My Side Right or Wrong

In my columns, I often refer to my Brooklyn youth.  I do so because this enables me to put things into perspective. Because my political awareness began as a deeply committed liberal, I am able to compare what I thought then with what I have learned since.

Back then I believed that conservatives were dunder-headed know-nothings. Had I been aware of how Barack Obama later characterized them as clinging to their guns and Bibles, I would have heartily agreed.  I would have added, however, that they were reflexive patriots who believed in their country—right or wrong. 

Since I knew how unjust capitalism was, these folks were obviously blind to America’s weaknesses.  They did not realize that the only sensible position was to be a citizen of the world. Liberals, who were much smarter, understood this.  They recognized that our side could be wrong.

But then I look around at today’s world.  While I admit that I do so as a conservative, it is plain to me that the “my side, right or wrong” mantle has been appropriated by the left. Without a doubt, it is now progressives who unthinkingly cling to the party line.

The current “resist” movement is such that it does not matter what Donald Trump does.  Whatever it may be, they are against it.  If he suddenly adopted their most sacred tenets, they would dismiss these too. This would not be a reasoned transformation, but a product of their hatred.

The evidence for this mounts daily.  Liberals are ideologues.  They have a fixed belief system that is impervious to unexpected facts.  They are also power hungry.  So sanctimonious have they become that they are certain the world cannot survive without their guidance.

Let us take the nomination of Brett Cavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Even before he was selected, liberals hysterically opposed him.  Because they believed that anyone Trump selected would move the court to the right, they had to portray him as an arch-villain.

Everyone in Washington understood their motivation.  Politically aware folks knew that cries about the sky falling were intended to frighten the politically naïve.  Ergo, liberals did not care whether what they said was true. Their knee-jerk reaction to was a partisan ploy, not a reasoned evaluation.

The same was the case with the frenzy about closing the border.  It too was based on an anti-Trump, anti conservative rage that had little to do with the equities of the situation.  The goal was to portray their adversaries as heard-hearted tyrants who had to be stopped from stripping babies out of their mother’s arms.

Yet when have liberals not depicted conservatives as hard-hearted scoundrels? The left has to be correct because the other side is so insufferably wrong.  This is why the good guys resort to clichés and talking points.  They must tar loathsome rightists with the evil reputation they have so richly earned.

Nonetheless this tactic does not involve thought.  It is as much a consequence of pre-programmed commitments as the mouthings of robotic fundamentalists.  All one has to do to verify this claim is witness the stereotyped slogans of the activists.  These conformists, like the Stalinists of yore, are prepared to chant whatever their masters signal.

For example, how many times have we been told that Trump put little children in cages?  This is a base canard.  It derives from a picture of children sleeping behind a chain-link fence taken during the Obama administration.  Still, once this was revealed, it made no difference to militants who were certain they were right, even though they were wrong.

The same thing happened when Trump was pressured into changing his policy so as to insist that little children not be removed from their parents.  The protesters did not miss a beat and continued to flay him for doing what he was no longer doing.  As I say, facts did not matter.

So now lets rap this up.  When I was a teenager, I was taught that liberals were intellectuals.  They were people who critically analyzed the shortcomings of our civilization and responsibly proposed alternatives.  Because they used their brains, they could see what needed fixing, as well as how to achieve this.

If this were ever accurate, it no longer is.  Liberals has substituted self-righteousness for sound reasoning.  They have become sanctimonious sheep who are convinced they are on a mission to save the rest of us.  Perhaps a little soul-searching is in order.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University