My Fascination With Liberalism

I am not going to lie, but liberalism fascinates me. It’s not that I believe it is more truthful to having a correct worldview than conservatism. It’s more how liberals tend to think and the rationale they use to justify reality. I often wonder how they can even live without imploding.

Howard Dean, who is thought to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, told reporters the other day that he supports the policy of using drones to kill people without warning. He also has no objection to the National Security Agency listening to his phone calls and monitoring his email.

Donny Deutsch, the reliable voice of the left on "Morning Joe," told TV viewers that he supports the CIA’s torture activities – recently revealed in a Senate committee report.

These two do not sound like liberals at all. So what are they doing? What’s going on their heads?

I often ask myself, “What does liberalism stand for?” “What does it mean to be progressive?”  I use to believe that liberalism is a belief in a set of public policy ideas.  But that’s not really the case at all.

Liberalism is a belief in “flip flopping” as the need warrants it.  One thing liberals seem to have all in common – they love to change their minds on issues when it's best for them to do so. And this is what else I notice.  Liberals will change their minds or flip flop without any embarrassment whatsoever!  Amazing!

In 1987, The New York Times editorial page called for abolishing the minimum wage. Today, the same newspaper calls for a higher minimum wage.    Waaaaat?

In the 1960s, John Kenneth Galbraith and the left wing Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) favored abolishing the corporate income tax and taxing shareholders on the basis of corporate profits. Today, liberal publications and columnists are defending our high corporate tax rates.  Come again?

In the 1980s, Ted Kennedy and other liberals voted to lower the top personal income tax rate from 50 percent to 28 percent, while closing loopholes at the same time. Today, they are more likely to join Paul Krugman in defending high marginal tax rates.  No way!

How do we explain all this?   You see, liberalism is not an ideology that is in a battle with conservatives over the war of ideas. Its main objective is to win, yes, but not with ideas, but instead using “excuses.”   Liberal politicians need intellectual justification for things they want to do for non-intellectual reasons.

You see, to the modern liberal, ideology simply gets in the way. What is needed are ways of thinking that are not necessarily coherent, but provide intellectual excuses for the sets of policy positions that emerge. Liberalism fulfills those roles. 

Liberalism will believe and support one idea as long and as hard as it can, then without any prior warning, it will abandon the idea for a newer one.

I am fascinated with liberalism (not with liberals themselves).  Today, a good liberal is one who

1.  Believes in relativism – there are no set beliefs

2.  Functions within the market place of excuses.

3.  Changes (flip flop) when it best to do so.

4.  Void of Embarrassment

5.  Thinks one way but lives another.

You see, here is the dirty little secret for most liberals. While they see themselves as liberal in their thinking, they are conservative in their living.

Deep down within, a true thinking liberal (oxymoron) will hold to a set of beliefs that others should apply, but those same beliefs they will not hang on to in the arena of life.

This is why you’ll hear liberals wax eloquent about gun control and how wrong it is to have guns, all the while they arm their own body guards as well as themselves with guns for protection. 

Liberalism fascinates me. It’s like watching a whole bunch of once hidden demons all appear before my eyes.