Progressives will lose because they don't understand humans

 

If you read liberals—Week, Moveon.org, Huffpost, or Euros like The Economist, it becomes clear what motivates activist progressives.  They are utopians who want a world sans prejudice, and morality as well.  But the big dream plans don’t take place spontaneously.  Plans require guidance/control by the state.  Evolution to the dark side--Power Hunger, Socialism, Authoritarianism--happens.  Dictated policies lead to dictators, the pitfall of European kings and Marxist/facists.  So after 1763, British American colonists grew wary of directives from government.  They wrote a constitution that espoused Liberty, limited federal govt, and low taxation.

            These last two years under Biden have been eye-opening for average guys with other interests than politics.  Parents who went to school board meetings with suspicions were labeled “domestic terrorists” by the Justice Dept., a frightening development.  Biden called anyone who voted for Trump a “semi-facist” after first alleging them to be “white supremacists” ( in league with KKK?!) That stunned a lot of people, to be deemed criminals as it were by none other than the President.  It’s one thing to be labeled a “chump” or “deplorable” or a phrase that meant “bitter clinger”.  We are used to name-calling in politics that invokes stupidity.  But to tag as an enemy of the state is quite another matter.  And most of the President’s supporters are cheering this. Just fans or are they aching for civil war? I should hope the prior!

            How does this happen?  To be a lib, you only have to think yourself smarter than most people.  You envision your own opinion that of a superior elite which aspires to rule. The elites of Europe, the aristocrats, panicked in the 1800s worrying that a French Revolution would spread and behead.  So they came up with reasoning called nobilese oblige “obligation of the nobles”.  Don’t kill me, I’m a good aristocrat who, albeit rich, understands your plight.  Behead that other evil exploitive guy!  We call this a limousine liberal in USA.  Note the aristocracy doesn’t want to step down.  They just want to convince you they care. Of course, America has wealthy, a few of whom make money by getting in cahoots with government money. Plus, as F. Scot Fitzgerald noted, “The rich are different than us.”  They love loose morals that would get an ordinary middle class person in lifelong troubles.  Drink and get addicted?  The rich just check themselves into a plush rehab center. Have an affair? Abortion. The poor man with addiction is likely to die in a gutter. She lives with the consequences of child-bearing. Thus elites desire not just central planning, but also moral relativism and big government to befriend for profit.

            There is a problem with this game.  No utopia works.  Utopias may beguile some, but reality always bites.  If I had a million dollars for every time socialism worked, I’d still be dead broke.  That, according to the Father of Modern Psychology, John Locke (Two Treatises on Government, 1677), is because every person is motivated by concerns for self, not the Grand Soviet 5-year Plan or any other govt scheme. There are a some crooked middle class businessmen, the successful ones create a product the public wants to buy. Many are even part-motivated by a mission for God.  This presents a mountainous problem for central planners.  Farmers, dreamers, the churches follow another voice. When elites erupt into visceral hatred, watch out! “You will buy an electric vehicle, no? What do you mean there is no place to recharge it and you worry about cost and range? We will restrict fuel so that you will be forced to buy an EV.  You will be forced to get vaccinated and wear a mask.  You must talk in a woke manner or be penalized.  You must not question what your children are taught in school.”

            Elites don’t plan perfectly. Suppress fossil fuels? 90% of manufactured goods depend on fossil fuels at this time.  Paint, make-up plastics, synthetic fabrics, chemical feedstocks, smelting and coke—all come from fossil fuels.  Quarantining the healthy public rather than the sick has never stopped contagion.  Light-weight masks and vaccines are not 100% effective and cause other problems sometimes. Educating without parental support is foolhardy.  Tax more and people tend to do tax avoidance that leads to less revenue collection. Restrict lives and people will act in secret. Statism never works positively.

            The notion that each person should be able to live as they see fit (Liberty), is destroyed under statism.  Take away the most deeply held convictions of people by trying to suppress their religion won’t work either. The Soviet experiment lasted 3 generations and when the iron curtain fell, the West discovered to its amazement that 1/3 of Russians were secret Christians. (They forgot to suppress the elderly grandmothers who shared their faith with children)

            I sense that the midterms are going to go badly for the progressives.  Polls don’t show it but I think all the threats have shut people’s mouths.  But they are sharpening their pencils to vote. Maybe I’m wrong.  We’ll see.