially great harm.
Majority rule without the protection of minority views can — and often does — lead to tyranny. The Electoral College prevents a few very large states from dominating presidential elections. It gives representation to the smaller states.
More importantly, it settles our presidential elections and avoids prolonged court cases when the vote is very close. In both 2000 and 2016, we had a legitimate President in the Oval office because of the Electoral College. Without it, we could have had months and even years of court cases contesting the vote count in any number of states. In the meantime, America would be without a constitutional head-of-state.
And even without the Electoral College, we would most certainly have a president who did not receive a majority of the vote. President Lincoln assumed office with less than 40 percent of the popular vote. President Kennedy was declared the winner with slightly less than 50 percent of the vote. President Nixon got only 43 percent in 1968. President Clinton was elected twice with 43 and 49 percent of the popular vote in 1992 and 1996 respectively.
The Electoral College has prevented America from descending into the kind of power battle we see in many other nations.
16-year-old vote
Dropping the voting age is a raw power play. Democrats – and most everyone else – know that youth tends toward irrational idealism – the sort of mindset to which authoritarians pander. Without life experience, younger people are easily manipulated. That is why the most brutal authoritarians – such as Hitler and Mao — developed “youth corps” through indoctrination.
The problem for the Republic is exacerbated by the fact that the progressives already have too much control and influence over the education systems and the entertainment industry which has inordinate appeal to the youth of America.
This is not about extending the democracy of personal freedom, but of subverting it.
Opposition to voter IDs
You really have to drink the Kool-Aid to buy into this bit of nuttiness. Showing identification is the standard operating procedure in virtually every aspect of American life. You cannot get medical care without it. You cannot enter many government buildings without it. You cannot drive a car without it. You need an ID to be a student in most colleges and universities. You need an ID to make certain purchases – such as liquor or cigarettes. That is why almost every adult American has an official ID.
It would seem that exercising the right to vote would be paramount in proving you are who you say you are. If a person has no other official ID, most voting laws enable them to acquire a special one – usually at no cost.
The left’s opposition to voter IDs is not really a matter of racism, as they claim. It is just that the left historically gains from vote fraud. Yeah. Yeah. I know the left claims there is no such thing as stealing votes – just like all those dictators always claim their elections are totally honest. Uh huh.
As a person who has investigated vote fraud in Chicago, I can say with certainty that it exists as general practice of the Chicago Democrat political machine.
. . . .
To answer the headline question … Is America as crazy as the progressives think? I do not know. In the past, I would have said “no,” but today … not so sure.
So, there ‘tis.
