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Jewish World Review Nov. 8, 2010/ 1 Kislev, 5771 Curtain Up, Progressives Down By Arnold Ahlert
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
No matter how many ways they try to analyze last week's election, the American left will forever reject the most obvious explanation of all: for the first time since Jimmy Carter, Americans got a long, hard look at progressivism. Not the progressivism cloaked in the mainstream media- and Democrat-concocted facade of high-minded reasonableness. The haughty, elitist arrogance of those who truly believe they are the only lights shining across a darkened landscape populated by misguided misfits--misguided misfits who thoroughly rejected their enlightened benevolence in favor of…what? Here's what:
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Pragmatism. Progressives and pragmatism are like oil and water. Nothing represents this better than the total and enduring disconnect between progressives' grand schemes and our ability to pay for them. Thirteen trillion dollars of debt, thousands of unfunded federal mandates and an insatiable desire to keep spending our money, along with that of our children and grandchildren, is the mother's milk of the American left. Americans have had more than enough of this nonsense. What do they know that so many of our Ivy League, nose-in-the-air "intellectuals" don't?
That you can't get blood from a stone, that's what. Spending America into the ground isn't "benevolent' or "enlightened." It's moronic, and more importantly, it's immoral. That's right, immoral when you call it by its proper name: multi-generational thievery.
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Respect. Barack Obama thinks he took a beating because he "didn't get his message across?" The media hand-wringers bemoan the "great unwashed" voters' "rage and racism?" The most insufferable snob in politics, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) says we've entered an age of "know-nothingism" and "lost our minds?" Welcome to the Progressive Charm School approach to "winning the hearts and minds" of ordinary Americans.
Those would be the same ordinary Americans sick to death of being belittled by people who finally thought it was safe to bare their contempt. It wasn't, and nothing epitomized this better than the Tea Party movement. Millions of Americans finally saw who progressives really are, so neatly epitomized by the passage of the health care bill, and decided it was proverbial last straw.
The bill was a two-fer: it demonstrated that nothing, not even ten percent unemployment, would stand in the way of progressive priorities--and that the will of the people meant absolutely nothing in pursuing those priorities. We wanted jobs. They wanted government-run health care. Now they wonder out loud how we could've have been so stupid. Priceless.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention one more example of blind arrogance. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (how I love that word "former") has announced her intention to remain the leader of her now minority House party (how I love that word "minority"). Her rationale? "We have no intention of allowing our great achievements to be rolled back," said Ms. Pelosi.
How's that for respecting the will of the people?
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American exceptionalism. When this bunch assumed the reins of power, many of us warned our fellow Americans that we were electing people who assumed this country was fundamentally flawed. It didn't take them long to reveal that assessment. Barack Obama toured the globe apologizing for the "sins" of a nation whose track record of generosity is second to none, whose historical sacrifices of blood and treasure dwarf those of every other nation, and whose commitment to freedom make it a magnet for the poor and oppressed across the entire planet.
Every grandiose scheme concocted by progressives arises from the idea that America's success is attributable to some form of greed and/or cruelty for which we must hold ourselves accountable. We must "level the playing field," not by encouraging other countries to raise their standards, but by lowering our own in order to meet the world half-way.
This "zero sum" garbage is the essence of the progressive mindset in which every reason for our success can be traced to someone else's failure--and only a benevolent government with progressives in charge can right every wrong wrought by the "evils" of capitalism, and a free people exercising free choices.
Don't think for a second that these people aren't truly astounded that Americans would reject such a misguided assessment of our country. Such is the essence of what passes for a college education in modern-day America, and those educated in such settings are completely convinced that the only thing separating the rubes from reality is a sheepskin and a mortarboard hat. It's not. It's a deep abiding love called "patriotism" and people are sick to death of seeing it denigrated by intellectual pecksniffs whose contempt for it and those who believe in it is palpable.
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National unity. It's becoming increasingly impossible for most Americans to reconcile the self-professed tolerance of progressives with their vicious attacks on anyone who rejects their agenda. Perhaps the bottom of the barrel was the liberal whispering campaign suggesting Sarah Palin's child, Trig, was really that of her daughter Bristol, during the 2008 election campaign. Coming in a close second was General "Betrayus," attacking a man who has dedicated his life to preserving freedom. And when it become evident that the Tea Party movement could no longer be ignored, progressives began attacking concerned Americans with a fury they have never demonstrated for any of American's genuine enemies--a word the president himself used to characterize his fellow Americans.
In the world of progressives, we are not Americans. We are gays versus straights, blacks vs. whites, men vs. women, rich vs. poor, religionists vs. atheists, and any of a host of other sub-categories all promoted for one purpose: to divide and conquer.
Americans should watch very closely when newly-elected Allen West, a black Republican, attempts to join the Congressional Black Caucus, a move he has indicated he intends to make. The last and only Republican in the CBC was Connecticut Rep. Gary Frank. Mr Frank was often excluded from, or kept unaware of, meetings held by the CBC, some of whose members considered him a "spy" for the opposition--with opposition being defined as anyone who doesn't march in lockstep with the progressive agenda.
The other black Republican elected to Congress, Tim Scott, has indicated he will pass on the CBC: "My experience has been the whole notion of one nation--so I really shy away things that create some kind of boundaries. … It highlights the divisions I've been pushing forward to erase." Perhaps Mr. Scott might consider that working for change from the inside may be far more effective, but his desires are admirable nonetheless.
Florida's Senator-elect, Republican Marco Rubio, is yet another bit of evidence that voters are fed up with the ethnic stereotyping that progressives use to keep non-whites on the Democrat plantation.
Heaven help those progressives if these three men represent a trend. And progressives know it. Expect all three men to be attacked with a viciousness that represents exactly what it is: a wounded ideology's fight for survival. Any serious fissures in the ethnic monolith created and enforced by progressives is the end of the road for those whose success hinges on keeping Americans divided and angry with each other.
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A fair and balanced media. Once again the "wisdom" of the progressive punditry was thoroughly rejected--and once again they are utterly clueless as to how that's possible. That so many of them can't connect the dots is becoming farcical. If such cluelessness could be summed up by one idea it could be reduced to, "I don't understand how Republicans were so successful. Everyone I know voted Democrat."
There's a reason why first cousins aren't allowed to marry: highly similar gene pools produce dubious results in offspring. So it is with the leftist media echo-chamber which has hermetically sealed itself off from mainstream America, even as they wonder why America has returned the favor. Better to blame everything on Fox News, and the rest of the "vast right-wing conspiracy."
Whatever gets you through the night, boys and girls. But don't expect an ounce of sympathy--or a ratings boost--from the majority Americans who are as elated with your comeuppance as they are with that of our Congress and the president.
In conclusion, here's hoping progressives keep kidding themselves. Their willful denial of the obvious will hopefully resonate with the public right up through the election of 2012. With any luck, we'll get a whole lot more of them telling us what a stupid bunch of ingrates we are for tossing them out of Washington, D.C.
Think it's over, progressives? This party's just getting started.
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© 2010, Arnold Ahlert |
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