Mugged By Reality

As a one-time liberal, who became a conservative, I have been alert to why others made this political voyage.  Time and again, I have heard a variation of the theme, “I was mugged by reality.” Facts that could not be denied eventually undermined what had been a strong faith.

This was certainly true for me.  As I became increasingly aware that the war on poverty did not work, that progressive educational reforms did not succeed, and that even rent control was a fiasco, the more doubts crept into my psyche.  Why had these supposedly enlightened policies miscarried?

A more important source of disillusionment in my case was that my liberal mentors were not intellectually honest.  Instead of acquainting me with the broad range of scholarly ideas, they exposed me to an abridged version.  Sophisticated conservative views were entirely omitted from the lessons they taught.

This was mendacious.  It was the opposite of the uprightness I had been led to associate with liberalism. What then of concepts such as “social democracy”?  Was it possible for socialism and democracy to be mutually accommodating?  Could collectivist societies be free societies?

If I ever thought so, recent events disabused me of this fantasy.  An incident apparently far afield assailed my sense of fairness.  Once again, liberals demonstrated they were not what they seemed.  Despite their talk about being democratic, they revealed a fundamental allegiance to despotism.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s midnight ambush of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court has been an abomination from the start.  It began with an anonymous accusation and devolved into a political insurrection.  From a secret poison pill, it transformed into a threat to our system of governance.

The quintessential moment came when Ford’s lawyers insisted that she would not testify before a Senate committee unless Kavanaugh did so ahead of her. This was an unmitigated assault on our concept of due process.  In an instant, legal protections that had taken centuries to evolve were discarded as if they were trash.

No longer did the accused have a right to confront his accuser.  No longer did he even have the ability to know the nature of the accusation.  Suddenly we were back in the days of the medieval Star Chamber.  Without warning, a respondent was required to prove his innocence of an undisclosed crime.

This is the antithesis of democracy.  Not only does it fly in the face of constitutional protections, but it is a terrifying step toward Stalinist show trials.  In one fell swoop, traditional rules were replaced by political expediency.  The verdict first; the trial later.

That, however, was not the direst aspect of this affair.  Even more alarming was that not a single Democratic Senator spoke up against the horror.  Not a word was murmured in favor of due process.  Here were our democratic institutions under siege and those who should have been most concerned were silent.

Many in the media noted the absurdity of Kavanauh testifying first, and yet the gravity of the situation was discounted.  It was compared with the batter swinging first and then the pitcher throwing the ball.  Yes, but this was not a ball game.  Our democratic traditions hang in the balance.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Unions also stood mute. This bastion of liberalism—this presumed protector of our liberties—found nothing obscene in what occurred.  Can there, however, be any more serious threat to our liberties?  Doesn’t ravaging the constitution qualify?

Democracies are fragile.  They succumb to internal conflicts unless they are robustly defended.  It is apparent that so-called democrats have no intention of rushing to the aid of our republic.  They are more concerned with obtaining a transitory political advantage.

And so I have been mugged again.  Whatever disagreements I have had with progressives, I assumed they too believed in protecting our liberties.  It seems I was wrong.  They really do believe in winning at any cost.

Perhaps I should have been alerted to the leftist’s totalitarian drift by their criticisms of free speech.  Perhaps their public assaults on conservatives should have told me the days of liberal tolerance are gone.

In any event, the time has come to sound the alarm!  Liberalism has declared war on democracy.  This challenge must be recognized.  Unless it is, and is met with stout resistance, our freedoms will be forfeit.  Without due process can an American Gulag be far behind?

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University