What he said:

John C. Wright ponders. Ponder with him.

“Perhaps, like me, you have wondered how it is that so many people, otherwise honest, can adopt without demur the Orwellian anti-language of Political Correctness; how it is that so many people, otherwise rational, can adopt without demur the paradoxes, self-contradictions and logical absurdities involved in relativistic morality, materialistic ontology, subjective epistemology, and the other nuggets of vacuous blather forming the foundations of modern thought; how it is that so many people, otherwise possessing good taste, can without demur fund and support and praise the blurry aberrations of modern art, praise ugliness, despise beauty; how it is that so many people, otherwise good and peaceful, can praise and support and excuse the hellish enormities and mass murders of figures like Che and Mao and Stalin and Castro; or can view with cold eye the piles of tiny corpses heaped outside abortion mills, and make such enemies of the human race into heroes; or can rush to the defense of Mohammedan terrorists with freakish shrieks of ‘€˜Islamophobia!’€™ and ‘€˜Racist!’ even thought to be wary of Jihadists bent on your destruction is rational rather than phobic, and even thought Mohammedanism is a religion, not a race; how otherwise happy, moral, reasonable and decent people can not merely excuse sexual perversion, but will be swept up in a fervor of righteous indignation even if someone points out the biological or Biblical reality of the situation; and likewise excuse lies in their leaders, and adulteries, and abuses of power, and abuses of drugs, and any number of things these otherwise ordinary people would never do themselves.

“And, finally, perhaps, like me, you have wondered why it is that these people who are otherwise civil nonetheless can neither explain their positions nor stop talking, and their talk consists of nothing, nothing, nothing aside from childish personal attacks, slanders, sneers, and accusation, accusation, accusation.   Why are they so angry? Why are they so noisy? Why are they so blissfully unaware of the vice, injustice, ugliness and evil they support?

More on this pondering here.  He has some very good insights.  Of course, a lot of them were insighted a bit back and can be read here (yes, its a whole book).  Main thing is that it is good to fully understand where they – our Progressive friends – are coming from.

Here is a recent article written by Thomas Sowell that speaks to the systemic failure of leftism, and something of which individuals on the left either choose to ignore, or choose to blame other external factors on for that failure. I believe it is the latter. Remember when Obama partly blamed the Japan tsunami for having a negative impact on his brilliant economic policies? How about the left’s penchant to blame the gun? In my opinion, there is simply no possible way to objectively look at the current state of our economy, our country, and our world, and claim that leftism is a success. The following is a very poignant excerpt of the piece, and I do hope this makes it over to the new rebuttal blog. Enjoy:

Why has evil been such a hard concept for many on the left to accept? The basic agenda of the left is to change external conditions. But what if the problem is internal? What if the real problem is the cussedness of human beings? Rousseau denied this in the 18th century and the left has been denying it ever since. Why? Self preservation. If the things that the left wants to control — institutions and government policy — are not the most important factors in the world’s problems, then what role is there for the left? What if it is things like the family, the culture and the traditions that make a more positive difference than the bright new government “solutions” that the left is constantly coming up with?

In what has gradually built up over the last decade, accelerated in the last five years, and has now reached epic proportions, our federal government has undeniably become authoritarian, and the only backstop is a very weak GOP, which certainly can’t give anyone much hope. And based on their tepid opposition to the ill advised immigration bill, it would appear that that opposition to this currently expanding authoritarian federal bureaucracy is all but lost, and the ideal of America will be lost with it. In the name of social and economic justice, the progressive movement, currently led by Barack Obama has successfully shamed, demonized, and lied about any one who had the temerity to oppose their agenda which has cowered too many people, and convinced the low information voter that opposition to their grandiose agenda is tantamount to wanting seniors to die and children to starve. Their control of the language and message has had a negative impact on our representative republic which has now morphed into a democracy more in keeping with those countries led by oppressive regimes that garner 95%+ of electoral votes. And the blame can not be laid entirely at the feet of Barack Obama. We have the vast liberal media complex to blame as well, which commands a large platform and presence with the low information. We have the entertainment complex which again commands a huge presence with those who idol worship, and we have the minions of Congress critters, and Senators who will say anything to retain their power & privileged positions.

