John Maynard Keyes, a
liberal in good standing, described many of his colleagues as “slaves to some
defunct economist.” He was too
kind. Many of today’s liberals are bound
hand and foot in the service of long dead thinkers. Worse still, most don’t know it.
Liberals assume they are
progressive. They believe that they are
forward-looking pioneers who are on a mission to save humanity from
itself. In fact, they are always looking
in a rearview mirror intent on resurrecting old ideas that have proven their
inadequacy.
Consider ObamaCare. Democrats did not enact it because they found
that the British state run health care system was superior to our own. No, they did so because Franklin Roosevelt
and Harry Truman promised to nationalize health care decades ago. They were merely fulfilling a long-standing
pledge.
Or think about Iraq. Everyone acknowledges that the situation is
falling apart. But what do Liberals
do? Do they come up with a plan for saving
our bacon? No, their first impulse is to
resurrect old charges against Bush. He
was a fault so they don’t have to figure out something now.
Or what about Harry Reid and
the nuclear option? He eliminated two
centuries of tradition just so his president could appoint the officials he
desired. Somehow Reid couldn’t look far
enough ahead to realize that Republicans might use this same device when they
return to office.
And how about the IRS
scandal? Obama says there was not a
smidgeon of corruption, but even a blind sheik can see that there was. With conservatives unfairly targeted and hard
drives destroyed, there was almost certainly a cover-up. Polls clearly show that the American people
think so.
Still the progressives are
not worried. They have Obama and Eric Holder
to protect them. They know
investigations will not be pursued, citations for contempt of congress will not
be enforced, and criminal accusations will not be filed in court. All is therefore well.
But if they thought ahead,
they would realize that they may lose the Senate in November and the presidency
in 2016. Should this happen, Republicans
will be primed fo payback. Having
essentially been kicked in the groin, they will be eager to return the favor.
As for the mainstream media,
these enablers have already sullied their reputation for honest
journalism. Do they think they will
recover it while unreported scandals continue to fester? Do they imagine that when Republicans come
back in power, they will be treated as long lost relatives?
Progressives believe in
equality. They believe in it with every
fiber of their being. But they only
believe in it for themselves and their clients.
Their enemies do not have to be treated fairly. They do not have to be accorded any respect
whatsoever.
Where did this attitude come
from? Why it is hundreds of years
old. Jean-Jacques Rousseau planted the
seeds two hundred and fifty years ago and Karl Marx tilled the field a hundred
years later. These gentlemen are
regarded as prophets, but their predictions have been getting a bit moth-eaten.
The experience of the Soviet
Union and of the European social democracies should have sent up a flare. But progressives did not see it. They were too busy looking back to hoary
utopian visions to be bothered by limitations discovered in the here and now.
Keynesianism is dead. FDR’s economic programs were a failure. But no, progressives have to try them
again. And after six years of stumbling recovery,
the best they can proclaim is that the recession has not returned. We have
had a quarter of negative growth, but at least we have not yet had two.
Progressives are not
progressive. Liberals have no new
ideas. Democrats only know how to create
government programs and added regulations.
They are corrupt, they are old-fashioned, and they are incompetent. They don’t think so, but it is time the rest
of us caught on.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University
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