Stone Pigs

Posted By Alan Partis on July 29, 2010

As I often do, I was listening to a liberal/progressive radio talk show today when I heard a discussion between the host and a guest on the telephone.  The guest was a columnist for a big liberal newspaper in Washington, D.C. and he was making a case for so-called “progressive” members of Congress to join the Tea Party Caucus being organized by Michelle Bachmann.  His suggestion was to have these obvious interlopers force a vote within the caucus on the subject of bonus payments made at various big banks that had received Federal bail out funding.  He figured to trick caucus members into having to go on record in opposition to the standard Republican Party position on the issue, or expose members’ support for those “evil Wall Street bankers.”

The guest’s argument is, as is often the case with liberals and progressives, a false choice.

While this strategy was of limited passing interest, what nearly shocked me into a traffic accident was his next supposition: Michelle Bachmann’s presumed vote on the matter (in support of the bonus payments to the bankers) reminded him of the operations of the Politburo from “the dark days of the Soviet Union.”  This guest, and the host, both self-avowed staunch progressives (or whatever their flavor of the day happens to be) appeared to be very much in agreement on this characterization — but had they really just labeled the existence of Soviet communism as the dark days?  That struck me as more than a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.

Let’s examine the logic.

Either Mr. Guest and Mr. Host believe/agree with this characterization of the Soviet Union as being dark days, or they do not.  If not, then this reveals quite a bit about the true moral character (or complete lack thereof) of these two gentlemen in particular, and probably much the same about liberals and progressives in general.  It would also reveal the underlying truth about their social philosophy.  If, however, they truly believe that the Soviet Union represents “dark days” in the history of civilization, then I would have to ask them just what it is about the lack of personal liberty, government control of businesses and the means of production, and a command and control economy that are prototypical of communist and socialist governments to which they object.  Either way, the logical conclusions to be drawn about progressives, and progressivism, are clear.  Do they not see how the United States is heading in the same direction?  Do they not see how we, as a country, have been accelerating down that same path with the election of Barack Obama as President?  Are they really that blinded by partisan political gaming, or really that enamored with a completely failed and discredited social philosophy?

I contend that today’s liberal and progressives, due to the general dearth of their critical thinking skills, are actually quite blind to the reality around them.  Instead, they are guided by baseless feelings of self-guilt through a world of political correctness which they are building that is 180 degrees out of phase with the realities of the human condition.

Category: Conservatism and Liberalism, Hypocrites, Observations
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