It was very disheartening to see many GOPers fold and vote for this joke of an immigration bill, including my two Senators McCain and Flake. Every thinking person knows that if this bill passes the House, it will go into committee, and the border security teeth that was amended to the bill will be stripped away and we will be left with 1986 all over again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, and that is exactly what is happening. On top of that, this immigration bill will hurt the low wage worker more than anyone, and isn’t that the very person “progressives” profess to care so much about? How you ask? Obamacare, wherein a penalty of up to $5,000 can be avoided if you hire a newly minted “undocumented worker”, who is not subject to the Obamacare mandates. So once again, Obama has acted outside the interests of Americans, who largely oppose this current effort at reform, and this is true on many different fronts. The majority of Americans oppose Obamacare, but this authoritarian regime shoved it down our throats. The majority of Americans oppose abortion on demand, but this regime continues to demonize anyone who opposes their desire to kill infants. The majority of Americans oppose recent tactics of the IRS, but this regime continues to avoid answering difficult questions. The majority of Americans oppose the NSA collecting emails and phone call records, but this regime continues the practice and lies about it in front of Congress. The majority of Americans oppose further restrictions on the second amendment, but this regime refuses to listen and will make another pass at legislation, after failing at a previous attempt by breaking the law and allowing illegal firearms to cross international borders resulting in the deaths of many Mexican nationals, to which they invoked executive privilege.

This “progressive” regime, is anything but progressive, and is quickly leading America down the road to authoritarian rule where opposition is not allowed, if not imprisoned.

We are living it now folks. We are up to our collective necks in liberalism and it wasn’t just a result of the last 5 years under Obama, of course he opened the throttle quite a bit, but this is a slow, festering symptom that started with Republican Theodore Roosevelt, picked up steam with Woodrow Wilson, accelerated with FDR, and reached overdrive with LBJ. And now we find ourselves mired in a mediocre stew of progressive feel good policies that have only served to bring the strongest, most economically robust, most individually free country to its collective knees. Ironically, the policies that progressives champion, hoping to “level the playing field”, do anything but and were strictly designed and marketed by a ruling class to win elections. There is zero intent by the leaders of the current Democratic Party, or the ruling class which includes many Republicans, to actually resolve the issues they promise to fix primarily because, to do so would render themselves useless. Their sole intent is to continue to amass money and power and doing so, requires a loyal, fever pitched base convinced that they need their benevolence and protection. For those conservatives who fear the onset of a socialist state, that ship has sailed – we are already there. The myriad of welfare programs, Medicaid, Medicare, SS and now Obamacare has America firmly planted in socialism.

What other current issues can we attribute to liberalism you may wonder? Take Benghazi – here is a ME outpost that sits in a chaotic country void of any leadership, specifically because of the recent actions of our military, and one that is rife with rogue and radical elements. The current liberal brain trust, which included Ambassador Stevens, thought that reinforced security measures were not important, and would send the wrong message, primarily because liberalism believes that the US military is part of what’s wrong with this world, not what is right. Therefore, their cavalier attitude towards radical elements resulted in four American deaths, and their attempt to obfuscate that fact has resulted in the recent scandal.

The IRS – liberalism believes that any opposition towards their high-minded policies is tantamount to malicious obstructionism and borderline treason (see Michael Moore), therefore, the intense scrutiny the IRS applied towards groups opposed to the administration was in line with the culture that liberalism creates.

The debt – Every dollar taxed and sent to Washington DC, is another dollar stripped from the private market, rendering it less powerful and more dependent on the government. It’s really that simple. By creating crisis’s that require additional spending and running up the debt, the Federal Government can convince their loyal base that taxes need to increase and the problems they face are not because of any actions of their own or the government, but because those with the money refuse to pay their “fair share”. Take for example Oklahoma – the Democrats are claming that they need to borrow more money to pay for the storm, are demonizing conservatives for wanting off sets, and not reminding anyone of the fact that Obama just sent $200 million to Syrian refugees that could have been used for the storm, or that there is $11 billion currently in the FEMA account. They are simply exploiting a crisis to rile up their base, demonize an opponent, and take more money away from the private sector.

These are just a few examples of what the disease of progressivism has wrought, and if we continue down this path, these and other problems will only persist and expand. As David Axlerod recently admitted, the Federal Government is too vast, our debt is too big, our problems are too pronounced, and our labor force is too small, but our country is too important. We currently have a President that does nothing, and knows nothing so it is incumbent upon us to be diligent and engaged if we are to ever repeal the progressive efforts, policies and mindsets that brought us to this point.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan.  Axelrod tweeted that he hopes the bridge collapse will induce us mean, evil Republicans to pass more spending for infrastructure.  This is the kind of nonsense I think all of us on the right are sick of.  Axelrod’s President has been in office for more than four years; trillions of extra money has been spent since Obama took office, a great deal of it justified as money to rebuild infrastructure and here’s comes one of the dunces who put Obama in office to demand that we GOPers agree to spend even more money!  Tell you what, Axelrod, maybe if you and your buddy Barry hadn’t use the last pile of money just to keep your union buddies employed then that bridge would have been fixed!  I hold Obama and Axelrod personally responsible for this – they didn’t do their jobs and a bridge collapsed.  They’ve had more than four years to ensure that all bridges are inspected and necessary repairs done.  That is more than enough time – though I guess what with all the vacations, golf outings and neglect of embassy security, fixing bridges escaped our President’s notice.

The reelection of Barack Obama by a thin popular margin, albeit a wide electoral margin, underscores a nation divided and unfortunately I don’t see much common ground anymore. The GOP controls the House, the Democrats control the Senate and WH, but the GOP governs 29 states, and controls the legislatures in 27 of those states, so each party have fairly strong battle positions, and the battle has commenced, starting with Michigan. There the GOP legislature passed a right to work which has the unions apoplectic and threatening, and engaging in actual violence. This comes on the heels of a hotly contested battle in WI earlier this year where GOP Governor Scott Walker successfully defeated a union uprising over collective bargaining. Arguably public unions have done more harm than good, of course many liberals including the entire MSNBC network and Mr. Obama will contest that assertion, but if anyone wants to really see the results of public unions they need look no further than Detroit, MI, and San Bernardino, CA, where 71% of the city’s budget goes towards public union pay and pensions which led the city to filing bankruptcy earlier this year. In Detroit, it’s reported that nearly 35% of the population receive food stamps and astonishingly nearly 46% aren’t even the work force, and this is an indictment on both parties. While the MI is traditionally a blue state having voted for Democrat Presidents since 1992, they recently voted in a Republican Governor, who helped initiate the right to work bill, and Republican Legislature and have been governed by a Republican 10 out of the last 16 years. So it seems that regardless of the party, public unions have successfully negotiated more than their fair share of their respective states treasuries for quite some time now, and the results are not good. Compounding this problem is the fact that union officials and their membership seem oblivious to this fact, and are evidently  unyielding, so the battle will go on and Mr. Obama is apparently willing to allow it rather than demonstrate leadership which come as no surprise.

If we are to ever right our countries financial ship, public unions will have to play a huge role, and as evidenced by WI and now MI, and the subsequent reaction from the WH, they have no intention of being responsible. The liberal media is also firmly in their corner, and the union leadership is prepared to “draw blood”, so this will be a very interesting four years and as far as I am concerned – I am up for the battle. These next four years could be Civil War II, that is unless Mr. Obama decides to lead. However, I am not holding out any hope on that.

UPDATE: How did I miss this?

 “This is just the first round of a battle that’s going to divide this state. We’re going to have a civil war,” – Jimmy Hoffa